June 16, 2016
It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for… drum roll please… our Japanese beers and sakes are officially online! This is a project we’ve been working on here at UMHQ for the last few months and we can’t wait to share this with you. Remember when we opened the Bottle System at Umami Mart in […]
April 29, 2016
Last Thursday, we celebrated a momentous occasion – Kayoko’s 36th birthday! Collaborating with our friends at Holy Mountain, we threw a party that we dubbed Kayoko’s Cherry Blossom Cobbler Birthday Festival 3000. If you’ve never been to Holy Mountain, you’re missing out. Perched above Hawker Fare’s San Francisco location on Valencia Street, it’s exactly the kind of watering hole […]
March 28, 2016
Yoko and I were so excited to find that one of Yoho Brewery’s tap rooms in Tokyo was right in our hotel! We waited until our very last night in the city to go in for a beer, and looking back, I wish we wouldn’t have. Yona Yona Beer Works was so great — we […]
March 16, 2015
Our Japan trip last month was a jam-packed, 5-city tour with barware factory tours, sake brewery pit-stops and a visit to a craft brewery! Niigata Beer has been around for 17 years now, brewing beers for the local market, and also making beers for other companies looking to outsource production. They do this quite often […]
February 26, 2015
People in Japan are cuckoo for beer. It remains the most popular alcoholic beverage in Japan, accounting for two thirds of all alcohol consumed overall (says Wikipedia). When going out with friends or coworkers after work, it is an ongoing tradition for the table to order a round of draft beers for the first kanpai […]
February 16, 2015
When people ask Yoko or myself if it was “always in the plan” to turn Umami Mart into a brick and mortar shop, the answer is always “no.” We do get this question quite often. But back in 2007 when we started our blog, I was living in Brooklyn and Yoko was in Tokyo, on […]
January 29, 2015
We had a fantastic event with our lovely neighbors, The Trappist, back in November — the brewmaster of Baird Beer was here visiting from Japan, so they took over the taps! They were so kind to invite us in on the fun to collaborate on the event, and so we brought in Casa de Kei […]
February 26, 2014
San Francisco Beer Week 2014 took place February 6th-16th, celebrating the Bay Area craft-beer scene with events, dinners, talks, and good times. We hosted Japan Beer Fest  with The Trappist, a stellar beer bar located around the corner from Umami Mart in Oakland. showcasing ten craft brews from Japan, and the day’s specialty, Pastramen. It was a humid and […]