Home Plate BBQ, Jing-A and The Local will team up this Sunday in Sanlitun South for a Facial Hair Fun Fair that includes everything from bingo and quizzes to pulled pork sandwiches and shots — plus the first-ever Egg Kart Klassic. Here are the events making up this triple play, followed by a Q&A with Dave “Bob” Gaspar, Alex Acker and Kenn Bermel.
The Events
PLAY BINGO: The party gets started at 2 PM at Home Plate BBQ in Sanlitun with Boozy Bingo. Cards are 5 yuan each for the eight-round bingo-thon, with all proceeds to maovember. Prizes for first and second place in each round.
Home Plate will also have drink deals, including shots at 20 yuan for charity.
PLAY THE CARTS: At 4 PM, the party goes whole hog at Jing-A Taproom a short walk away. Jing-A will sell pulled pork sandwiches made from an organic pig sourced from Green Cow Farm and smoked at Home Plate (see below for details). Grab a sandwich for 30 yuan and wash it down with a shot for 20 yuan, with proceeds from both to charity.
Speed fans will want to catch the inaugural Egg Kart Classic between the respective vehicles of Jing-A and Andy’s Craft Sausages a.k.a. The Keg Egg and The Hamborghini. Do the equivalent of playing the horses by betting on the race, with half the cash to charity and half to the victor.
PLAY MIND GAMES: At 6 PM, the party again shifts, this time to The Local. Grab your smartest — or richest — friends for a four-round, twenty-question charity quiz. The entry fee is 100 yuan, includes a pitcher of beer or Bourbon Street cocktails, and — here’s the kicker — teams can buy answers at any time for 20 yuan each, with all proceeds to charity.
There will also be darts and foosball. And for those who would like a winter warmer, get The Local’s “Ponche de Frutas“, a hot rum-based spiced fruit punch, for 25 yuan — or shots of Jim Beam or Cuervo for 20 yuan each or, for an upgrade, 1800 Anejo or Bulleit Bourbon at 50 yuan — with proceeds to charity.
The Interviews
Florence King once wrote, “I’d rather rot on my own floor than be found by a bunch of bingo players in a nursing home.” The bingo players at Home Plate will be way cooler than that, right?
Dave “Bob” Gaspar (Home Plate): Yes.*
A taproom doing pulled pork sandwiches. Not only that, but you guys sourced an entire pig. How did that come about?
Alex Acker (Jing-A): Over the last year, we’ve been sending our spent grain — all the leftover malted barley from our brews — to the Green Cow farm out in Shunyi. We love that we’ve found a sustainable use for our grain, and the pigs love it, too, so it’s a total ‘win-win’. And in return for the pig feed, Green Cow has been kind enough to give us a proper organic, malt barley-fed pig for Sunday’s Whole Hog Roast.
Our friends at Home Plate are going to help roast and smoke it, and turn it into delicious pulled pork, which we’ll serve on a bun with cole slaw and a special beer BBQ sauce. From the brewery to the farm and back — all for maovember fundraising!
Can I pre-buy the answers to The Local charity quiz and then just show up at the end to collect my prize?
Kenn Bermel (The Local): Yes, you could do that, and I wouldn’t stop anyone from giving so generously to the charity. However, if there’s a tiebreaker with someone who has done the same or answered every question correctly, you’d have to show up for that, or forfeit the round.
* Dave Bob didn’t actually say that, and there are no guarantees, but none of my visits to Home Plate BBQ in Sanlitun have revealed anything other than a bunch of people who like good food and drink and occasionally a game of bingo.
Maovember focuses on quirky events for good causes. Our 2022 partner is Library Project, which has furnished thousands of reading rooms in rural schools. Learn more about Maovember here. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.