Episode 138 Show Notes
Episode 138 This week we’re proud to introduce you to our friends at Umami Mart: Kayoko Akabori and Yoko Kumano. These sake pioneers took Umami Mart from a food-focused blog back in the aughts to the outstanding sake retailer, cocktail bar, online shop and Oakland CA community hub we know today. At Umami Mart, you can buy all kinds of Japanese goods, dish ware, bar ware, tabletop items, but above all else, Umami Mart is a great place to buy sake. This of course includes their eponymous Umami Mart Junmai, a delicious brew from Kita Shuzo, which we taste together in this episode. Be sure to check out their website and social media to stay on top of the many events and goings-on at Umami Mart! #sakerevolution
Skip to: 00:19 Hosts Welcome and Introduction
Welcome to the show from John and Timothy
Skip to: 01:10 Interview with Umami Mart: Kayoko Akabori and Yoko Kumano
About Kayoko Akabori (left)
Kayoko started the Umami Mart food blog in 2007 at her cubicle desk in midtown Manhattan. After working in the New York art world for six years, she moved back to the Bay Area where she bartended at Camino restaurant to pay the bills while getting Umami Mart off the ground with Yoko. She loves karaoke and onsen.
About Yoko Kumano (right)
After spending 5 years as a salary woman in Ginza, Yoko moved back to the Bay Area to open Umami Mart with Kayoko. In addition to being a Kikizakeshi (sake sommelier), she also takes the photography for Umami Mart. Her other passion is beekeeping.
Umami Mart Bar and Shop
About Umami Mart
Since 2012, we have been an independently-owned small business, headquartered in Oakland, CA, striving to bring joy through quality products from Japan. Our shop is a space to discover something new about Japanese cuisine and culture through its kitchen tools, barware, and drinks; while the blog is a space to share recipes and knowledge.
Umami Mart Bar and Retail Location:
4027 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94611
(510) 250-9559 View Map
Shop Hours:
Tues – Thurs: 12p-6p
Fri + Sat: 12p-7p
Sun: 12-6p
Bar Hours:
Fri: 4p-7p
Sat: 12p-7p
Umami Mart Online:
Website: https://umamimart.com/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Umamimart/videos
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/umamimartshop
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/umamimart/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@umamimart
Contact Page: https://umamimart.com/pages/contact
Umami Mart Junmai: https://umamimart.com/products/umami-mart-junmai-sake-btl-24-oz
Read about Umami Mart’s visit to Timothy’s Seminar at Astor Center in 2008:
https://umamimart.com/blogs/main/the-sake-samurai-at-astor-center
Skip to: 20:39 Sake Tasting:Umami Mart Junmai
Umami Mart Junmai
Brewery: Kita Shuzo
Classification: Junmai
Prefecture: Shiga
Rice Type: Ginfubuki, Yamadanishiki
Brand: Umami Mart
Acidity: 1.7
Alcohol: 16.5%
Seimaibuai: 60%
SMV: +3.0
View on UrbanSake.com: https://www.urbansake.com/product/umami-mart-junmai/
Purchase at UmamiMart.com: https://umamimart.com/products/umami-mart-junmai-sake-btl-24-oz
Skip to: 30:24 Show Closing
This is it! Join us next time for another episode of Sake Revolution!
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Episode 138 Transcript
John Puma: 0:21
Hello everybody, and welcome to Sake Revolution. This is America’s First Sake podcast and I am your host, John Puma. From the Sake Notes, also, I run that little corner of the internet called the Internet Sake Discord, as well as Reddits r slash sake community.
Timothy Sullivan: 0:38
And I’m your host, Timothy Sullivan. I’m a Sake Samurai, sake educator, as well as the founder of the Urban Sake website. And every week John and I will be here tasting and chatting about all things sake and doing our best to make it fun and easy to understand.
John Puma: 0:54
Tim, you know, I I, I do tell you I like it when you, when you bring friends along and, I couldn’t help but notice, uh, the, Second time in three weeks. We’ve got some guests here with us. We’ve got some people in the Zoom, and I don’t think you’ve just been giving out the Zoom link. I think you actually know these people.
Timothy Sullivan: 1:10
Yes. We have some wonderful guests with us today, and it is my pleasure to introduce Kayoko Akabori and Yoko Kumano, who are the co-founders of Umami Mart, which is, as you probably very well know, a fantastic online and retail shop. As well as a sake bar in Oakland, California.
John Puma: 1:30
Mm. Yes. Yes.
