I’ve never particularly enjoyed sake. What some sip prodigiously with their sushi and miso always tasted to me like anemic milk or the dregs of undercooked rice, to put it rather uncharitably.
However, after editing Julie Cohen’s Asian spirits article for the February issue, a comprehensive ode to the Far East boozes now finding their way to St. Louis, I decided to recalibrate my Asian palate and give sake, shochu and the rest another go. It was time for a drink session at Baiku Sushi Lounge, which opened last October in the Hotel Ignacio in Midtown.
Baiku currently shares bar and drink menu acreage with adjoining restaurant Triumph (though its own bar will be ready by this summer). Nestled between craft beers and rum bottles is an impressive roster of Asian spirits, including a full sake menu, specialty liqueurs and Japanese single malt whiskey, which, as Cohen pointed out in her piece, is clinching best whiskey titles left and right lately.
“Primarily what we want to do is carry a nice array of Asian beer, Japanese single malt and sake,” said Sean Thomas, front-of-house manager at Baiku. “A lot of the Asian stuff seems to be trending again,” he said, noting that Kirin Ichiban beer slushies will be added to Baiku’s drink lineup this summer.
Three of Baiku’s six signature cocktails employ Asian spirits or sake, though the entire menu dons a quintessentially Asian flavor profile, making use of plum, pear, lychee, ginger and hibiscus. The drinks that really shine are the Oinari and Nashi-Wari, respectively tapping Tozai Snow Maiden sake and Suntory Hibiki 12-year single malt. Snow Maiden redeemed sake for me, its assertive melon nose and coconut-milk texture a pleasure to drink on its own, and equally satisfying when softened by St. Germain elderflower liqueur and grapefruit juice in the Oinari. The Nashi-Wari is less subtle – the combination of gentle single malt and local Big O ginger liqueur seems to transmogrify into a rum-and-Coke flavor, which doesn’t exactly seem Asian in character, but isn’t a bad thing either. If we can call cocktails “sessionable,” these drinks are it – balanced, delicious and eminently drinkable. Kanpai!
This article appears in February 2015.