Today, the first of two posts on Kanazawa by a new blog helper. Please click here for part 2. Thank you very much to Rich for offering to lend a hand and write about some places in Kanazawa. It will be obvious it’s a guest post as the photos are very nice unlike my usual ones. Sorry it’s taken so long to update this blog. I had a bit of an accident over the Xmas/New Year holiday and was left one-handed for a month or so. Now I can type again, so you might see some new stuff appearing on here. There was a third craft beer location in Kanazawa, but unfortunately it was closed on the day they tried to visit. We’ll add it if someone is in Kanazawa and goes there, but for your information, the place is called Craft Beer Dive Futa’s and I’ve added it to the map, but we don’t know much else about it. [Thanks to Nevitt, we now have a post about Futa’s too. Here it is]. Anyway over to Rich.
Post by Rich
On a recent bicycle touring trip, we spent some days in Kanazawa, enjoying the famous market, gardens and other delights. And of course, we wanted to find some good beer, so a quick Google search came up with three possibilities: Abri Ramen & Bar, Korinbo Jiruba, and Craft Beer Dive Futa’s. First, Abri Ramen & Bar.
In terms of food fusion, we’ve dreaming about craft beer and ramen for years… Well, our dreams have finally come true in Kanazawa!
Abri Ramen & Beer is a small, warm cozy space with six seats at the counter, and three small tables for maybe six more people. Only open since July 2016, the owner, herself a fan of craft beer and ramen, wanted her own place to celebrate the union. She was really friendly and accessible during the visit. While we were there for dinner around 6 pm, three salarymen came and really seemed to enjoy themselves. I can’t say for sure that it’s smoke free, but we did not see any ashtrays in the place [I can confirm that it is no smoking].
There are six taps with the following sizes and costs: Small (260ml for ¥750 yen), Medium (375ml for ¥880), and Large (510ml for ¥1000). Nice, thin glasses and minimal foam. While we weren’t able to drink them all, there was a nice, interesting combination of beers that night: Peach Weizen (Minoh), Session IPA (Shonan), Pale Lager (Futako), Weizen (Minami Shinshu), Pale Ale (Kanazawa Brewing), and IPA Harvest Brew (Shiga Kogen).
Abri Ramen & Beer have salt and shoyu ramen, both using a fish based broth based on Nodoguro, a fish locally famous. We tried them both and enjoyed each one. There is also a small menu of other food, such as fish and chips, pickles, gyoza, tofu, potato salad (which was fantastic!).
Japanese breweries on tap when we visited:
Minoh
Shonan
Futako
Minami Shinshu
Kanazawa Brewing
Shiga Kogen
Opening Hours:
Monday, closed
Tuesday-Friday, 11:30-14:00 (L.O)/17:30-23:00 (L.O.)
Saturday, 11:00-23:00 (L.O.)
Sunday, 11:00-21:00
Location/map:
香林坊 2-12-39, Kanazawa-shi, Ishikawa-ken
Telephone:
070-1074-8458