Venga, located next door to Peacock Bar in Shekou, is not your typical sports bar. Even the name itself, Spanish for ‘come on,’ intimates a different kind of drinking experience for Shenzheners thirsty for something new.
Inside the entrance you’ll find a well-stocked fridge and a row of small tables, mosquito-repelling lamps at each one a welcome touch for the summer. The whole space is done up in a striking Latin theme. A whole leg of Spanish ham takes pride of place on one side of the room, and the wall on the other side is almost completely covered with framed, autographed photos of European football players.
The fun doesn’t stop there. Upstairs, sports fans will be delighted to find a spacious area with several TV screens displaying multiple games at once. Store manager Danny Deng assures us that no matter where you sit, there will be a monitor visible.
Although the bar is still in its soft opening phase (formal opening on July 10), it’s been wide awake until 6am every night recently in order to let football fans catch live broadcasts from the ongoing UEFA Euro Championship.
What do avid fans get to snack or slurp on as they cheer on their favorite players? A fairly broad selection of beers, from Portuguese to Mexican to Spanish. Alongside the more conventional bar food and drinks, there’s also a small tapas menu. A definite seafood theme is detectable in the offerings, which include shrimp and tuna canapes (RMB30) as well shrimp skewers (RMB70).
A word to the wise: everything on the menu is written in Spanish or Chinese. However, those not fluent in either language can still resort to the old point-and-choose method, as most of the food and all of the drinks are helpfully accompanied by pictures.
Valentina (pronounced ‘Balentina’) Yang, cofounder, explains that this attention to detail came as a result of the bar’s origins in a local school, Sol Spanish, where she and several other cofounders taught Spanish language and culture to an audience of mostly adults.
Their desire to create an authentic Latin cultural experience, to share with students as well as other people around the city, eventually led to the birth of Venga. The founding group worked together to plan every aspect of the establishment, from the decor to the food options, with the help of an Ecuadorian consultant.
Along with football, Venga also plays host to Latin bands and salsa parties, and Valentina hopes that the cultural offerings will only expand in the future, perhaps even including Shenzhen’s biggest Spanish language corner.
In the meantime foreign and Chinese guests are free to come drink, eat, socialize, dance, watch sports and play FIFA or foosball or pool. Even with its lofty ambitions, Venga’s off to a pretty good start.
Price: RMB80-150
Who’s going: football enthusiasts, Spanish speakers
Good for: kicking back, exotic international beers
[Images via Mike Jordan]
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