How do people find places like this? Ando is tucked away in a medium-size Ginza side-street building that’s otherwise crammed to the gills with hostess clubs. In fact, judging from the size, layout, and tacky, tacky furniture…there’s no way it was not previously a hostess club. They stay open late, have only young, male staff, and have massage and nail service on Tuesday nights. I think that may indicate the type of crowd they’re aiming for… Fun to check it out!
There was a little food, but I didn’t do any ordering or look at the menu until later, on the web; some kind of roast beef tsumami, edamame, etc. On the menu, there are fairly attractive pictures of nabes and things. Seemed pretty intense for a place staffed by two young guys who also had to take care of the customers and sing a song now and then.
Obviously drinks are the feature. I was going with the flow despite disliking shochu and picked a black-sugar shochu that’s ‘mellowed’ by being mixed with water and left for a week in a crock (this was on the specials board). I found it drinkable, but I’m not hurrying to add shochu to my list of vices; beer, wine, shochu and the occasional cocktail get that done quite well among themselves without welcoming any interlopers. There’s a biggish menu of other shochu, and the website has a column.
Service was fun – I felt a little like a guest in a host club! Karaoke only starts from 12, and the other customers were gone by then, so we had the place to ourselves for a while. 2 customers, 2 staff, all singing in turn. I’m not quite sure whether the owner is Sakano san or not, nor why he introduced himself as “Billy”, but I liked it.
Actually it’s right around the corner from the Shichirinya that I went to, and closer to their other branches, but there’s a few more places around there…forgive me for not knowing all of the entertainment establishments in Ginza, OK?
坂野ビリーーーーー！
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