Blog
Stories from behind the bar: cocktails, ramen, Japanese culture, and life on the Lower East Side.
FoodDec 16, 2025Pork Kakuni: The Dish That Made Me Like PorkI grew up on pork chops cooked to rubber, and I blamed the pig. It turns out the official advice was the problem, and kakuni is what fixed it for me.WhiskyDec 12, 2025Mars Iwai Fuyu: Japanese Whisky Finished in Chestnut CasksThe winter release from Mars Komagatake: Iwai Tradition finished four months in Japanese chestnut casks. Brown sugar and maple on the nose, cacao on a long finish.WhiskyDec 9, 2025Nikka Coffey Grain and Coffey Malt: Taketsuru's Other Souvenir From ScotlandNikka runs two Coffey stills at Miyagikyo, imported in 1963 and 1966. One whisky is mostly corn, the other is 100% malted barley through the same still.BeerDec 5, 2025Isekado: Craft Beer From a Mochi Shop Founded in 1575Ise Kadoya has been on the road to Ise Jingu since 1575: first as a tea house for pilgrims, then miso and soy sauce, and since 1997 award-winning beer.WhiskyDec 2, 2025Ryujin Golden Dragon: A Whisky From a 16th-Century Sake BreweryRyujin Shuzo has been brewing sake in Gunma since the end of the 1500s, on a spring the brewery is named after. The whisky is mizunara-aged and comes in a dragon.SakeNov 28, 2025Kikusui Shiboritate and Perfect Snow: Two Sakes That Skip a StepOne is freshly pressed, unpasteurized and undiluted. The other is Japan's best-selling nigori at 21% ABV. Both come from Kikusui in Niigata.WhiskyNov 25, 2025Immortal Clan: A Blended Scotch, and What Blended Scotch Actually IsBottled in Glasgow from malt and grain whisky. A good excuse to explain the category that most whisky in the world belongs to.SakeNov 21, 2025Kiuchi Kikusakari Taru Sake: Cedar-Aged Sake from the Brewery Behind HitachinoMost people know Kiuchi Brewery for Hitachino Nest beer. They had been making sake for 173 years before that, and this Akita cedar barrel-aged taru sake is the proof.WhiskyNov 18, 2025Suntory Toki Black: Peated Hakushu, and a Whisky Built for Listening BarsToki's first limited edition adds Hakushu Peated malt and Hakushu grain whisky to the blend, for a gentle smoke the standard Toki does not have.ShochuNov 14, 2025Beniotome: The World's First Sesame ShochuIn 1978 a distiller in Fukuoka worked out how to distil sesame. Nobody had done it before, and Beniotome has been making goma shochu ever since.WhiskyNov 11, 2025Yamato Lady Tomoe and Takeda Armor: Mizunara Whisky With a Samurai Behind ItLady Tomoe is eight years in mizunara, named for the female samurai who commanded a thousand soldiers in the 13th century. Takeda Armor is its companion.
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