Shintomi is a funny little neighborhood, and I like it. It’s not obviously charming – the main thing is small office buildings, but there are some nondescript modern apartments mixed in. And here and there, a shop or restaurant scratching out a living. Mameya’s building, an old townhouse built sometime early in Showa, reminds me […]
Month: April 2011
Pizzeria Il Tamburello, Kodenmacho (日本橋堀留町)
DISCLOSURE: I was comped Y300 on the bill for this meal. ANOTHER DISCLOSURE: I wish people would give me free meals. What am I doing wrong? Willing to write for food, OK? While I took this picture on a different day, it’s something I’ve been seeing a lot lately on the way over to Nihonbashi […]
Saburoku Juhachi Hanale (三冨魯久汁八 華れ)
Hey, for starters, I didn’t make up the name. The kanji are a jokey reinterpretation, but evidently the expression is a mnemonic for “three sixes are eighteen,” and it was described to me as “Japanese math”. Really. Strikes me as one of those things like “Wow, man, it’s so mystical – if you take 2, […]
Katsu Hey!, Nihonbashi (かつ平)
Hey! What’s up! I’m sure the staff at Katsu Hey! would be surprised to see the store name written that way too, but I think it’s cheerful. There’s not much else cheery here, just a kinda old-style building that’s now squeezed in between taller office buildings that are already old and tired in their own […]
Banh Mi Sandwich, Takadanobaba (バインミー☆サンドイッチ)
Aha, you’d think from the name that this was a lunch truck making Vietnamese sandwiches, but it is in fact an actual store, jammed (sandwiched?) into a space small enough to fit into a truck. And cleverly named for its product. No tom-foolery here, no-siree. The most encouraging thing about it is the bread ovens. I […]
Muromachi Toriya, Nihonbashi (むろまち鳥や)
Woo hoo, this weird-looking chicken place does some great lunch specials. I almost want to go back to try their chicken ramen set. It looks like it should be yoshoku, or maybe a coffee shop. But inside is smoky as hell, with this guy manning a seemingly-unventilated grill and churning out an endless series of […]
Sasaki, Kagurazaka (神楽坂 ささ木)
It is hard, my friends, to find really good kaiseki places in Tokyo that don’t break the bank. After this visit to Sasaki, I would say I know four (Onodera, Uemura, Sasahana…actually I could stretch to include Yuwaeru even though it’s absurdly cheap and high quality. And probably Fukahama. I suppose six is probably enough […]
Alpage, Kagurazaka
Have I mentioned this before? Along with Fermier (in Tokyu Food Show in Shibuya, or else the main store in Atago), these are the best cheese shops I know. (In a pinch, go to Cheese Kingdom in the basement of Matsuya Ginza, or Kita Senju or Tama Plaza or many points west. Or mail order.) […]
Izumiya, Jimbocho (神田和泉屋)
Remember a while ago I went to this tolerable-but-expensive izakaya in a really small alley in the fun part of Jimbocho? Since I was in the area for an afternoon’s vacation, I went back to see the store. They’ve been doing it since 1936, and it kinda shows, but not in a bad way. What […]
Rimshot Guitars, Ochanomizu
This one’s a little out of completeness, but bear with me. Along with Woodman and Hobo’s, Rimshot forms the trio of extraordinary acoustic guitar stores in Ochanu (only Woodman has banjos, etc.). Any of the three could fairly be described as world-class in the slightly different spaces they inhabit. Rimshot is basically the Martin store […]