Winner of the Beijinger’s 2015 Reader Bar and Club Awards Best Bar Manager and 2014 Reader Bar and Club Awards Bar Personality, Dave Bob Gaspar, will leave Home Plate BBQ and China by the end of this year.
“The move is bittersweet,” Gaspar told the Beijinger Wednesday. “As much as I’m bummed to be leaving Beijing, I’m also happy to take the next step.”
He cited “personal reasons” for the decision, including his and his wife Olia’s desire to start a family, and more potentially favorable conditions in Abu Dhabi or Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to do so.
Gaspar became one of Beijing’s most popular nightlife personalities during his time at The Brick in Shuangjing, where he sported his once-signature bandanna, oversaw activities like drunk remote-controlled car racing, and fashioned creative cocktails such as the Slutty Shandy.
In the process he drew a regular neighborhood crowd and even convinced people from the nothern nether-regions of Beijing to actually travel south of Jianguo Road for a drink, once the “here there be dragons” area of the Beijing nightlife map.
He moved to Home Plate’s Sanlitun location in June 2014, where you’re now more likely to spot him in a bowtie and apron.
“You would probably think my management style was that of a soda pop shop owner … or a hipster. My style is interactive. I’m constantly moving. In one night you could see me behind the bar mixing some craft shots, showing customers to their tables, on stage MCing an event, taking someone’s order, running food, or socializing with new and regular patrons,” is how he described his management style in an interview with the Beijinger earlier this year.
Make sure to pop in and say goodbye to Dave Bob over the next few weeks at Home Plate before we lose him for good.
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Photo courtesy of Home Plate BBQ