THIS PLACE IS NOW CLOSED
This is part two on Nishiogikubo. Part 1 is here.
Pretty different to Beer Kobo and certainly seemed to attract a different crowd. Project is a pretty classy beer and dining place, much smaller than Beer Kobo and the other way from the station. The decor is very wooden again, but feels swanky rather than homely as all the wood does at Beer Kobo. It is also open very late on quite a few days. They only have three taps and when I visited they were all Shiga Kogen which is pretty good by me. Apparently they do rotate though, so you get a variety of Japanese craft stuff there. The servings were somewhere in the range of 300ml (they were in the Snow Monkey glasses if you know them) and were priced from ¥600-¥800. The three Shiga beers were good stuff, the DPA, 10th anniversary IPA and the So Sexy Brown Pizza Port collaboration. Unfortunately, there is a cover charge of ¥400, (but see below for the update) which is one of the higher charges I’ve come across, and I’m not sure the prices are sufficiently cheap to easily drink away the cover charge (like you can at a Craft Beer Market or Server Land). I guess though that they are not particularly aiming at a CBM or Beer Kobo crowd, and possibly their clientele are not worried about paying cover charges. I do understand why many places feel the need to charge. However, as I always say, cover charges kill pub crawls and this is the reason I don’t pop in for a quick beer at many Tokyo places.
UPDATE: The bar has contacted me to say that they are happy to serve beer without a cover charge if you ask them, which I think is great. Well done to them!
Japanese breweries on tap when I visited:
Shiga Kogen
Opening Hours:
17:30 – 03.00 Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays
17:30 – 00:00 Wednesdays
15:00 – 03:00 Saturdays, Sundays & Holidays
Location/map
西荻北 2-2-11, Suginami, Tokyo
Telephone:
03-6913-7490
Links:
Twitter