Azabujuban bar Tokyo Confidential has unveiled a new cocktail menu, Second Base, featuring collectable cards, special edition jersey-style uniforms and baseball puns
Tokyo Confidential is showing off its love of baseball with a new cocktail menu, Second Base. Featuring collectable cards, special edition jersey-style uniforms and baseball puns, the Azabujuban bar celebrates Japan’s affinity for baseball through a variety of inventive drinks.
“Before moving to Tokyo, I was on the road and listening to music – which is where I get some of my best ideas – and I just had this vision almost like a hypothetical music video of a baseball bat, but instead of the ball it was smashing into cocktails,” explains says Founder Holly Graham. “That’s where the idea first came about, and it grew from there.”
Second Base Cocktails
Each of the drinks is a cheeky nod to baseball terminology or traditions. Highlights include the highball-style Katsuo Isono, a nod to the leadoff hitter (as well as the popular Japanese anime character), it is made with gin, myoga, bonito, ume, lychee, agricole rum and ponzu. Elsewhere, the Sayonara Mr. Spalding is served in a 3D printed baseball carried to the table in a baseball glove, and features bourbon, sweet vermouth, strawberry mistelle, Campari, and habanero.
The savory Glizztini recreates the quintessential game day hot dog in drink form, with gin, mugi shochu, tomato, mezcal, onion brine, and MSG. Garnished with red and yellow cacao butter to mimic the typical ketchup and mustard accouterments.
Bringing a bit of tropical flair to the menu, Mangoes To The Game combines aged rum, gunpowder rum, Doburoku, mango demerara, seaweed, and lime served in a custom TC baseball helmet. The Heart of the Plate, features pisco, kome shochu, coconut, blue plum and absinthe, and is stirred and served with an awamori and peach cream float and red heart-shaped chocolate garnish.
The menu is presented as a wallet used to collect baseball cards, with individual cards for each of the drinks. Each drink card features a player from Tokyo Confidential, along with the drink’s name, ingredients, and tasting notes. For guests interested in taking home a piece of TC, the baseball jersey-style uniforms will also be available to purchase at the bar in limited quantities. There will also be some new bites on offer, with baseball inspired snacks launching soon.
Baseball’s popularity in Japan finds a true home at Tokyo Confidential as bartender Kouki Taguchi played semi-professionally before pursuing a career in bars. “I was first introduced to the culture of baseball when I moved to Korea in 2012, and really fell in love with it when I started traveling to Japan,” adds Graham.
Pointing to a poignant memory of visiting the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Graham recalls the story of how the residents of Hiroshima pulled together after the bombings to build a baseball stadium as a way to come together and rebuild the community. Seeing the Hiroshima Carps baseball jerseys on display in the local train station and around the city, she was inspired to start collecting them on her travels. “As someone who lives abroad and has created new homes for myself when moving cities, the idea of community is super important to me and I love how that comes to life through baseball,” she notes.
Second Base is the second drinks list from the Azabujuban bar since it opened in October 2023, and will keep some of the cocktails from the original menu. Favorites that will pop up when available as part of the menu’s “Hall of Fame” include the gimlet-style Tea Sea (gin, Sauvignon Blanc, tropical green tea, lime, Grappa, smoky salt), the Godzilla-inspired Destroy All Monsters (miso brown butter-washed gin, manzanilla sherry, bianco vermouth and ponzu), and the Cheung Fun Old Fashioned, inspired by the popular Cantonese dish (peanut and sesame bourbon, soy caramel and bitters).
Tokyo Confidential is located at 9F, THE V CITY PLACE, 1 Chome 6-1 Azabujuban, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0045, Japan, and is open Mondays through Saturdays from 6pm to 1am, and Sundays from 6pm to 12am.
For more information, head over to the bar’s official website.