Timothy Sullivan: 1:32
it specializes in Japanese Barware kitchen, good ceramics, and it also has an outstanding, uh, selection of sake for sale. Umami Mart opened as a shop in 2012 and has become a beacon of sake for the Bay Area. Welcome, Kayoko and Yoko to the show. Good to have.
Kayoko Akabori: 1:50
Thank you so much.
Yoko Kumano: 1:51
Hi. Thank you so much for having us.
John Puma: 1:54
Hello, welcome, welcome. Now, now, before we get into it, Tim, have you, have you ever had the pleasure of making your way down to Umami Mart?
Timothy Sullivan: 2:00
Oh, have I ever,
John Puma: 2:02
Have you ever,
Timothy Sullivan: 2:03
have known I’ve known. Kayoko and Yoko for years and we actually did an event together, sake and cheese pairing
John Puma: 2:13
Ooh.
Timothy Sullivan: 2:13
years back, and I always make sure to visit Umami Mart whenever I’m in the Bay Area. And John, you, you’ve been there as well too.
John Puma: 2:21
I visited the one time I was ever in the Bay Area, I will say that when I visited, the first thing I noticed was the, the bar in the back. And I was like, wow, in New York this would be, Extraordinarily illegal this is, you can’t do that here. This is, uh, this is great. And so we kind of made a beeline for it and, uh, enjoyed the idea that you can taste things and then buy a bottle of, uh, of something that you enjoyed. I think that’s a really fun and exciting thing I got to do there.
Kayoko Akabori: 2:47
Thanks for coming through. It was good to meet you, John. And I just wanna say that Timothy and I go way back to when we still had cubicle jobs and i, you know, Umami Mart was a food blog. And Yoko was contributing from, from Tokyo when I was in New York. And I met up with Timothy who had a sake website called UrbanSake.com. And Umami Mart went to one of his seminars at the Astor Center, um, where he was presenting a talk on sake. And that must have been Timothy, that must have been 2006. So yes, I think we were both just sort of burgeoning bloggers and this is, you know, yeah, we’ve come a long way
Timothy Sullivan: 3:39
It was the, uh, paleolithic era of sake blogging,
John Puma: 3:44
Yes. Hey. Hey. Now, technically look behind the curtain. I actually met Tim at one of Tim’s seminars at astor
Kayoko Akabori: 3:51
nice. Yes.
Timothy Sullivan: 3:52
All right,
John Puma: 3:53
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was a lot of fun. Um, so, sorry. So we’re here, we’re talking about, uh, we’re talking about sake cuz this is sake revolution. So I need to ask you to how you got into sake. What was the moment where you were like, wait a minute, there’s something to this. What’s the aha moment for you two?
Yoko Kumano: 4:08
For me, it was while I was living in Tokyo, I lived in Tokyo from 2005 to 2010.
John Puma: 4:15
Mm. Nice.
Yoko Kumano: 4:16
sake was always around and even growing up, you know, it’s like I knew about sake. I’m Japanese-American, so it’s around. But I went to a sushi spot in Sakura Josui, which is like in Western Tokyo. And the sushi master there at Donnanki, he has a very, very short sake list, which was so helpful. and one of the sakes that I got was the Shinkame, the Junmai. and that absolutely changed my life. That was the aha moment. It’s in Junmai. It’s so rice-y it’s aged for two or three years. It just has this really earthy but like super umami feel to it. And I was really hooked after that because I think until then I was either having Futsush u or it was like ginjos and daiginjos. and so I just really having that very, very full flavor, Junmai, it, it changed my life.
John Puma: 5:23
Wow. Wow. And uh, Kayoko KK.
Kayoko Akabori: 5:26
my father loves sake. My mother is more of a shochu drinker, and then. my dad has always had, his bottle of sake at home. And, you know, he, growing up he would always tell me that he’s a Junmai guy. You know, he likes his, he likes his really rough, rough Junmai. But I think Yoko and I would agree that, that he’s actually a Ginjo guy.
John Puma: 5:52
I, I have a lot of respect for the Ginjo Guys out there
Kayoko Akabori: 5:54
Yes. So I think, you know, getting into this line of work too, is just. It’s been fun for, for me to get to know sake and just the differences and, just talking to my dad about, about sakes,
Timothy Sullivan: 6:06
So you inherited the Shochu Gene from one parent and the sake
Kayoko Akabori: 6:10
another yes, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. I got a little bit of both. I’m so lucky.
