A note on the words: an authentic bar in Japan means a quiet room where a bartender builds classic drinks to order, usually without a printed menu. Otsumami are the small savoury things — nuts, rice crackers — that come alongside the drinking.
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EST! on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Drinkers, thank you for waiting. It is Hangover Meshi time.
When I drink around Ueno it is usually somewhere in the cheerful jumble of Ameyoko and Okachimachi. But I do not only drink in places like that! I go to proper, stylish bars too! So: having eaten something good nearby and wanting just a little more to drink, I dropped into EST!.
EST! is an authentic bar, opened in 1973. The name is Latin for “it is here” / “this is it!”. The room is wood and brick, and the black rotary telephone is somehow still in service. The bar is known for cocktails that stay soft and round even at high strength, and for cocktails made with whatever fruit is in season.
I had not booked and simply walked in — and by some miracle there were exactly two seats left. Lucky. Customers kept arriving after us and the place stayed full for a long time. Good timing, I think.
So, sat down. What will you have? Ah — is there a menu? No menu here, it turns out: you look at the bottles behind the bar, or simply say what you feel like drinking, and they make it. Very stylish indeed.
Well, if there is no menu, we order what we want to drink.
A highball to start. The whisky in this cask, they said!
Classic of Islay. I had not heard of it: casks from an undisclosed Islay distillery, bottled at cask strength with no water added. The red line struck through “Classic of Islay” on the label is precisely the point — the distillery name is a secret. Though the staff told us it was Lagavulin.
My friend asked whether they could make some cocktail I had never heard of, and ordered it. I was given a sip — very easy to drink. People who know about this sort of thing look impressive.
They gave us nuts and rice crackers to go with it.
The next highball was Ardbeg.
My friend had a Kahlua milk. They made a very smart version: a coffee liqueur built on premium Costa Rican rum, cut with milk, with a cinnamon stick standing in for the stirrer so that the cinnamon scent runs through it. I was given a sip — sweet, mellow and of real quality.
One more highball,
and a citrus drink each, and that was that.
It is very popular, so depending on the hour you may not get in at all. But it is a lovely room for a quiet drink, and worth keeping in mind. If you want the Ueno and Yushima side of things rather than the noise of Okachimachi, this bar may be the one.
May you meet something good to eat today too.
EST! (bar / Yushima Station, Ueno-hirokoji Station, Ueno-okachimachi Station)
Tabelog evening rating ★★★☆☆ 3.7
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
