Sakaya NYC Blog

Instead of the usual beer, chips, and pizza, shake up your Super Bowl Party by serving a new brew…sake! Sake may be for sumo you say, but the Super Bowl? Of course! Wine-not! After all, there’s an historical association between Rice and the Super Bowl going back to the days of Jerry and the 49ers. (Ouch! Sorry about that!)

Here’s our recommended game plan…

Kickoff with a light, easy (as in Eli) Miyasaka Yawaraka Junmai with a bowl of boiled sea salt-dusted edamame.

If you’re a Brady fan, you may want to go with the clean, heroic notes of Sougen “Pride of the Samurai” Junmai along with some micro-waved frozen shumai and/or gyoza.

Warm up for the Second Half with some warmed up sake like Kamoizumi Shusen “Three Dots” Tokubetsu Junmai or Tengumai Junmai Yamahai. These are perfect with smoked, rich, robust dishes…think sausages of any sort or a hearty lamb or beef stew.

Or, maybe you just bring out the big guns for your feast with one (or more) of our 1.8 liter ishoubin of food friendly sake Otokoyama “Man’s Mountain” Tokubetsu Junmai or Okunomatsu Ginjo.

Whatever your Super Bowl plans might be, come visit us at SAKAYA for some ideas to put a new spin on the menu (and what to drink with it) for this year’s game.

Kanpai!

SAKAYA

324 E. 9th Street (near 2nd Avenue between 1st and 2nd)

NYC 10003

212.505.7253

Visitors to SAKAYA may be familiar with Kikusui “Chrysanthemum Mist” Junmai Ginjo from Niigata, the beautiful, compact sake in the distinctive ice blue bottle. It has been a favorite of many customers (and us too) since we opened.

We learned today that Mr. Daisuke Takazawa, the President of Kikusui brewery would be in town and are honored to have him and his associate Mr. Endo Takeshi joining us to conduct a special tasting of his sake tomorrow evening, January 22 from 6 to 8PM.

Please join us for this special event!

Kick off the New Year with some new sake explorations at SAKAYA. Our lineup of tastings for January features visits and expertise from the creators of Shichiken, Nanbu Bijin, and Dassai as well as a diverse array of premium sake from Vine Connections and World Sake Imports, two premier American importers…All except Nanbu Bijin (4PM) begin at 6PM and continue until 8PM.

Shichiken: 6pm~8pm, Friday, January 4

Tsushima Kitahara, the 13th generation of the Shichiken brewing family returns to
make his farewell appearance before heading back to his role at their Yamanashi-ken kura. If you missed his last visit, you’ll want to be here for this eye-opening introduction to the pleasures of drinking his Junmai Ginjo sake at several different temperatures.

Nanbu Bijin: 4pm~6pm, Saturday, January 12

Kosuke Kuji, the 5th generation of the family which owns and operates this Iwate-ken brewery, will offer samples of his “Southern Beauty” Junmai Ginjo and Tokubetsu Junmai sake accompanied by a healthy helping of his cheerfully delivered insights into how their unique attributes are achieved.

Vine Connections: 6pm~8pm, Friday, January 18

Sake Sommelier Paul Tanguay of Vine Connections will familiarize visitors with selections from their carefully chosen portfolio of ginjo sake.

World Sake Imports: 6pm~8pm, Thursday, January 24

Enjoy an assortment of high quality sake from the portfolio of the pioneering importer responsible for creating the Joy of Sake events in Honolulu, San Francisco, and New York.

Dassai: 6pm~8pm, Thursday, January 31 & 6pm~8pm, Friday, February 1

Kazuhiro Sakurai, 4th generation of the family that owns the Dassai brewery in Yamaguchi-ken will offer samples and discuss the fine points of their Dassai 50 Junmai Ginjo and Dassai 23 Junmai Daiginjo.

We look forward to seeing you soon at SAKAYA.

Kanpai to a Happy (Sake) New Year!

