Kura Kura, Kanda (蔵くら)

After a dining fail at di Andoh, the work party I was in took a turn towards KK. I've walked by this place, oh, at least a hundred times, and also seen it on maps during my various sake searches. I didn't take it that seriously because I rarely have an opportunity to go to Kanda after work (as opposed to at lunch), but I'm happy we went there, and would go back any time.

They seem to be rocking a 2-floor concept with carefully-curated selections of local sake on the 2nd floor and local beer on the 3rd floor. We went to the beer floor, which I was a touch disappointed about at the time, but in retrospect was good since I've been saying I needed to swear off jizake for a week or three!

The selection is very good. In addition to a 'usual suspects' sort of bottled Belgian beer list, they carry about 15 Japanese microbeers on tap. In addition to some things I would expect to see (Swan Lake, Shiga Kougen), they had Minoo from Osaka, a dark ale that turned out very well, Hida Takayama beer (which I promptly ordered when my boss forced me to choose the first round for the whole table) and even Shonan Imperial Stout, a picture of whose bottle you can find on my trip to Enoshima last summer. All the tap beer was fresh, and they serve it in glass size or pint size, which is pleasant when you want to try a bunch of things. Prices are about what you'd expect for specialty beer in Japan, which is to say "stratospheric".

On the food and service side, we had a few plates of fries with mayo, which were thin-cut but mediocre. We didn't get there until 10, so they immediately said "Last order for food. C'mon, last order!" and after what seemed like 20 minutes they started saying "Last order. C'mon, you need to catch the train."

The sake floor looks promising, with a board outside showing labels from various famous dead soldiers like Jikon, Yuho (funny, because before going to the Italian dinner before this, we were at a farewell party for a colleague named Juho, and his colleagues had gotten him a bottle of the sake after I told him about it), Dassai, and other names you must know.

Worth a visit.
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