I enjoy sake and visited various north Austin locations looking for various junmai. H-Mart had the largest selection but it could have been larger. Asahi was next best. At both places, about half of their stock was unrefrigerated, which is not ideal because room temperature storage can lead to dull/off flavors. There’s a reason sake is brewed below cold.
Total Wine, Specs, and others had sake but they were completely unrefrigerated. Total Wine has a $198 junmai slowly going bad on a shelf while they were refrigerating Pabst Blue Ribbon and Hot Damn.
Apart from Asahi offering Dassai Blue (made in NY) and the $198 junmai at Total Wine, most of the offerings were the same: not a lot of variety between shops.
What are some good shops for sake that are not located downtown?
by Physical_Analysis247
27 Comments
I think you pretty much went through the list.
Maybe Austin shaker?
99 Ranch!
Disclaimer: I’m not an expert on sake by any means, so I don’t know if they have anything unusual/new to you… but Central Market might be worth checking out!
Give Sunrise Mini Mart on Anderson a try. I’m in the industry so when I go there I’m shopping from their their insane wine collection, but given their reputation amongst us somms etc., I bet they have sake. They also opened up a bottle shop next door so that might be worth checking out too. Not sure if you’re into wine at all, but if you are and they don’t have the sake you’re looking for, then at least you can get a fantastic bottle (and maybe some snacks; fill up your gas tank while you’re at it!) while you’re there. And maybe fuck around and have some Enchiladas Y Mas beforehand for a real fun time.
H mart
I love Dessai Blue
Specs has most of these, but not all and other options as well
Central market has a pretty respectable collection
99 ranch liquor store
Asahi market on South Lamar!
H-Mart has a big selection of Sake and there’s lots of Shoju there too obviously.
Hey by the way – does anyone know how to get Chu-Hi in Austin. We couldn’t get enough of the stuff during our trip to Japan. Help!!!
I don’t know if they usually carry others but I was able to get a bottle of Shichida Hiyaoroshi Aiyama 75 at the Texas Sake tap room during one of their tasting classes.
Central market has had a decent selection the times I’ve looked for it there
Hmart is our go to
Nice big 1.5L bottle with competitive price
Zeke liquor store on Cesar Chavez
https://preview.redd.it/2fk4ih7zlkwf1.jpeg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4f3955ae64766ff48b6c55726fd44b32c92cd4eb
Legitimately good sake is hard to come by in Austin. Bento Picnic used to have a small shop attached that had some real JP quality stuff. Now Asahi has the best selection. Though most of what is available is combini level quality in JP, and sells for 3-5x the price here.
Your best bet is mail order via online shops. Nama Paul used to ship to TX, specializing in chain of custody refrigeration for namazake. Now it looks like he links to other retailers that ship domestically.
There’s a couple of decent domestic producers that ship their product to TX. Arizona Sake and Kura Brooklyn are two of them. What they make would cost about 1500 yen in JP (9ish dollars) for a 720ml bottle. If you can stomach the cost premium for good sake in US, these are great options.
Live in JP for a long time, huge sake nerd, speak decent Japanese, toured countless breweries, traveled the country seeking out small batch producers, self import once or twice a year (bring 8-12 bottles back at a time—pay duty at customs), obsessed, mourn the lack of good affordable sake in the US.
Get your sake shipped from an importer
World Market at Great Hills seemed to have a big selection. And an amazing soda section too.
OP reading your comments you may want to edit your post to include that you require it to be refrigerated. Cooler space in Texas is a premium. It will really limit the selection.
You can always count on Quickie Pickie on East 11th Street (across from Paperboy) to have refrigerated sake! I love sake, but am an amateur in knowing what I’m drinking; however, they always seem to have a wide variety of options, from the “juice box” style to the gorgeous glass bottles. All tasty deluxe and perfectly chilled!
Okay but in all your searching, did you see the one with the whale on the front? White label, blue/grey whale I think? You can get it at most conbinis for cheap over there and I’ve been craving it since I’ve been back. 😅
Texas Sake Company is good and is, well, not “downtown” (it’s south austin)
annoying because they used to be on north lamar
I don’t know but I donated a very nice Sake set to Top Drawer yesterday. My brother got it when in Japan 20+ years ago, none of us drink Sake.
I actually really like the plum wine at the bottom. The plums kinda gimmicky but its a nice and sweet wine
Not a shop but Uroko Handroll bar in east austin had an interesting selection of sake for purchase in their fridge.
Central market south lamar