Tokyo’s drinking scene is one of the finest in the world, so picking out only one bar as the best of the year is an all but impossible task. Still, that’s exactly what we attempted as part of the 2017 Love Tokyo Awards, the winners for which were announced back in November.
And we’re confident we made the right choice by awarding the coveted Best Bar prize to Bar la Hulotte, a Moto-Azabu hideout that truly deserves all the praise it’s been getting.
Standing out from the mass of flashy watering holes in the Roppongi-Azabu area, La Hulotte is best suited to relaxed imbibing – sitting quietly at the counter, sipping on an artisanal cocktail and perhaps sampling a fine cigar. Its unique atmosphere is exactly what convinced our Love Tokyo Awards judges and propelled La Hulotte to the top of the Tokyo bar hierarchy.
Since we heard that there’s been an influx of new customers at La Hulotte after its November triumph, we recently made the hike from Azabu-Juban Station once again to dig a little deeper into the bar’s charms.
Bar la Hulotte is the brainchild of owner-bartender Akiyoshi Kawase, a veteran of Aoyama’s extraordinary Radio, the domain of legendary Tokyo barman Koji Ozaki.
After moving to the capital from his native Shizuoka to enter university, Kawase started working part-time at several bars, and his fascination with the art of cocktails soon meant that school had to take a back seat to bartending.
‘I worked at a place in Ginza back then and was looking for something new when I heard about Radio,’ says Kawase. ‘I checked it out and wanted to man the counter there right away. I ended up working at Radio for four years, and there’s no question that what I learned from Ozaki has led me to where I am now.’
A strict practitioner of the traditional Japanese arts, including tea ceremony and martial arts, Koji Ozaki never shows his apprentices how things are done, instead teaching them by example.
According to Kawase, Ozaki is all about maintaining a sense of humility in his work. ‘Lose your humility and you’ll lose your business, he used to tell me. I’ve taken that to heart, so I try to never push things on my customers or look down on them’.
But while Kawase has built on his experience at Radio in raising La Hulotte to the pinnacle of the Tokyo bar world, he has also crafted a vision all of his own – one that makes his place unique even among the capital’s thousands of bars.
‘Five or six years after opening [La Hulotte], I started realising that I had managed to make the place my own,’ recalls Kawase. ‘I put a lot of effort into the décor, from the shelves and the counter down to the tiniest details, and I’m equally proud of my cocktails.'
'But it’s the atmosphere that I’m most concerned with, and having that praised [at the Love Tokyo Awards] was what convinced me to accept the award.’
Kawase also works hard to make his bar accessible to a diverse crowd. ’Some Tokyo bars aren’t too kind to first-timers, but I try to cater to everyone. That’s I because I hope as many people as possible will learn to love the bar culture in this city.’
And those efforts appear to be paying off – La Hulotte has a strong customer base, with imbibers of all ages and nationalities visiting regularly. ‘I see people from all walks of life at my counter. I think that’s an ideal situation for a bar these days.’
Extreme attention to detail, a passionate take on the future of bar culture, an inclusive spirit – these admirable traits come together perfectly at Bar la Hulotte, making it more than worthy of the title of Best Bar in Tokyo 2017.
What to order at Bar la Hulotte
‘Most customers go for the classics,’ says Akiyoshi Kawase, whose top three mixtures are listed below.
Sidecar
Manhattan
Old Fashioned