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Bar Benfiddich

Tokyo

• The Best Bar in Japan 2024, sponsored by Torres Brandy

Ride a nondescript elevator to the 9th floor of a commercial building in Shinjuku, Tokyo, and you’ll step out of 21st century Japan and into the fantastical, apothecary-inspired parallel universe that is Bar Benfiddich, one that bridges the past and the present, reverie and reality.

Along with an extensive display of cultural relics from a bygone era, the bar back is lined with homemade tinctures, infusions and aged and herbal liquors. Twisting vines of mugwort are supplemented by taxidermy owls, more than 100 varieties of absinthe in earth-dusted opaque bottles and one-of-a-kind vintage glassware. Take a seat at the onyx-hued walnut counter to meet owner and bartender Hiroyasu Kayama, a man who wears many hats – mixologist, farmer, ingredient curator, scientist and curio collector. Then watch the wizard at work: a one-man show synchronously orchestrated so that each liquid, each fresh herb, each meticulously sliced citrus peel is placed in his hand by a barback lingering in the shadows before it’s even fully extended to ask for it.

Kayama cut his teeth in the world of hotel mixology in the early Noughties before accepting the position of head bartender at Bar Amber. But the accolades began pouring in after the opening of his 15-seater, Bar Benfiddich, in 2013, including (most recently) the 2023 Roku Industry Icon. Kayama employs ingredients from his family-owned farm in Saitama, just 90 kilometers from Tokyo, hand-carrying the roots, foraged flora and vegetation native to Japan into the bar. Everything from juniper berries to wormwood, from anise to fennel, is harvested to enhance his bespoke ‘non-menu’.

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