Umami Mart

We are excited to announce our very first field trip exclusively for Sake Gumi members. We’re going to Sequoia Sake Brewery in San Francisco! This is the City’s first sake brewery and we are thrilled to share with this opportunity to tour the site with Sequoia’s founders and sit down for a special sake tasting and food […]

We are super duper excited to announce a collaboration event with Camino restaurant! It’s our very first sake dinner and we are thrilled to co-host this event with such a special restaurant. Camino is a magical place in Oakland where I bartended for three years before Yoko and I found a home for Umami Mart. Chef Russell Moore opened Camino with […]

Photos by Mariko Yamasaki Happy holidays everyone! What a year! I hope you are all able to relax during these last days of 2015 and reflect on joyful memories. It’s been a hectic holiday season here at Umami Mart, and I’m thankful for everything we’ve done in the past year. Namely, we opened our Bottle System, […]

Photos by Daniel Metcalf We had our very first Sake Gumi Social last weekend — it was a BLAST! This event was exclusive to Sake Gumi members, held at Ramen Shop’s new bar annex. Yoko and I wanted the event to be informative and lively, letting all the local Sake Gumi members meet and get to know […]

As the saying goes, membership has its privileges. And for members of Sake Gumi, our monthly sake subscription club, that means invitations to really cool, really exclusive events. On Saturday, November 7, all Sake Gumi members are invited to join us at Ramen Shop’s new bar for our first Sake Gumi Social: Mad About Genshu. […]

It’s been three months since starting Sake Gumi. Frankly speaking, Kayoko and I have been overwhelmed by the reception, with members joining from coast to coast. The Sake Gumi love is alive and thriving across America. For October, we wanted to celebrate the end of the rice harvest season in Japan. The last harvest usually […]

A high quality sake deserves a high quality vessel to complement and showcase its flavor. You wouldn’t drink a fine single-malt whiskey from a Dixie cup, would you? (Well, maybe you would…) We think the Hard Strong Diamond Cut Sake Flute is the sexiest sake ware around. Yet another gorgeous product by Toyo-Sasaki, the top glass manufacturer […]

It’s been almost a year since I took John Gauntner’s Sake Professional class in San Francisco. Time flies! Attended by industry, sake enthusiasts and wine and spirits professionals, this was a three-day course that, as Gauntner says, “Leaves no sake stone unturned.” The classes were held in the ornate San Francisco Federal Bently Reserve Building. […]

Umami Mart has two connections to Hakkaisan. It was the first sake brewery that Kayoko and I visited in Japan back in 2011 when we went with a group of chefs and artists from the Bay Area as part of a collective called Open Harvest. You can read about our brewery visit here. And then […]

I’ve talked about following your passions in life before (ok, I talk about it like everyday) and here’s a place that embodies a deep passion for sake. Opened in 2007, Sake Nomi is a pioneer in sake retail and tasting in the United States. It is casual and almost feels like you’ve just walked into someone’s […]