Sake’s Radical Awakening
Drawing comparisons to the natural wine movement, sake’s avant-garde is reinvigorating the category by challenging everything we thought we knew about it.
- story: Tom Downey
- photos: Jérémie Souteyrat
Where Are Natural Wine’s Next Frontiers?
Two regions—one old world, one new—are staking a claim within the ever-evolving movement.
- story: Alice Feiring
- illustration: Rymie
Maguchi Dreams of Highballs
The owner of Tokyo’s Rock Fish has spent more than 30 years perfecting his idiosyncratic, iceless highball.
- story: Dylan James Ho
- photos: Dylan + Jeni
The Soundtrack to Tokyo’s Hidden Record Bars
From acid jazz and Mojitos to bebop and sake, a look at four of Tokyo’s most unique record bars, and the playlists that define them.
- story: Kelly Thomas
- photos: Ko Sasaki
Understanding Japanese Bartending in Five Techniques
A few idiosyncratic methods offer a window into why Japanese bartending has become an object of fascination—and fetishization.
- story: Chloe Frechette
- photos: Eric Medsker
Is Japanese Gin the Next Big Thing?
“Everybody is watching to see if they can do for gin what they did for whisky.”
- story: St. John Frizell
- photo: Lizzie Munro
How Japanese Are Japanese Bar Tools?
The tools we associate with Japanese bartending have come to symbolize the style’s dedication to precision. But they are, by and large, of Western origin.
- story: Chloe Frechette
- photo: Lizzie Munro
A Night at Tokyo’s Surreal “Little Texas” Honky-Tonk
In Japan, a small smattering of honky-tonks serve as the antithesis of traditionally quiet Japanese culture. This is what a night at Tokyo's beloved Little Texas looks like.
- story: Sarah Baird
- photos: Ko Sasaki
Modern Alchemy at Tokyo’s Most Radical Bar
At Tokyo's Ben Fiddich, Hiroyasu Kayama uses homegrown plants and a mortar and pestle to reconstruct classic liqueurs and spirits—including “Campari,” absinthe and amaro—often to order. Here, a look inside…
- story: Sarah Baird
- photo: Marie Takahashi
The Japanese Way to a Better Highball
Ice, whiskey, soda—that's all there really is to a whiskey highball, right? Not so in Japan. Hannah Kirshner on what the experience of a traditional tea ceremony taught her about…
- story: Hannah Kirshner
- photos: Lizzie Munro
