Junko Kubodera reports that the two have opened a tea room/bar/restaurant/shop on the rue Faubourg Saint-Honoré in the eight arrondissement to celebrate the delicious pairing of Japanese sake and French cuisine.
The shop/restaurant has three floors, with a patisserie on the ground floor (with chocolates, macaroons and baked goods) followed by a bar and tea salon on the first and restaurant on the second. The ground and first floors had a successful opening in April 2018, with around 200 visitors in a day. The bar serves light snacks with sake in champagne flutes or wine glasses to release its aroma. The restaurant opened in June 2018, with a menu featuring a fusion of Japanese and French cooking paired with Dassai sake.
Hiroshi Sakurai, who took over Asahi Shuzō in 1984, risked everything in making Dassai from only Yamada Nishiki rice milled beyond the 50% required for daiginjō classification. He kept pushing the envelope, and milling the rice, until their 23% daiginjō brought them an explosive increase in sales. They created an opportunity in the 1990s when sake production volumes were falling all over the country. Sakurai says his intention with Dassai was to dump sake‘s traditional image and turn it into a gastronomic experience, bringing new flavours to those who pursue them in the same way as fine burgundy wines.
Robuchon comments that Dassai have brewed the most delicate of drinks from water, and that is something that will delight drinkers in any country.
Links
- Original article (Japanese, Pen Online, 11 June 2018) Includes photos of the patisserie and bar/tea room.
- Dassaï Joël Robuchon (address and opening hours only as of July 2018)