I feel like I’ve mentioned my love of Prost on a few occasions on here so it will come as no surprise that I recently found myself out in Hachioji again. I was slightly surprised to find that there was somewhere on my map of places to go that was extremely near to Prost that I had no recollection of adding. This might say something about the state of my memory or maybe I’m not losing my mind and there’s another explanation. Oldboys Brewing was somewhere I had somewhat half-heartedly added to my list of places to check out. This is no slight on them at all though. The problem was that they were in the location in Roppongi that used to be Inazuma. I’m not a massive fan of ‘the Pong’, in fact I actively avoid going there unless I have to, so it seemed like somewhere I might eventually get to, but had no pressing desire to go to. Thankfully though, they moved to Hachioji! Admittedly it is significantly further from my home, but in spite of that the thought of going there is a very different prospect to going to Roppongi. Anyway, this is all a massive preamble to basically say that I was surprised to see it on my map, (wonder if the pin moves when a place moves), but was very happy to have somewhere to pop in to after Prost. For the sake of clarity, Bubble is the name of the cafe that is basically in front of the Oldboys brewery. Here’s what you need to know:
- Craft beer and coffee place with food too. Sadly I didn’t investigate the food very much. Sorry. Nice looking shop, with a counter for seven or eight, tables for about the same and a patio too. And you can see the brewery through the windows at the back of the shop where they make their beers. Very relaxed feel and the staff were really nice and friendly.
- Five taps of craft on when I went, four of which were their own beers. The other was a guest that I tried and failed to identify. I have to admit that a few drinks had been consumed before I arrived. Beers were served in three sizes, S, R and L priced at ¥700, ¥900 and ¥1200 respectively. Once again intoxication is letting me down, but I couldn’t see any measurements of what these sizes represented, but as usual, I’m going to have a guess. I think the L was probably US pint. I had Rs and they looked to be maybe around 300ml. Maybe… I didn’t see the S so I’m not even going to guess that one. All in all, pretty decent value I think.
- No cover charge and lots of daytime opening (it’s called Cafe Time, but I presume Cafe Time is not only for coffee). Couldn’t find WiFi but it felt like they probably would have had it. Apologies for the multiple failures in this post. I was having a nice time.
I have to say, this was a really welcome surprise. It was a great place to have a few drinks. The atmosphere was good and as I said above the staff were really nice. And their beers were good too! I didn’t really need another reason to go to Hachioji but this place definitely makes a trip there all the more worthwhile. I’m already thinking of when I’ll make my next visit. Hopefully next time I will be able to check some of the details I’ve failed to write about in this post and appreciate the experience a bit more. But in case I didn’t make this clear enough, this place gets a big thumbs up from me. Will be back there soon.
Japanese breweries seen on tap:
Oldboys Brewing
and possibly one other…
Opening Hours:
Wednesday-Monday, 11:00-22:00
Closed Tuesday
Location/Map:
横山町 10-14 Yokoyamacho, Hachioji, Tokyo
Telephone:
042-680-9987