Café CD Blues

Café CD Blues is anything but seedy. In fact most nights it’s filled with round tables of young, attractive groups excitedly chatting over cozy candlelight, decent cocktails (60-65 RMB) and imported beers. The staff’s T-shirts may claim that they’re drinkers ‘with a music problem’, but Café CD Blues feels more like a true music venue. We kicked off with a well-mixed, strong Alabama Slammer, which was perfectly complemented by a classic US folk song being belted out by one of the open-mic night bands.

Café CD Blues doesn’t just stick to its eponymous genre; country (Tue) and jazz (Wed, Fri) and a whole lot more also have a home here. Dean Moriarty, the protagonist of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road, would surely be beating his chest in approval. As for us, cheaper beer (Tiger draught is 45 RMB) and more atmosphere upstairs would be the only minor improvements we’d make to Café CD Blues. Beijing’s music lovers have a shiny new home for blues and jazz, and Beijing’s jivers and drinkers that don’t much care for house music just got a whole new option.