by Sky Gidge
A strange thing happened on the way into Lolita: Bob Marley met us at the door. His music – not him. He’s dead.
Located next to Coco Park’s McCawley’s, Lolita occupies a spot infamous for short-lived clubs in Shenzhen. Most played blaring dance music for a few months, then quietly packed up and left town. In the last three years, at least three bars have opened and closed there. Each died like a lemming cascading down a cliff into the Arctic Ocean. However, Lolita plays Bob Marley, making it a different breed – we hoped.
After entering, said hope dwindled. Lolita shares the same attributes as its predecessors: clacking dice games, women lolling over cell phones and disco lights bouncing off beer towers.
For a Monday night there was a good-sized crowd when we dropped in, mostly men wearing office shirts and shiny shoes, occasionally singing along to musicians playing KTV favorites.
While the service is great, the cocktails aren’t, especially disappointing since every drink costs RMB58 (even a simple gin and tonic). The “blue death squad” cocktail has an almost indiscernible citrusy blast, contrasting with rather than enhancing its alcoholic flavor. Frozen margaritas have large chunks of ice with only a little salt around the shallow glasses, and the “coconut fragrance” is a creamy, sugary concoction unable to mix at all with the vodka imbued within its long-stemmed glass.
The menu lists wines and the countries they come from, but not the specific regions. Not reassuring when bottles go as high as RMB580. One bottle of sparkling Italian moscato costs RMB238. Yet it can be purchased online for RMB39, leading us to suspect Lolita aims for customers willing to leap first and ask questions later.
Lemmings don’t actually follow each other to their deaths – that myth was cemented into popular consciousness after a Disney camera crew pushed them off a cliff in an Academy Award-winning 1958 documentary. But does the simile fit? Is Lolita heading for the same cliff as all the bars before it?
How much: Over RMB100 per person
Who’s going: Overflow from McCawley’s, office employees
Good for: Attentive staff, mystery wines
// For address, see listing.
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