Here's a place I've been meaning to write up for the longest time. As regular readers may be aware, of a weekend my friends and I tend to gather at the wonderful music bar Joao. However, Joao tends to close relatively early (around 11 pm), so if we still have a thirst upon us (and we invariably do) the bar of choice is Alphabet Ave. on Pontocho. Alphabet Ave. is a pretty … [Read more...]
Koji’s Pasta!
Taisho being currently indisposed (long story), his pal Koji has temporarily taken over the running of our much beloved music bar Joao. And he has put his heart and soul into the job too, creating his very own pasta menu. Whether carbonara, arrabiata, or peperoncino, Koji's pasta has proved a hit with the regulars - and all dishes are priced at a mere ￥700！ Last night I … [Read more...]
Kanso
Sean Roe invited me out to this place ages ago. "￥380 a beer," he said. Very hard to resist. So I went. And here's what I found: Kanso is a bar, and an art installation combined. Its concept can be roughly summarized as drink x cans = fun The art here is nothing precious, consisting as it does of cans. Big cans that you sit at like tables and walls of cans to dazzle … [Read more...]
Yoramu
Last Thursday Nick Coldicott, was in town and invited me out to sake bar Yoramu. Nick is the editor of Time Out Shortlist Kyoto and also writes a drinks column for the Japan Times, so when he said that Yoramu was his favorite bar, I was naturally intrigued. Yoramu lived up to his promise. The master, Yoram, a quietly spoken Israeli perfectly fluent in English and Japanese, … [Read more...]
Blue Note
A couple of weeks ago, jazz singer Allison Adams Tucker invited me to Blue Note to see her live performance there. It was a great show but also an excellent opportunity to check out this legendary live music venue. I spoke to the current master Ohigashi-san. A mild-mannered chap, he goes by the nickname of Chooper-san (after blues musician Al Kooper), and is as Allison put it … [Read more...]
Kiyamachi Bar Crawl
One Night - Eight Bars. A few weeks ago, my old drinking buddy David Ewen and I set out to explore some of the bar culture in the Kiyamachi area armed with my copy of 京都穴BAR (a Japanese pocket guide to Kyoto's hole-in-the-wall bars). Actually I really recommend this book and others in the らくたび文庫 series (I have the cafe guide too). For less than 500 yen you get a guide to 33 … [Read more...]
Kisui & Mamoriya
ＵＰＤＡＴＥ ＭＡＲＣＨ ２０１４： Sad to say but due to the changing life circumstances of the good folk at Kisui... this wonderful little bar has now closed. We wish both Setsuko and Risae all the best with their new lives. Kisui has gone, long live Kisui! I originally wrote about Kisui on this blog in 2007. Two months ago I sat down with Setsuko for a proper interview and took some … [Read more...]
antighseinnse
There's a Scottish pub in north Kyoto named antighseinnse (a.k.a. Horie's Bar). The name (pronounced "an ti shayn jay" I think) is Gaelic and means simply "Inn". The owner Toshiyuki Horie named it after a favored pub on the isle of Islay in Scotland and still proudly wears a T-shirt celebrating "The best pub in Portnahaven". Horie-san, a self-described whisky otaku or geek, … [Read more...]
Sheep’s
Sheep's Public Cafe is a place I have been meaning to check out for a while. I kept seeing it as I cycled home from work and thinking to myself "Sheeps. Why Sheep's?" The signboard outside says "Fish & Chips", "Guinness" and looking at the exterior I imagined just another foreign style pub. Once inside though I was impressed by how bright and cheerful it is. The owners have … [Read more...]
Zac Baran
I first met Yoshida Koichi in the music bar Hawkwind. A shakuhachi player, he told me he plays in many styles, not just traditional, but jazz, folk, avant garde, new age, pretty much anything. In Hawkwind we were listening to some hip-hop. "How about this then?" I challenged him with a grin. And do you know, he stood up immediately, he played, and it was wonderful. I was very … [Read more...]
Salut Ya
さるぅ屋 is a cafe/bar/diner in a lovely old renovated machiya on Imadegawa. The food menu concentrates on burgers (between ￥850-￥1000), sandwiches (￥800-￥850) and curries (￥800) and is generally pretty meaty. As I don't do the meat thing, I settled for an advocado and cottage cheese sandwich, expecting something bland and was surprised by its sweet deliciosity. And the bread! That … [Read more...]
Smoke Room
Why the name? Here's the story as I understand it: the master here was formerly an antiques dealer, ordering a lot of goods from Europe, and one such item was the lovely frosted glass door now in the entrance. This originally belonged to an old 19th century smoking room in England, and thus Smoke Room. Originally Smoke Room was a zakka and antiques shop and there are still a … [Read more...]
Hawkwind
Just around the corner from cafe Zanpano, is the music bar Hawkwind. Here the drinks are reasonably priced and the regular customers are very easy to talk to. Step inside and a friendly little spaniel by the name of Ruby will trot over to say hello. Taako-san runs the bar (and looks after Ruby) and he's quite friendly too. Previously, there was another bar in this location … [Read more...]
Bar 探偵
Here's a quirky little place that's worth a mention. Bar 探偵 ("Tantei" or "Detective") opened up here in Sakyoku last month just across the road from the "Flying Keg" specialist beer emporium. Built to celebrate hard-boiled detective movies of the 1930s, the interior of the establishment has been carefully fashioned in the style of an old Japanese kissaten, and the music is … [Read more...]
