Japan Trip 2010: Sake Restaurant Ishii

A trip to Tokyo wouldn’t be complete for me without what I call a Sake Blogger Summit, which is complicated industry speak for a fun night out with my sake blogging friends Melinda of Tokyo through the Drinking Glass fame and Etsuko of Tokyo Foodcast.

Whenever we are in the same city, we love to meet up over some sake and exchange tasting notes and tips and generally delve deep into sake geekdom together. Etsuko-san recommended a new Sake restaurant located in the Shimbashi area of Tokyo called “Ishii“. The owner Hideyuki Ishii welcomed us warmly and soon dazzled me with his sake recommendations and wonderful English skills. Ishii Specializes in both fish and Sake and the cool slideshow running on the flatscreen TV behind the bar gave hints of Ishii-san’s travels to Sake breweries. I got the sense right away that Ishii-san was a sake lover through and through.

When he was ready to pour us his final sake recommendation of the night, a delicious sake from Seiryo Shuzo, it so happened that Mr. Hidetomo Suto, a Sake Brewery worker from Seiryo Brewery was dining at the restaurant. Suto-san came by to say hello and pour our sake when we quickly realized that he and I had met before! He was pouring Seiryo sake at the Kuramoto US event I attended in March. Amazing! I love that sake fans flock together by nature! Thanks to everyone at Ishii, Etsuko, Melinda and Suto-san for arranging the best summit yet! Kanpai!