All in Earth: Notes on Sake
Kimura’s method is “beyond organic,” using no chemical or organic fertilizers, no pesticides, and no compost. Instead plant life is nourished by harnessing beneficial soil microbes that work in concert with local insect, animal, and bird life. Kimura believes that too often plants are overfed when everything they need to thrive exists in the natural environment.
The name Rule of Thirds is both a nod to the space’s design-centric origins, and the “synergy and collaboration” that is at the core of the restaurant. “The most interesting things happen at the intersection of the grid lines.”
The double blow to craft breweries of losing domestic sales to big-city sake specialty bars and restaurants, along with the temporary collapse of the booming overseas market, has been devastating. Yet some markets, like the China export trade, are now bigger than before the pandemic.
In New York, where there is such a concentration of sake expertise as well as great sakes available through retail, izakayas, bars and restaurants, the must-join event is The American Sake Association’s in-person celebration at the Brooklyn Kura Taproom.
When Decibel turned 21 in 2014, the staff decided it should celebrate its arrival at legal drinking age by throwing a party. During a week of celebratory events, they held open mic nights, during which guests told their favorite drinking stories before downing a shot of sake.
“There is no one correct pairing for a sake, each pairing is merely one proposal.”
—Keita Akaboshi, Tokyo sake sommelier
The early 1990s were the celebrity years for Isbell and his farm. He counted a total of 100 articles written about him and his Koshihikari rice in the Japanese press, which in turn brought Japanese tourists by the Greyhound bus load…. A film crew from Japanese broadcaster NHK embedded at the farm for a year to make a 90-minute documentary on him.
“Just as for human beings, there is an optimal level of stress that one should put on the microbes involved in sake fermentation.”
The East Village sake bar Decibel “served fifty or sixty sakes by the glass and was an institution. After closing we could try anything we wanted, so it was a tremendous tasting opportunity.”
“We have so many sake retailers here in Japan and sites that introduce sake to Japanese people, plus online retail sites like Rakuten and Amazon. But a lot of expats don’t know where to find good sake.”
Chris Isbell, a third-generation family farmer in Central Arkansas, grows some of America’s best sake rice.
“I still think that sake, especially when it’s made locally, has the potential to grow. But I have to admit that Covid has significantly slowed the growth of the sake market in BC.”
“During World War II my grandmother was arrested and put in jail on suspicion of diverting rice to be sold on the black market for food.”
Keisuke truly loved microbes—after all, they had restored him to life! So he decided he wanted to return to the healthier, pre-industrial ways of sake making where no chemical inputs were used and the living microbes were not completely removed.
“As I leapt into the world of sake brewing, many people cheered me on, saying, ‘This is a traditional livelihood that we want to see preserved.’”
“I believe that drinking a little sake every day is good for customers’ health.” — So Okasora, Chiyomusubi Brewery.
Because it was created as a brand that would represent San Francisco, Olivia says, “I wanted to get creative with the naming.” She also wanted to convey that this was a different kind of nigori sake. “Hazy,” accurately described its less cloudy characteristic, and adding “Delight,” she realized made it “sound just like a cannabis strain. I thought that was perfect for a uniquely San Francisco sake.”
“Lighter fluid or stove fuel, scorched oil, a vinegar dressing, a deviled egg, a just-unwrapped cheese, a sip of wine or rum: all offer distant echoes of the early cosmos, sensible traces of the inherent, relentless creativity with which matter explores its own possibilities.”
“I selected these pictures and poems because I want people to understand sake as one expression of the world, not just as a taste.” — Yusuke Sato, owner-brewery, Aramasa Brewery
