Blog
Stories from behind the bar: cocktails, ramen, Japanese culture, and life on the Lower East Side.
ShochuAug 26, 2026The Koji-Muro: The Room Where Shochu Is Actually DecidedEverything people argue about in shochu, the ingredient and the still, happens either side of a hot, humid room that almost nobody photographs. This is what goes on inside it.SakeAug 26, 2026Koikawa: The Yamagata Brewery That Brought Kame no O BackA new ultra-dry junmai on the list, from a 300-year-old brewery run by a former wine sommelier who led the revival of a rice everyone else had given up on.WhiskyAug 25, 2026Yamazaki 12, and Why We Do Nothing Clever With ItWe do not put it in a cocktail. It is a bottle you drink, and the number on the label is rarer now than the whisky inside it.CocktailsAug 25, 2026How the MatchaRita Got Its Wasabi Salt RimIt began as a customer request, avoided the obvious idea everyone suggested, and got finished by a sales rep turning up with samples.FoodAug 24, 2026Takowasa, and Why It Makes You Order Another BeerRaw octopus and wasabi, the standard izakaya snack. I ate enough of it in Japan to have personally supported an octopus fisherman's family.CocktailsAug 24, 2026Katana Shots: How We Built a Shot Ski Out of a SwordIt started with a shot ski on Instagram. Getting from there to something safe to hand people took a bokken, silicone cups, a sander and a very specific epoxy.CocktailsAug 23, 2026Why El Velo Became Our House TequilaLos Dos left our distributor, so the MatchaRita needed a new tequila. We picked El Velo, and the deciding factor was the proof.WhiskyAug 23, 2026Our Japanese Whisky Highball Runs at 42 PSIMost highball advice says to chase maximum carbonation. We built a system to go the other way, and it started with a conversation a few blocks away.WhiskyAug 22, 2026Mizunara: The Oak Japan Used Because It Had ToThe most prized cask in whisky started as a wartime substitute nobody wanted. It leaks, it takes two centuries to grow, and coopers still dislike working it.CommunityAug 22, 2026Brotaku and Close the Door Behind YouWe sponsor a comedy podcast and a live show where comedians roast people playing video games. Both come back to one guy I met in our first year, when he was reviewing ramen.CommunityAug 21, 2026How Juraku Became OMRC's Winter Home BaseIt starts with a flooded basement, a regular named Paulsta, and my floor manager drinking a beer in an empty dining room while I was downstairs in the water.
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