As I enjoy craft beer and the bar was located a five minute walk from my apartment I decided to check the place out along with a co-worker of mine.
We ducked down into the cramped establishment and grabbed a couple seats at the bar next to a Japanese salaryman. After exchanging polite good evenings with the bartenders I ordered my first beer of the night, a citrus brown ale from the brewery Akura. The salaryman saw me take out my pocket sized notebook that I use to record various Japanese phrases, words, or in this case beer names. Apparently impressed with the level of interest I was showing he asked me if I liked craft beer in passable english.
"I love craft beer" - I responded, and the salaryman tells us three things
1) He was an alcoholic (in a joking sense, I think/hope)
2) He loves American craft beers
3) This is the best craft beer bar in Tokyo
The Salaryman was curious how us two Gaijin's managed to stumble into the best craft beer bar in Tokyo. We told him about the article, this was the first he had heard of it.
He turned to the bartenders and told them in Japanese about the article, this was the first they had heard of it too, and apparently our salaryman is not lying about being a regular in this place.
One of the female bartenders came up to us and told us they had free internet, so we pulled out our iphones and brought up the article. When they saw the Ant'n Bee they were very surprised and excited.
About this time I was gearing up for my second beer, and I was asking for recommendations.
The salaryman pointed out that all of the staff''s recommendations are on the menu in the little yellow boxes with arrows pointing to certain beers. In the boxes were japanese text. One said
"tako no osusume" essentially Tako recommends, and pointed to a dark ale called Tokyo Black - which I order. Then the salaryman goes to Tako and says "she's an octopus!"
Confused looks form on our faces.
"Her name means octopus in Japanese," the bartender confirms this, the salaryman continues and says her name is fitting because when she is drunk she gets pink in the face and her arms flap all over the place.
Of course not to be outdone the other bartender, Takechan comes over
"and I'm miss bamboo"
Alright so we have miss Octopus and miss Bamboo serving us drinks. I'm suddenly envious of native Japanese who get proper Kanji names with cool meanings and such, instead of boring old Katakana.
Curious about more of the Kanji on the menu we start asking our new friend to explain what else is going on. At the top of the page is the place is the place where the day is - and by which day I mean which token cause this day is dedicated to. Think "international day of the dolphin." However, in this case it's a a bit more difficult.
It was relatively easy to figure out that it was the "International day of fighting against..." something. The something was rather difficult and took 15min or so of googling.
It turns out it was "International day of Fighting against Desertification" - Global warming maybe?
The third beer I tried was Ms. Bamboos recommendation. Easily my favorite beer of the night Daisen G Beer's "Yagou."Definitely recommended.
At about this time a 63 year old man walks in dressed head to toe in a cowboy getup, that looks straight out of a 70s TV variety show with a black cowboy hat and stopsign red shirt with those tassley things and everything.
Apparently he is friends with our salaryman and the two shake hands. He turns toward us and proclaims
I am naughty by nature!
Umm... come again?
Our salaryman interjects "He is naughty by nature," he says nodding vigorously. Everyone but us thinks this requires no further explanations.
As best we can figure he means that he is young at heart. Our much younger salaryman tells us he is "Green with envy" at the thought of the cowboy's life.
The cowboy explains to us that he is 63 and apparently makes his living as a country singer in Ginza.
Around 12-12:30 most people started filing out either to catch the last train home or to head to a club. We decide to take our leave of our new friends with promises that we will stop back in soon and see the regular crowd.
Ant'n Bee - Recommended
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