My hot pot, 3,000 Jiali milk tea … The Forbidden City Wenchuang is integrated into the new dining scene.
Our reporter Ma Jing
Outside the palace wall and under the corner building, the red enclosed house with a history of more than 250 years has been transformed into a new "punching place in online celebrity". "My Hot Pot", "Three Thousand Belles" and "Kangxi loves chocolate" … … With the opening of hot pot restaurants and coffee shops in front of the Forbidden City, the Forbidden City Wenchuang, which has always sold Meng online, has also come offline and integrated into the new scene of catering consumption.
"Order according to orders" attracts young people to punch in.
"Mukden carrier, the emperor said, soup base — — Marigold flower pot, sauce — — Jiangshan country sauce … …” The golden imperial edict slowly spread out, the vertical menu came into view, and the antique utensils filled with exquisite ingredients suddenly sat in the palace to eat a big meal.
The Forbidden City Corner Restaurant, which just opened less than a month ago, has jumped to the top of the hot pot list in Beijing on the public comment website. Although the store only serves hot pot after 5: 30 pm and only provides fast food during the day, many diners who come for hot pot line up at the door in the afternoon. The staff said that the telephone reservation table before March 10 has been fully booked. If you want to eat hot pot, you can only grab the number on the spot. At present, there are only 30 pots a night, first come first served.
Many people are curious, why did the Forbidden City, which is tall, enter the hot pot world this time? "After consulting the bottom file of the Qing Palace diet, I found that the recipes of the emperors in the past dynasties were different, but the same thing was that they all liked hot pot. Emperor Qianlong, in particular, has become obsessed with hot pot, eating more than 200 meals a year for 365 days. Empress Dowager Cixi not only loves hot pot, but also invented a novel way to eat it ‘ Chrysanthemum hotpot ’ 。” The Forbidden City Corner Restaurant introduced the inspiration of the Forbidden City hot pot in the official Weibo.
To enjoy "my hot pot", taking photos is an essential link, and every corner of the store is a photo background. The walls are covered with "Meng Meng Da" style statues of the Empress Dowager, accompanied by the usual "selling Meng" sentence in the Forbidden City: "I am hungry", "I will say good things after eating" and "nothing can’t be solved by a hot pot" … … On the biggest wall, there is a picture of Emperor Qianlong’s grand banquet.
Not far from the hot pot restaurant, the newly opened coffee shop in the Forbidden City is also hard to find. "3,000 Jiali" milk tea and "Riding on the world of mortals and laughing" litchi black tea … … There are more than 30 kinds of drinks to choose from in the store, as well as high-value desserts such as "Thousand Miles of Jiangshan Roll".
At 4 o’clock last Saturday afternoon, there was a long queue of over 100 people in front of the coffee shop. "After visiting the Forbidden City, how can you not have a cup of coffee? We waited for an hour to buy it. " The young man who just bought coffee was not in a hurry to drink it, and raised his mobile phone and kept patting the coffee cup.
Wenchuang sales online and offline integration
In the hot pot restaurant and coffee shop in the Forbidden City, the integration of cultural creation and catering consumption has become a major feature. There is a cultural and creative product display area in the corner restaurant, which mainly displays tableware and other food-related products. After eating hot pot, customers can get a postcard exclusive to the corner building in the cultural and creative area and collect stamps at the same time. The corner coffee shop has also set up a cultural and creative area, and products such as the Forbidden City’s handbooks, notebooks, tea sets and round fans can be purchased in the store. There is also a bookshelf next to it, where you can read books related to the Forbidden City.
If these cultural and creative exhibitions and sales are not enough, next to the coffee shop, the Taobao Experience Hall of the Forbidden City, which has just appeared, can let you have a good time. It is often crowded here, too. Hundreds of pretty bookmarks and pendants, colorful tapes hanging like waterfalls, and small ornaments with different shapes … … The Taobao shop in the Forbidden City was moved offline and intuitively appeared in front of people.
"I used to buy these souvenirs only in the Forbidden City or online, but now I can finally shop outside the Palace." A fan of the Forbidden City Wenchuang said that the biggest advantage of the physical store is that you can see for believing, choose the most suitable products, and at the same time have more shopping fun.
The reporter compared the Taobao online store and the experience store in the Forbidden City and found that the commodity prices were consistent online and offline. However, make-up products have not yet been sold offline.
In fact, the Forbidden City Taobao has long been interested in entering the offline. At the beginning of last year, the Forbidden City "slipped out of the palace" for the first time, and opened a month-long pop-up shop in Sanlitun. Many goods were sold out in two days, which undoubtedly made the Forbidden City see a new opportunity to open a shop outside the palace.
New format consumption meets market test
From the luggage tag that is easy to lose, to the lipstick that was sold out when it was first launched, to the Lantern Festival, a hard-to-find coffee shop and hot pot restaurant, the "Forbidden City fever" reflects people’s strong demand for cultural consumption.
"Come to the Forbidden City to eat hot pot, not only to eat hot pot, but also to experience this cultural atmosphere." Wendy Wang, a college student who is waiting in line, said.
The Forbidden City will introduce new tricks on the road of innovation. It is understood that the Wenchuang Pavilion and icehouse Restaurant of the Forbidden City jointly built by Dongcheng District Government and the Palace Museum are expected to open in Qianmen Street this year. This means that people will have more opportunities to experience the Forbidden City culture outside the palace.
As the "Forbidden City fever" continues to heat up, the quality of products and services around the Forbidden City is also facing more tests. On January 5 this year, due to product quality problems, the Forbidden City Taobao series cosmetics, which had just appeared for less than one month, voluntarily announced that the whole line would be discontinued.
For the newly launched "My Hot Pot", consumer comments are also mixed. On the public comment website, many consumers praised the restaurant’s environment and creativity, but thought that the price was a little expensive, and the soup base alone was 128 yuan, and the per capita consumption price was around 200 yuan. "There are no snacks and water, and there is still some distance compared with professional hot pot restaurants." "It has characteristics, but the taste is not attractive, and the cost performance is relatively low." Some netizens suggested that the Forbidden City should also improve the taste of products in the catering field, so that consumers can enjoy both sight and taste.