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Four stores in Kumamoto and two in Tokyo. Choose an area to see each one.
ESQUINA means "street corner" in Portuguese. Spread over two floors, 2F and 3F, its windows look out on Kumamoto Castle through the changing seasons. It is a full bar, with champagne by the glass alongside cocktails, whisky and brandy. It is also well suited to after-parties of 10 to 40 guests — weddings, year-end and new-year parties, class reunions and more. Private hire is available.
Look for the rusted cat-shaped sign. An authentic counter bar lined with around 300 bottles, mostly Scotch whisky. Their single malt is filled into casks at the bar and left to mature further, deepening in flavour with time — a dram worth trying at least once. Since opening in 1997 it has also been a popular spot for draught Guinness, the Irish stout.
Open the door of 八 (Hachi) and a broad framed window brings the magnificent branches of a camphor tree more than 100 years old into view. By day it is a café serving fragrant house-roasted coffee, Chinese tea and matcha. By night it is a bar with not only Western spirits but a carefully chosen selection of sake and shochu. Settle in and spend an unhurried evening.
寿や (Toshiya), on Nishi-Ginza Street, is a soba izakaya built around sake and shochu. Step through the entrance and a broad, solid counter cut from a single plank runs deep into the room. There is also a tatami room for four to eight guests, ideal for a small gathering. Alongside our own hand-cut soba, the menu offers premium basashi (horse sashimi), house-made karashi renkon (mustard-stuffed lotus root) and Tokyo-style oden. A fine place to begin the evening.
Near the residential streets of Shoto in Shibuya, 猫八 (Nekohachi) is a grown-up hideaway bar known to those who know it, marked only by a small cat's-face sign hanging on a white wall. Open the door of that understated frontage — easy to walk straight past — and a compact, warm Japanese-style room opens up inside. Alongside the main counter there are seats for two and a raised tatami area where you can slip off your shoes and relax. The choice runs from carefully selected single malt whiskies through to a full range of cocktails. In a setting that feels somehow nostalgic and easy to settle into, you can take your time over a drink and a conversation.
A calm, grown-up hideaway izakaya set apart from the bustle of Shibuya, in the quiet Okushibu streets. Open the door and a fine Japanese room full of the warmth of wood opens up — comfortable enough that you find yourself dropping in on the way home from work. The dishes we are proud of are our grilled skewers, cooked slowly and carefully until fragrant, and the soba that finishes the meal, cool and smooth. Enjoying skewers with a drink and then rounding things off cleanly with soba is the pairing our regulars come for. There is counter seating where you can take your time on your own, and semi-private rooms with sunken-floor seating that suit entertaining clients or a small gathering. From a quick drink after work to an important business occasion, we also offer set courses with free-flowing drinks and private hire from 20 people (up to 36) — for welcome and farewell parties, year-end and new-year gatherings and a wide range of other occasions.