Rick & Hiroko

SAKAYA
324 E.9th Street (just east of 2nd Avenue)
New York NY 10003
212.505.7253 (SAKE)
www.sakayanyc.com

During our first week, we were honored to have Daimon-san from Daimon Brewery, producer of Mukune Junmai Ginjo and Tozai Honjozo and Nigori, come to visit us… along with an NHK Osaka camera crew! Within four days of having opened, we were welcoming one of western Japan’s most esteemed brewers. His visit was the focus of an NHK-TV (Japanese Government owned television network) documentary on the growing interest in sake in the U.S. It was particularly ironic for Daimon-san to be our first visitor from a sake brewery as it was his brewery that we first visited on our initial trip to Japan two years ago! It seemed perfectly natural that things had come full circle.

To kick off our schedule of tastings, we have arranged two very different sake experiences for the Holiday Season…

Sake Shichiken (Friday, 12/21, 6PM)…Learn all about and experience the pleasures of drinking this brewery’s Junmai Ginjo at different temperatures (chilled, room temperature, and warmed) from Tsushima Kitahara, the 13th generation of the founding family of this small Yamanashi-ken kura.

Joto Sake (Thursday, 12/27, 6PM)…Sample a variety of contrasting brews from the portfolio of this importer which specializes in small production, artisanal sake (“jizake“) from throughout Japan.

And, please remember that we offer samples of a number of our sake for you to taste every day. So don’t be shy, please ask us about what’s available!

Kanpai!

SAKAYA

324 E.9th Street

NYC 10003

212.505.7253

Our address is 324 E. 9th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues) in NYC’s East Village. However, in the finest, slightly confusing East Village tradition, we share that address with two neighboring shops (a boutique and a vintage clothing store) as well as the apartment building under which we are all located on the street level. As we don’t have our sign hanging over the sidewalk yet, just look for the sugidama, a green sphere suspended under a small roof, hanging in the window. When you see it, you’ll know that you’ve found SAKAYA!

Of course, you can always call us too at 212.505.SAKE (7253) for directions.

Kanpai!

We finally opened the shop on Saturday. It was both an exhiliarating and suspenseful day.  Tremendously excited, we awoke early and practically flew to the East Village to complete our final preparations before flipping the “Open” sign on the door at noon.  Who would come visit us?  What kind of reception would SAKAYA receive on its first day?  As retail greenhorns, we were entering uncharted waters….

Fortunately, with the amazing enthusiasm, support, patience, and generosity of an eager-to-learn-about-sake crowd of friends, neighbors, passersby, and well wishers, we enjoyed a memorable opening day.  However, it was not without its excitement.  Yes, we had a mini-crisis.  When attempting to complete our first charge transaction, we found that the DSL line, to which our credit card processing terminal was connected had gone down and was therefore inoperable. How could this be?  The waiting customers were gracious and patient with us as we struggled with the situation. Thanks to the quick thinking and technological wizardry of Hiroko and our friend and shop team memeberTimothy, an alternate phone link was improvised and our credit acceptance ability was restored.   Whew!

The opening day jitters and technology issues did little to dampen the excitement and fun of our first day.  We couldn’t be more grateful for the turnout of friends both old and new and the warm welcome that SAKAYA received on its birthday.   It was a day that we’ll never forget.

Please visit us.  We look forward to welcoming you!

Kanpai!

It has been nearly two years since our dream for SAKAYA was born. Today that dream becomes reality! We thank everyone who has helped us to find our path and to stay on it.

Please come visit us to say hello and to explore and sample some of our 85+ sake.  You’ll find everything from a smooth Honjozo masquerading as a humble Futsu-shu to an earthy, “mushroomy” Yamahai to an elegant, delicately floral Daiginjo.

Coming soon….SAKAYANYC.com.

Kanpai!

We’ve begun to receive our inventory and are learning the intricacies of the inventory management aspect of our Point of Sale System in order to log in all stock items. Deliveries from several distributors arrived on Wednesday and Friday with the balance scheduled for early next week.

In the meantime, we are hard at work on the shelf-talker displays for each sake, building out our office space, and organizing a multitude of small but important steps necessary to opening.

Thanks for hangin’ in there, we’re coming down the home stretch!

With a few finishing touches yet to be made to the cooler display (say good-bye to the red, yellow and blue bars at the top), track lighting, and shelving, we’re targeting the last week in November for our opening!