tokyo food file

last day for the beach huts...

Last chance for a double-decker love-handle beach burger...

Sayonara to summer.

DevilCraft — a fiendishly friendly pub

Time to post a few more pics of DevilCraft, as introduced in my Japan Times column last Friday. There has been an almighty rash of good new craft beer pubs and specialist bars this year — but this is currently my favourite of the lot.

 

First off, it looks sharp. It's in an old 5-story building in Kanda — the ground floor used to be a ramen shop, though you'd never guess from the chic grey walls and hand-crafted sliding wood-framed doors. From the outside it looks bright, welcoming and compact, with 8 bar stools at the counter and 4 more by the window.

But the stat that really counts is the number of taps: 15, including one real ale hand pump. OK, one of them — the Asahi Jukusen premium lager — really doesn't qualify as a craft beer, but it's definitely in a different league to SuperDry...

 

But that's just the first floor. There are two more stories with tables and more comfortable seating. Then, above that, the 4th floor is where the beer is going to be brewed — that's the plan, at any rate; they're still waiting on their license.

And then on the top floor, there's the kitchen — complete with two pizza ovens. That's where Jason and his crew are turning out the Chicago-style deep-dish pizzas. There are five to choose from.

 

This, below, was the Abe Froman, named after the mythical sausage king of Chicago...

And this here (below) is the Eden, the vegetarian option, with plenty of fresh tomato, peppers, onion, mushroom and olives. Very tasty too — and perfect with a pint of John's citrus ale.

That's John on the right, and Jason on the left; and Mike in the pic on the right.

 

You can check out what beers are on each day from the DevilCraft blog here... It's in Japanese but there are photos of the day's offerings on the blackboard in English. 

Craft beer, pit barbecue and deep dish pizza

Yes, it's a teaser for my column in tomorrow's Japan Times...

slaking that summer thirst (part 1)

An occasional series, documenting what's been keeping me hydrated (and happy) this long hot sweat-filled summer. Starting with this one...

It's a lighter easier-to-quaff version of my old favourite, Anchor Steam Beer from San Francisco.

Same handsome bottle and label style. A perennial classic.

Green Tea IPA take 2

So there I was, crammed in at the bar at Dry-Dock — as one invariably is — except that I was at the narrowest part, right by the kitchen where the food is ferried from the tiny kitchen. So I wasn't planning to stay long...

I'd had a couple of pints already and was getting ready to leave when I spotted this bottle lurking on the shelves right at the far end of the bar. Having thoroughly enjoyed the draught version, I needed to see how it tasted out of the bottle — and how they stacked up against each other.

 

The sencha flavor seemed to be a bit more pronounced this time. But that may well have been due to the difference in temperature (the bottle was not kept as cold as the draught kegs). But it was too late in the evening to be analytical — both are just excellent. And both are highly pokey, with an alcohol content of over 9 percent.

Sato-san, Dry-Dock's friendly master, also gave me a small shotglass full of this fine brew too which he'd pulled out for the party at the wider end of the bar. Very tasty indeed.

In return I got him to pose behind the wheel as he dispensed a few more suds...

Then I got myself out into the night and headed home...

Dry-Dock is hidden away under the railway tracks just outside Shinbashi Station.

Here's a map link...