Devilquest!!!
Nuts, I’ve been excited about writing that ever since I heard of Devilcraft from Woody several weeks ago. Now I find that Devilquest is just the Japanese name for Season of the Which, witch came out early this year in America.
Well, Devilcraft’s opening has been anticipated for nearly as long, and they are now fully and publicly open after a longish soft-open, reservation-only period. There should be rejoicing. It’s not Ant ‘n Bee, or Ushitora, or Popeye, but it’s more than enough to make anyone happy, and it’s closer to the center of town than any of those. Because the center of town is the bridge, people. Don’t forget it.
There’s a devil in the bottle, or in this case the tap lines. The custom-built fridge has 15 of them, which Mike the co-owner describes as “ridiculous for beer people” and promises to expand asap. Personally I think 15 taps is enough – it gives them space to have a few beers each from the principal genres, to wit “Japanese”, “American”, and “major”. The Japanese options are likely to include Shiga Kogen, Ise Kadoya, or Iwatekura, while the Americans look to be West-coast, with Bear Republic, Green Flash and others on the menu (at least today. The blog is up-to-date.).
In this picture, counter-guy Dio is working it. I’d love, nay love, to think that all the staff have devil-referencing nicknames. This could be something to work on upgrading, along with the number of taps. Or I might have misheard the guy’s name.
You may want to wait a few weeks to go. Right now they’re full most nights with people who love beer and have been gasping dryly for a shop just like this, around this neighborhood. They’re reserving most of the seats, with the remainder going to curious industry types, like the Ant ‘n Bee people who were in a few nights ago (who Bird and I had to call for directions), and the Baird Harajuku guy on the right of this picture. For good or ill, the atmosphere is entirely too bright, welcoming and pleasant to appeal to salarymen. Maybe not great for business considering who people’s the neighborhood, but really conducive for pleasant drinking.
The food menu is conspicuously pizza-focused, and in fact has a leaning toward small Chicago-depth pizzas. This is no bad thing, and what we saw looked pretty good, but I am less in the market right now for American beer and Chicago pizza.
If you take my meaning.
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