Timothy Sullivan: 6:15
Awesome. Great. Now, in August, 2022, you had your 10 year anniversary of your shop Umami Mart. Now there must have been a lot of ups and downs and maybe a pandemic along the way, so we’d love to hear your best memories and maybe what some of the challenges were over the last 10 years. What stands out in your memory?
Yoko Kumano: 6:36
Oh gosh.
Timothy Sullivan: 6:37
Kayoko. Should we start with you?
Kayoko Akabori: 6:38
yeah, sure. I mean, Yoko and I joke. we’re basically like a married couple. You know, we’ve sort of done it all together. You know, we’ve, we’ve traveled to a lot of different countries together, and now it’s all, uh, all, everything that we did is kind of a fuzzy, distant memory, and it’s all kind of like a big glob. But, you know, we’ve, kind of tried it all at this point, and so, you know, 10 years later we’re sort of distill, we’re distilling. What we’ve learned and then what we love to do, and that’s, we’re just, you know, kind of going with. What we do best, and I think, you know, we’ve always started out, we always had community events and parties and from the very beginning and, um, inviting all of our friends from wherever they may be. Of course, Timothy, you came out for our first saqueso dinner, which is our sake and cheese pairing, um, that we now do every year. But yeah, we’ve learned so much, I think over the years about what works and what doesn’t work. Of course we had the, the great panini along the way in 20 20 that sort of halted things. And then of course we learned a lot during that time about what worked for us. And, you we started out as a blog and we have always been online. And so, we weathered the pandemic and we are very fortunate for that. But I think what keeps us going is just doing the in-person events as well.
Timothy Sullivan: 8:09
Yoko, any special memories or anything from the last 10 years that stand out?
Yoko Kumano: 8:13
Yeah, I think that, one particular memory I really remember, we started out in our Oakland shop downtown. And we got into that spot because, there was a initiative during that time that was 2012 and we were still coming out of the recession. And the city had partnered with some, other landlords here, and they were offering six months rent free to people who wanted to try out their vision. And so Kayoko and. answered the ad for that and they accepted our proposal and we went into this really cute spot, on Broadway at eighth. And we were there for the first six months, rent free. And, the deal was that if you were, you know, succeeding in that spot, you would sign a lease after those six months. And we had a big signing party and that was super fun. We had champagne and we just celebrated, in the store and we had filled in one eye of a daruma, prior when we moved in, and then we filled in the other one, um, on that day. So that was a really pivotal moment. I also, it’s kind of more of a fresh memory, but the 10 year anniversary that we had, we always have a matsuri in our parking lot. And last year we had our Matsuri and celebrated with a sake that our local brewery here, Den sake, they brewed for us. They, we called it an extreme Junmai and it it, used California rice that was polished to 90%, so only 10% removed. and so we did like a kagamiwari and, um, invited a bunch of food vendors and, yeah, I think it’s those parties and the community coming out, those are the memories that really stand out.
John Puma: 10:15
Very nice, very nice. Now, I know that we talked about how, when I got there I was mostly excited about seeing the bar. But you guys also sell a lot of. Barware, kitchen goods, et cetera. You guys are more than just sake. So, uh, what do you guys sell? What kind of stuff do we, can we get there?
Yoko Kumano: 10:30
Yeah, so we started out, as Kayoko mentioned as a food blog and um, we had a blogger on there, Paymen, and he was a pretty prolific bartender. And so there were a lot of recipes for cocktails online and, when we started our online store, he had suggested some key barware, items that, you know, him and his colleagues were trying to get, stateside. And so Kayoko and I, went through that list and then also like added stuff that we wanted and then started to import that barware as our main line of items into the store. So we still have a lot of barware and that’s really. How we started with the barware, and from there we kind of expanded. There was like a lot of drink related things, so glassware, ceramics, teawares. And, once we opened our physical location, in Oakland, not everybody is in the market for, you know, a silver cobbler shaker from Japan. So we added. Little condiments and, soy sauce, cuppy, mayo, but also little like, yeah, snacks, and then also, things like coasters and mugs and, little gifty items that still do really well in the store. And so, especially during the holidays, we do, sell a lot of, little gifts and things like, Um, most everything that we sell is made in Japan, which, we’ve always stuck to, but it’s getting harder and harder to, source you know, those products. and then maybe about like 10, five to 10% is like locally made. so what we have a few, like artisans or um, makers that make Japanese inspired food products or textiles, things like. so that’s kind of, you know, we really have a huge range of things, um, in, in addition to the sake and the shochu and the whiskey.
John Puma: 12:38
Hmm.
