This article appeared in Tokyo Weekender Vol. 3.
To read the entire issue, click here.
In 1865, 19 talented young samurai from the Satsuma Domain — present-day Kagoshima Prefecture — departed the shores of their homeland, headed to Great Britain. Their goal was to learn about the advanced technology of the Western world, and they were doing so at risk of their lives, secreting away in a time when Japan’s strict national seclusion policy was still in place. In the course of their journey, the young men traveled to Hong Kong, Singapore, Bombay and beyond, tasting new flavors like pineapple and ice cream, and witnessing mind-blowing things like sprawling modern architecture and people kissing in public.
The men, now known as the Satsuma students, arrived on the shores of Southampton after two months at sea. Enrolling at University College London, they intently studied modern science and technology and, once they returned to their homeland, became vital leaders of the modern Japanese government, spurring their nation’s advance.
The SG Tavern, the newest venture from Shingo Gokan, a world-famous bartender and founder of the SG Group, draws its inspiration from this episode in Japanese history. Serving Gokan’s award-winning cocktails alongside luxurious fusion food from Yoshihiro Narisawa, one of Japan’s most prominent chefs, it’s a culmination of everything Gokan learned as a world-traveling bartender, combined with the skills he’s acquired and refined in his home country.
Highball Journey
Located along the greenery and designer brands of Marunouchi’s main street, The SG Tavern is an entirely different world from the city scenery just outside. Entering the tavern is like being transported to another world, one of maritime adventures and international friendships forged over hearty meals and fine ale. The aged decor and wooden furnishings transport visitors to the 19th century — a slice of history in the urban neighborhood of Marunouchi.
Opening The SG Tavern’s digital menu, stylized to look like an ancient scroll, guests are met with an unlikely list. It’s titled Highball Journey. “Most bars don’t dedicate a whole section to highballs, but it’s the first thing you see when you open our menu,” Gokan says. “In Japan, people think highballs are just whiskey and soda, but it’s actually any spirit with a carbonated mixer.” Each of the drinks that appears on the Highball Journey list is inspired by a port that the samurai visited during their voyage, and each incorporates ingredients that are local to each place.
The Satsuma highball, for instance, blends The SG Shochu IMO (SG’s original sweet potato shochu) with sencha green tea sourced from Kagoshima, and the Singapore-themed highball incorporates local ingredients like pineapple, lemongrass and coconut.
Guests might be surprised to see that shochu is the key ingredient of many of the highballs. “We make our own shochu, and it’s the Japanese national spirit,” Gokan explains. “It’s not very common to use shochu for cocktails, but it’s actually a really interesting and complex ingredient. Shochu has a reputation for being kind of old or traditional, but I hope through my bars, people will learn about how great it is.”
Road to Success
Like the group of enterprising samurai who helped inspire the bar, Gokan has voyaged all over the world, acquiring knowledge wherever he goes. He started bartending in Japan at 18, before making his way to Spain. He then moved to New York in 2006, and remained there for 12 years, though much of that time was spent traveling: After winning the Bacardi Legacy Cocktail Competition in 2012 — a prestigious global bartending contest that challenges competitors to create the world’s next iconic cocktail — he was out of town more often than not, learning from the European and Asian bartending scenes.
In 2014, with over a decade of experience under his belt, Gokan was ready to dream up something big of his own. “When I was 30, after my world tour, I felt like I wanted to start a bar of my own,” he recalls. But he worried that he might not be taken seriously in his home country due to his age. “I felt like opening a bar in Japan as a young world champion wouldn’t be received very well. So I decided to open a store in Shanghai.”
Speak Low, Gokan’s first bar, named after the cocktail that won him the Bacardi competition, opened in Shanghai in 2014 and was an instant success. The bar reimagined a Prohibition-era speakeasy in an Asian context, and the unique concept was lauded for its creativity and mystique.
For Gokan, creating a bar is all in the details. “I care about making an experience that’s like no other — that’s not just providing drinks, but tells a story with the interior design, the concept, the service and the food. I think about creating a holistic experience for my customers, instead of selling cocktails.”
By 2017, Gokan had opened two bars in Shanghai and won several titles, including International Bartender of the Year at the Tales of the Cocktail Foundation’s Spirited Awards in 2017, which has been called the Oscars of the bartending world. Feeling he had made a name for himself, Gokan was ready to return home.
Homecoming
In 2019, Gokan opened The SG Club, his first solo bar in Tokyo, which has gone on to rank consistently in Asia’s 50 Best Bars, currently sitting at a lofty number 14. The SG Club, whose name comes from an initialism for “sip” and “guzzle,” actually has a similar origin story to The SG Tavern — it was inspired by the first official Japanese journey to the US, in 1860.
Gokan has gone on to open several establishments in his hometown, Shibuya, including an izakaya, a wine cocktail bar and a café, and even a Nikkei-Latino fusion bar in Okinawa; he’s also continued to expand his cocktail empire overseas, with the newly opened Sip & Guzzle in New York and Gokan (stylized as GOKAN) in Hong Kong.
With his newest venture, he goes back to basics, revisiting the formula that made The SG Club so successful. The SG Tavern, too, specializes in inventive fusion cocktails and dishes that highlight traditional Japanese styles and flavors in unexpected ways, served in a stylish, vintage-feeling setting that drips with international flair. But the experience feels wholly new, thanks in large part to Gokan’s attention to detail and his ability to infuse a space with its own unique atmosphere.
“The details are endless once I start listing them,” he says. “For example, the staff all wear clothes from the same brand, but we purposefully don’t have them match. I work with a professional lighting designer and sound designer for the most comfortable ambience. The logo on the mirror is hand-painted, and we’ve used a complex aging process on the mirrors, so people who work in interior design or architecture will pick up on that kind of detail and enjoy the experience.”
The Crew
Gokan knew that a tavern wouldn’t be complete without food, and he called on some of the best chefs in Japan to curate a food menu that would harmonize with his cocktails. “It wasn’t difficult. If anything, it was fun,” he says when asked about the collaboration process. “Working with an amazing team, I felt like my area of expression just expanded.”
The SG Tavern’s food menu boasts globally inspired dishes with a Japanese twist, like elevated fish and chips, roasted duck and a whole head of “curry-flower.” With several dishes curated by chef Narisawa, whose eponymous restaurant has landed on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants for 14 consecutive years, the food takes its cues from exotic cuisines the samurai might have experienced in their travels.
Over 150 years ago, when 19 Japanese men sailed out to experience cultures so alien from their own, they undoubtedly leaned on each other to improve themselves and ultimately bring new knowledge and perspectives back to their homeland. It’s easy to see why the story of the Satsuma students resonated so much with Gokan — he’s taken everything he’s learned from decades of world travel, and he continues to express it through the art of bartending, with his band of merry men.
Find The SG Tavern on Instagram at @the_sg_tavern.
