T.Y. Harbor

I decided to try out T.Y. Harbor last week. The place is on Tennozu Isle, is "contemporary American", and they have their own beer. I was expecting some really fine food, but on the whole I was somewhat disappointed. Not painfully disappointed, but the food and the beer were fairly blah-, especially for the price. The view was quite nice though, and the service was fine.


I see this alot with "branded" restaurant chains. These companies use classic business strategy: standardize a core product in this case a core menu,  then modify the brand with a different name, different decorations, nice location, and other "branding" elements. All industries do this, from cars ( create a standard car, modify frame, seats etc) to accounting firms. In the food industry what this leads to is generally bland food at a high price. Of course it does not have to be this way, but the trend is for companies to pay more attention to "branding" elements rather than actual food quality.

I tried the seasonal, wheat, pale ale, amber, and dark. They were all drinkable, and probably quite accessible but lacked the depth that I am used to. The wheat was the best, the PA was a bit ugly. Food wise the bread, cesar salad, seared shrimp, pizza, and wings. None of it was unpalatable or poorly made, but it was all just standard and uninteresting. If I want that Ill make it myself.

Great Japan Beer Festival: Yokohama

Prologue

So there I am after my weekly group running/drinking club which happened to be in Ryogoku this week. Naturally I skipped the after party in favor of a sojourn to Popeyes, basically the destination for Japanese craftbeer. I settled down for a pint and half way through the glass the dashing fellow in the middle of the photo, comes in. We get to talking, have a few more pints and I learn a number of interesting things. First, As it turns out he is David, is in town from New Zealand, and is the export manager for Tuatara Brewing. Second, the tuatara, after which the brewery is named, is the last living dinosaur in the world, another reason why New Zealand is awesome. Finally Aoki-sans homegrown hop tempura is delicious. I had a lot of fun and was even more excited to get ot the festival and try out his and all the other beers.

Great Japan Beer Festival: Yohohama


Beerfests are a great chance to try out a large selection of beers, some of which are not normally available, to meet people, and to generally have a great time. The Great Japan Beer Festival is no exception. They have it three times a year in Tokyo, Yokohama, and Osaka. The most recent one was in Yokohoma out at Osanbashi in the hall of the same name. Its underneath that big pier looking thing south of Akarenga with grass on the roof and pretty blue lights at night, and here is the 2010 beer list.

The festival was all you can drink, rather than a ticket system, with the little glasses which I appear to be double fisting. The glass size was no problem but I was a little disappointed at the lack of cleaning stations for glasses, although some of the attendants, especially the brewers were kind enough to rinse out our glasses before putting a new beer in. Overall, the beer was done well in terms of quantity of beer, serving, attractiveness of stalls. Only once did I have a beer that was clearly not being served properly, and that was towards the end of the festival and from a bottle.

I tried to work a proper tasting order ( light impact beers to stronger) starting with the lightest of beers pilsners and such and moving up to the strong and bitter Imperial India Pale Ales, with wheat beers, english milds, pale ales, light stouts, and others in between. It worked out fairly well and while I did not get to taste everything I would have liked, I did well enough.

In terms of beer there were no huge surprises. From the Japanese brewers I especially enjoyed the Weizen Rauch from Gotenba, HopSlave ( which I poured at the Real Ale fest last year), the Helles from Chateau Kamiya, the North Island IPA. I disliked the beers from Hansharo, and the Johanna. From the Import side my group and I thought the Maui Brewing coconut porter was fantastic, Deschutes Beer was even better than I remember it from my college days, my first taste of Odell Brewery was good, the lambics from Revelation Cat were quite interesting, and the Saison de Lente from The Bruery was almost worth the price of admission itself. Last but of course not least the American Pale Ale from Tuatara Brewing was a really solid example of what I like in in APA, great hop aroma, strong bitterness. I think their belgian was also good, but I tried it out of order and cant really make a good judgment on it.
All and all it was a good beerfest as far as I was concerned, and I will definitely be back again next year, hopefully in some sort of professional capacity.


Epilogue


Once the drinking was finished we all poured out on to the deck above, and were treated to a wonderful view of Yokohama, met a few friends, and also serenaded the deck with a powerfull rendition of "can you feel the love tonight" with some strangers (hats off to you random dude).

On the recommendation of Chris and his blog I went to a place called Charcoal Grill & Bar Green.
I was pleasantly surprised. The interior is artfully decorated, lots of wood and paintings, with the restaurant and the kitchen in the same room, a setup I love. They have three craft beers on tap, and I went with Hitachino Nest Nipponia. Which was a good general match to the food, with some hops and spices to match the fat and spices in the grill. The waiters were casual but professional and made excellent recommendations. We had the BBQ Pork, oyster, goat cheese salad, all spice ribs, and the rosemary chicken. Everything was great, but the BBQ really blew me away. My first bite and the meat melted in my mouth, to use a cliché. Behind that was an expert use of spices which truly enhanced, rather than overcame the meat and the skillfull grilling technique. Really good. I highly recommend this restaurant if you are in the Yokohama area, and I will certainly be back.

Cheers to everyone I meet, and to a great day!

-Eric

Frijoles + Dead Guy

2010/10/17 Update
Tragically Frijolles has stopped serving anything decent to drink with their delicious tacos no Rouge no Koedo. When I asked the owner gave me some BS about switching suppliers. You can now only get Carlsberg draft with your tacos. The disappointment of this change has prompted me to find a new favorite restaurant in the area.


Original Post
There was a palatable static in the air. An unspoken message passing back and forth between the customers lining up outside Frijoles, the small Azabujuban restaurant, for lunch. The message was simple, “tacos!”.

For those who have not had a chance to dine there yet. Frijoles is a hip mexican lunch type place. The menu consists of Tacos, Burritos, Fajita Burritos, and Salad. From there you choose between grilled chicken, carnitas, steak, and vegetarian as your meal moves down the line, finally choosing from the usual assortment of salsas and toppings. The prices are in the 1000 Yen range, and its well worth it. The carnitas is juicy, the steak is well marinated, and the salsas are reasonable approximations of what one might get closer to the border in the states, making it worth a bit of a detour to get there.

As if that was not enough, the restaurant also stocks macro pilsner beers, which get destroyed by any kind of spice, but a beer from both Rouge and Koedo brewing. The Rouge Dead Guy Ale is a great pairing, and really shows what beer can do with food. Its a Mailbock beer, a lighter version of the dark lager bock with a more substantial hop presence. After the first bite of mexican deliciousness the dark, caramel flavors in the beer join hands with the meat and do a little flavor dance. While this frivolity is going on the hot salsa attacks and, backed up by the bitter hops, makes a delicious assault on the tongue, bringing out the flavor in the heat. Finally, the heat is repelled by the sweet malt and the carbonation cleans off the palate, leaving you excited for more. All this for a mere 600 Yen extra.

It is great to see a bit more variety of quality mexican in Tokyo, and even better when it has a few great beers to pair with. Hopefully the chain will be expanding soon, you can check out their website here and their Facebook page for more information.