Timothy Sullivan: 12:39
That’s awesome and that’s all available online. So it’s really fun to go on your website and browse what your latest things you’ve brought over from Japan. And it’s also beautiful. You guys have a really good eye for design as well, so it’s not just like any old ochoco or tokkuri. It’s really beautifully selected. So, I encourage our listeners to go check it out.
Yoko Kumano: 13:02
That’s so nice.
Timothy Sullivan: 13:04
So onto sake, you have an amazing sake selection in your shop, and I’d love to hear more about that. What types of sake you’re selling, what types of sake you promote to customers. And if I could hear from each of you, one or two sakes that you have in the shop that you’re really excited about, right now…
Yoko Kumano: 13:24
So our sake selection is very varied. A lot of people come in and they say, oh, wow, you have a. Yamahai and Kimoto, and that’s kind of my fault. I do, you know, I’m, I’m like a Junmai person. I love like, also like the, the yogurty kind of like more high acid, um, that happens in the Yamahai and Kimoto. I like those earthy mushroomy flavor. I also think those flavors do really well with the cuisine here. People, you know, are coming in and, I love it when they’re like, I’m gonna have roast chicken tonight. What should I have with my sake? of course a lot of people do come in saying, oh, I’m having an omakase dinner. What should I get? And. I wouldn’t particularly, recommend, you know, a Kimoto or Yamahai in some cases for that, but for a lot of the foods that, we enjoy here, like butter based or, you know, even like shellfish and things like that, I am in the habit of, recommending lots of, kimotos and Yamahai to people. And I just love that flavor palate. It’s like very rustic and, um, and very Interesting.
Timothy Sullivan: 14:34
All right. Yoko, thank you so much. And Kayoko, what about you? What are a couple sakes you have or styles that you like from your selection?
Kayoko Akabori: 14:42
I love Honjozos, so I love you know. ginjos and honjozos. Daiginjos. You know, I can have a little bit, but I can’t have too much of that. But yeah, I love a nice fortified, easy to drink, honjozo. I can drink it all day. It’s what’s in my fridge. There’s one that I like very much, and actually it’s a shop favorite for all of our staff as well called Ataganomatsu from Niizawa. and that is a great value bottle. I recommend it to 90% of our customers. It’s definitely what I like to drink after work. It’s always in my door, fridge. It’s just easy drinking and that’s what I love most about honjozos. And in fact, somebody, told me once that honjozos are for real sake drinkers. Yeah. And so, you know, I just, I, I, I like to drink, so I think that that’s what it is.
Yoko Kumano: 15:46
One of the sakes that I’m really excited about right now and have been maybe for the past six months is the Daishichi Rakutenmei. That one is made in kioke the, traditional vats, the wooden vats, and. I just really like the, full flavor. It has some kind of like, floral aromas, but then, it has like a little bit of this, like cheesiness to it, a little bit of banana, um, and, and drinks a little bit like a sherry, yeah, it just has a lot of personality and I, and I. I find myself bringing that to, uh, dinner parties a lot because it kind of changes the way people think about sake.
John Puma: 16:26
Nice. Nice. now I, I heard a little, a little bird told me you guys actually have your own house, brand of sake over at Umami Mart, and I think that’s kind of awesome. and so Timothy was able to procure some of that. And so we’re going to take a moment here and we’re gonna taste it with our, with our guests today.
Yoko Kumano: 16:46
Nice.
John Puma: 16:48
Yeah.
Timothy Sullivan: 16:49
Before we get into the tasting, we have to hear the story of how this came about. Not every sake shop has their own house branded sake. So you have Umami Mart Junmai sake and it’s from Kita Shuzo in Shiga Prefecture. Can you tell us how you connected with them and how you had this special sake made for your shop?
