When I walked into this place, I thought I had stepped into another world. This opening sentence might suggest that I’m about to say that OGAWA COFFEE LABORATORY TAP : 020 The Brewing Lab, (I’m going to shorten this name in future), is an amazing place, but instead the feeling I had was more like I’d been in a coma for five years and had woken up in a much changed society. I guess I’d not ventured down to this area for quite a while, and certainly not since the Takanawa Gateway station opened so should probably have expected it to be a surprise but I’m pleased to say that it wasn’t only me, but also my companion who was slightly confused by this place. Here’s what you need to know:
- Call me an idiot, (perhaps you already do), but I hadn’t even heard of Ogawa Coffee. (For those like me, it’s a coffee company from Kyoto). So it was quite a surprise to see that the whole second floor of this building was taken up by Ogawa Coffee related cafes, restaurants, bars and shops. Seating for 307 (!!!) in a variety of bare concrete slathered set ups. There seemed to be a slightly confusing queuing system for the eating parts, and it was quite difficult to tell where the eating parts and the free seating parts started and finished. My suggestion is that you head for the bit where there are beer taps and tell them that you want to drink beer and they’ll tell you where to sit. Along with the bare concrete there is some fancy design. There’s a massive water feature next to the bar part. All in all, it felt very posh and utterly confusing to me. But it was very busy on the weekend afternoon that we visited so I guess most people don’t find it so surprising.
- On to the beer, there are ten taps of their own beer, made in the brewery visible behind the counter. I’m not sure if they sell beer anywhere outside of this place, but I’ve never seen it. Beers served in two sizes, but they didn’t say how big those sizes were on the menu. Unusually, they also didn’t say how strong the beers were. As I had a beer flight (3 x 150ml for ¥1500), I can’t even give you my guess as to how big the normal glasses are. The sizes were M and L and the prices of the M ranged from ¥750-¥1100 and the L from ¥900-¥1320. Regarding the flight, you don’t get to choose which beers you have, but they do have two options of an ‘Active Set’ and a ‘Relax Set’. We had both so I guess the active and relax parts canceled each other out. Beers were in a variety of styles, probably trying to cover all bases. I don’t really know what distinguishes an American Lager but it felt like one that might be for fans of macro beers. And then at the same time they had a rye saison. I fancied trying this, but it wasn’t in the flight unfortunately.
- No cover charge, a touch of daytime opening during the week and plenty at weekends, and they had WiFi. If you like watching trains, there’s a big window where you can see Shinkansens coming and going.
It’s difficult to express how much of an unusual experience I found this. It definitely had a bit of a vibe of a modern art museum cafe. But obviously much bigger and without the modern art. I think I was most confused by the fact that I hadn’t really heard of the company or the opening of this massive and already popular place at all. But then again I don’t really watch TV which I would imagine is the natural place for this to be showcased on one of those programs where a section of celebrities eat and drink and say everything is ‘Oishiiiii!’. Obviously the brewery isn’t the main focus of the company so maybe that explains why I hadn’t heard much about it from the usual beer avenues. It’s probably not the kind of place I would usually go to, but I was pleased to be able to visit, try the beers and soak up… hang on, that’s definitely not the right words… be bemused by the atmosphere.
Japanese breweries on tap:
Ogawa Coffee Laboratory Tap: 020
Opening Hours:
Monday-Friday, 16:00-23:00
Saturday & Sunday, 11:00-23:00
Location/Map:
高輪 2-22-1 , Minato-ku, Tokyo
(I normally add a map for directions here but it seems like Google suggests you do a circuit of the building and then enter through a side wall, so basically, just turn right out of the station and head for the Linkpillar 2 building. Maybe if you follow signs for the Museum of Narratives you can find it quite easily).
Telephone:
03-6277-4558
Links:
(To be honest, neither of these are much use as they are about the company as a whole with just a small mention of the beer part, but they are the best I could find).
Instagram
Website