This rather new addition to the bar and restaurant scene has about 10 different names, but Vineyard sounds best, so that’s what it’s going to be on this page. Vineyard is a favourite afternoon hang-out for this office-less wannabe writer. The internet is good, the Illy coffee is really good, and there is a range of enticing stuff on the menu priced from 30Y to 200Y for a massive piece of Australian steak. The place is attached to a wine cellar showing a range of mostly Australian wines and you can drink them for the shop price in Vineyard, which is great.

When Vineyard frst opened it was a little dead, which I enjoyed as I could get on with writing banalities in peace. The owner of the bar (now ex-owner / part-owner?) owns the whole bleeding building of Zhongtian Dasha (中田大厦) and this was supposed to be a place, no doubt, that he could show his girlfriends or business buddies and demonstrate that he really is rich enough to own a place in a seriously good location and do nothing with it. Consequently, it dawdled on for while without any direction or identity.

The place looks pretty swish, designed by some mega-star designer from Oz whose name I cannot remember. Walls are in grey with purply-mauvy abstract pattern art – someone tell me that’s called – and the black wood tables are lined up every morning with a laser beam to make sure there is not the vaguest kink in the aesthetic. The lighting is so complex even the staff havent got their heads around it yet as they demonstrate well at various times of day when the light level has to be made more designer. Again.

The Western grub is always pretty good in a Hangzhou sort of way and one could never argue with the price. Lots of pizzas, sandwiches, steaks, burgers. Somebody with a sweet tooth has stocked a fridge with tonnes of Italian looking cakes and icecream.

So we have a designer looking place with good coffee, pretty good wine, non-designer food at prices for students, not much custom and pretty much no identity whatsoever. And the boss didnt notice or didnt care, or maybe even wanted it that way.

However, he probably didn’t reckon on Wade. Wade is well known in Hanghou and used to look after the laowai in In Club sometime before it became Out Club. Dont ask. Wade is filling the place up, and despite the less than perfect set-up, he has started to create quite a rocking atmosphere, no doubt largely due to his own encompassing joviality. Friday and Saturday evenings are full with party-goers coming to take in the cheap booze, live music and garden. Added to the mix are the guys that run the Hangzhou Expat 2009 page on Facebook. Lots of fun games, prizes and cheap cold beer served by the case load. If you’re after a quieter glass of wine or a seriously iced Aussie beer, maybe pop in during the week…

Day times are far more busy than before, with several people coming to steal MY internet connection.

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