Umami Mart

Remember when the Ramen Shop guys brought the 500 pound Richmen, the massive ramen noodle making machine to Umami Mart back in October 2012?! In case you were not there, let me fill you in. Two months after Umami Mart opened, we invited the Ramen Shop guys over for an event. Sure we wanted to […]

As you may know, Google does not work in China. Savvy travelers would know to install a VPN service on their phones before taking off into China. We were not savvy. So I guess we got the REAL Chinese experience: Page not found. This situation made getting around challenging and finding Speak Low was no […]

When we mentioned to Mr. Akio Watanabe, owner of Bar EST! in Tokyo that we were heading to Niigata, he recommended that we visit Bar Owl. It was one of those things that we told him we would do but Yoko and I didn’t actually think we would actually make it there — Niigata prefecture is […]

*Yoko is in China for 10 days! And with no access to Facebook or Instagram, she is sending us photos the old school way — via postcards. We’ll be featuring these snapshots from Yoko in Chengdu and Shanghai all week here on the blog. Enjoy! – Kayoko I followed Washi into Shanghai’s Japanese-US pre-prohibition style […]

Looking back on our trip to Japan in February, the most memorable cocktail was at Bar EST!. A short distance from the Yushima train station in Tokyo, EST! is a dark, tavernous space filled with men drinking a scotch on the rocks and smoking cigarettes. At the helm is Akio Watanabe, “master” aka owner of Bar […]

Louis Anderman is a scientist. Born from a true passion for bitters, Miracle Mile Bitters Co. started out as a hobby (just like us!), as Louis concocted potions from days of yore, right in his kitchen. Miracle Mile now leads the west coast bitters revolution with his small batch recreations of classic formulas and top […]

We met the gracious Masako Ikegami in 2010, before we opened our shop in Oakland, at the Tokyo-SF Bartender Salon we helped host at Prizefighter. A few bartenders from Japan who had won the coveted Suntory Cocktail Award, presented cocktails and exchanged tricks of the trade with the Bay Area’s elite bartending community. It was […]

Alchemy Bottle Shop opened this year in March on Grand Avenue in Oakland. Owners Tova and Peter’s selection is second-to-none, featuring everything from single malts (including a great selection from Japan) to hard-to-find amaros. Kayoko and I get lost in la-la land whenever we enter Alchemy. Our admiration for Alchemy Bottle Shop led to collaborating […]

In 2013, I am so excited to be devoting myself to the creation of my first cookbook, which seemed like a pipe dream last year at this time. I am so grateful to everyone who has inspired and supported me creatively up to this point, and the gals at Umami Mart have played such a […]

A new cocktail bar opened in Copenhagen in the spring of 2012. The creation of the bar had been in the making for years. The owner is a friend of mine, who is an impressively ambitious and creative entrepeneur building bars around town with finesse and style. As soon as he mentioned the theme of […]