There’s probably not a great deal to write about this place, but I’ll do my best. And I have to say I did enjoy drinking here more than I’d expect. Be careful though if you like music. I’d already browsed the records and I decided I couldn’t justify buying the couple of things I wanted as they seemed a bit pricy. After a few beers though I changed my mind, and ended up spending a lot more than I anticipated. So if you like records, this place could turn out to be more expensive than you thought it might be. Here’s what you need to know:
- Standing bar located on the sixth floor of Tower Records’ flagship Shibuya store. The sixth floor is the vinyl floor so if you have any interest in music you might have more than one reason to visit. Probably has a capacity for around 20 at a couple of standing tables and a couple of counters.
- 12 taps of Japanese craft including some collaboration beers they have made with various breweries. Normally ‘collaboration’ beers involving entities that are not breweries make me quite suspicious, but I’ve heard from one of the breweries that the Tower Records guy took an active part in every stage of making the beers including creating the recipe. It’s not the cheapest of places but it think that’s not helped by the high end breweries they include on their taplist. Beers are served in the usual sizes you’d expect, (US pint and UK half), and ranged from ¥1450-¥1750 for the former and ¥850-¥1150 for the latter. I think the lower end is par the course these days and the higher end included some beers that I think would be considerably more expensive in other places, (including those breweries’ own tap rooms in areas that are absolutely not as expensive as Shibuya is). So to be honest I think it’s fair enough. They also have a selection of cans in the fridge. I presume these are for drinking in but I didn’t check. Sorry! At the same time, they had their collaboration beers that they had on tap available in cans, so presumably they are also for takeaway. So maybe both. Or maybe just one of the two options. This bit isn’t very helpful, is it?
- Daytime opening, obviously as it’s a record shop. No cover charge. I didn’t check for WiFi but I’m sure they’d have it.
Apologies for the poor photo on this post. As the staff were always standing patiently waiting for customers and there were occasionally very visible customers drinking who I probably thought didn’t want to be in a photo, I didn’t take one. I also noticed on the way out that there’s a sign saying no photos. I think this probably applied more to the shop than the bar though. I enjoyed this place much more than I thought I would. The beer selection, whilst not completely to my taste did seem well curated. And the staff seemed to be interested in beer. As it’s a standing bar in a record shop, it’s probably not somewhere you’ll be going for a big session, but given the surroundings, it was a surprisingly nice place to have a drink.
Japanese breweries on tap:
Cycad
Open Air
Teenage
Nara
Totopia
Bay Brewing
Revo
Hime
Rio
Caghiya
Opening Hours:
Daily, 12:00-22:00
Location/Map:
タワーレコード渋谷店 6F, 神南 1-22-14 , Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Telephone:
None