Blog
Stories from behind the bar: cocktails, ramen, Japanese culture, and life on the Lower East Side.
CocktailsMar 27, 2026Satsuma Gin: Made With Mandarins Grown on an Active VolcanoKomasa Jyozo builds this Kagoshima gin on rice shochu and Sakurajima komikan, Japan's smallest mandarin, grown in volcanic soil under falling ash.SakeMar 24, 2026Kizakura Junmai Daiginjo and Perle: Fushimi Water, and a Sake Made With Wine YeastOne is Yamada Nishiki polished to 50% and fermented cold for weeks. The other is brewed with wine yeast and named after a pearl.ShochuMar 23, 2026Sudachi Shochu: The Citrus Tokushima Grows and Nobody ExportsTokushima grows almost all of Japan's sudachi. It is picked green, it is not a lime, and it makes a shochu that is very hard to stop drinking.ShochuMar 20, 2026Kiuchi Rice Shochu: Distilled From Daiginjo Lees and Aged Ten YearsThe brewery behind Hitachino Nest makes a rice shochu from spent daiginjo grain, with yellow sake koji, matured a decade and bottled at 41%.WhiskyMar 17, 2026Mars Komagatake: Whisky From Japan's Highest DistilleryA Japanese single malt from the Shinshu Distillery, the highest whisky distillery in Japan, at about 800 meters in the Japanese Alps.SakeMar 16, 2026Kaika Noodle Sake: A Cup Sake Designed Specifically for RamenDaiichi Shuzo in Sano, Tochigi, makes what it calls Japan's first sake built for eating ramen with. It is a junmai ginjo at 14%.SakeMar 13, 2026Hizo Otokoyama Tokubetsu Junmai: A Dry Fukuoka Sake, Not the Hokkaido OneA bold, rice-forward, seriously dry tokubetsu junmai from Kitaya in Fukuoka, brewed with Fukuoka-grown Hinohikari and Yumetsukushi rice.SakeMar 9, 2026Hakutsuru Superior Junmai Ginjo: Nada Since 1743, and the Water That Made ItA 60% polished junmai ginjo brewed with Miyamizu, the hard spring water that turned one Kobe district into Japan's sake capital.ShochuMar 8, 2026Nankai Shochu: Kokuto From Amami, and Why Only ThereKokuto shochu can legally only be made in the Amami Islands, and the reason is a tax exemption from 1953. We pour three expressions from Amami Oshima Kaiun Shuzo.ShochuMar 6, 2026Chuko Awamori: The Distillery That Makes Its Own Clay PotsChuko fires its own kame aging vessels in a kiln next to the warehouse, distills in Ryukyu-era earthenware, and runs a solera-style blending system of its own design.FoodMar 4, 2026The Ramen We Almost Took Off the MenuThere is a ramen shop across the street from us and he was here first. Here is why we did not serve ramen, why we eventually did, and why we had to rebuild it.
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