Yoko Kumano: 17:14
Yeah, so we. We met the brewer in a very, you know, kind of like a standard fashion of like a retail store, store owner meeting a brewer. It was like at a sake, convention type of situation. And we saw Mayuko, who is now the Toji of Kita Shuzo, standing behind her booth. and I think there was like a break in, her visitors because no one was in front of her booth and we just gravitated towards her. You also don’t, come across a lot of women in the sake industry and a lot of those shows, so we were just. Hey, who’s, who’s this girl? You know? Or, and so we just went over to talk to her cuz she also was like looking at us. And then we just went over and she just was, she was so friendly and we just hit it off and she said, oh well, um, you should come to Shiga to my family’s brewery. And we were like, okay. It was like, you know, within like five minutes or maybe less. and we had tried her sakes and we were just talking about her sakes and her process. And she was saying that currently at the time she was not the toji, she is the daughter, in the family, but she wasn’t the Toji yet and she was in charge of the koji making. So we were really talking a lot about the koji and how she had been experimenting with, letting the koji, cultivate for longer. So she lets the koji cultivate for about 50 hours versus the, you know, 40 hours or so. That’s more standard, to bring up more kind of umami and, and more of those, pronounced rice flavors. so yeah, so then she was like, well, why don’t you come to Shiga and like, look at my Koji room. And so then, uh, it was probably like six months later, Kayoko and I were like, Hey, we’re at the station at my in Shiga. Uh, can you pick us up? it was so fun and, and I, helped her make Koji. We started to just talk about collaborating after that, after having visited, her visiting, um, Umami Mart and us visiting her Brewery. and I mean naturally because we are Umami Mart, we wanted something, with a lot of umami, something a little dry as well as Kayoko and I are are kind of dry too. yeah. And so we just started, running with it, and she was, she’s just so easy to work with and up for anything. And we were just really lucky to have been able to, become, friends with her and also work with her, in the capacity that we have been. And now she is the Toji and is, just making lots of fun. ideas come true in her brewery. we actually just went to go see her, in January. we’re continuing the conversation of potentially another one. but yeah, yeah.
Timothy Sullivan: 20:28
breaking sake news right here on the podcast.
Yoko Kumano: 20:31
yes.
Timothy Sullivan: 20:33
That’s wonderful. Wow. What a, what a great story. It sounds like it unfolded very organically.
Yoko Kumano: 20:38
Yeah..
Timothy Sullivan: 20:39
Well, John, do you want to give us the stats for the Umami Mart Junmai?
John Puma: 20:45
Tim, I would love to. Uh, so yes, as you mentioned this, the Umami Mart Junmai nice ring to it. It is from Kita Shuzo in Shiga Prefecture. Uh, it is of course a Junmai using a yamadanishiki milled down to 60% and Ginfubuki down to 60% as well. The A B V is between 16 and 17% sake meter value. That measure of dry to sweet is a plus three, and the acidity is a very reasonable 1.7
Timothy Sullivan: 21:15
Thank you John
John Puma: 21:16
Ah, you know, I try to try to spice it up.
Timothy Sullivan: 21:19
Alright, so John and I both have a sample of the Umami Mart Junmai, and we’re gonna pour that in our glass now.
John Puma: 21:26
Let’s
Yoko Kumano: 21:26
I’m gonna join.
Kayoko Akabori: 21:28
Me too.
Timothy Sullivan: 21:29
Yay.
Kayoko Akabori: 21:30
This is our definitely our favorite.
John Puma: 21:34
I feel like when I was over there, you guys were out of
Yoko Kumano: 21:36
Yeah. Yes, yes. We often, we often, get this and it, we have dry spells because we have a lot of repeat Umami Mart Junmai customers, which makes us so happy.
Timothy Sullivan: 21:49
All right, well, we’ve got it in the glass and there is just a, a hint of a golden color here. Uh, it’s not crystal clear water white, it’s got just a hint of color and let’s give it a smell. Hmm. So I don’t know if you guys want to walk us through how you usually introduce this to customers. Uh, I smell something a little bit that has kind of a, a creamy note to it. Kind of pillowy and, some umami notes on the, on the nose. So it’s a good opening salvo here for our umami mart sake.
Yoko Kumano: 22:28
Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, I think that one of the things that we wanted for the sake was, to have that pronounced, rice quality, but it’s not so, um, sweet. The umami is there. sometimes like, yeah, today I’m getting a little bit of like raisin bread as well.
Kayoko Akabori: 22:48
Yeah, I’m definitely getting custard. There’s a little bit of lactic note there,
John Puma: 22:54
Mm-hmm.
Timothy Sullivan: 22:55
Hmm. Yeah, there’s a lovely, uh, creaminess and Kayoko. I agree, like lactic character, but it’s very smooth overall. There, there’s no sharpness to this aroma. It’s nice and rounded and, uh, really has, has kind of a pillowy, luscious quality to it. Um, should we give it a taste?
John Puma: 23:17
Yeah.
Timothy Sullivan: 23:17
All right. Hmm, really nice. I am picking up on rice on the, on the palate, so there’s some rice-iness there. Again, the, texture is just really great. It’s soft and pillowy. And there’s a dryness on the finish, which is such a good balance to any flavors you get on the mid palate when you have that dry finish. It’s just what sake does best. I really think, and there’s a such a good example of that. You must have a lot of fun ideas for pairing this sake. What are, what are your favorite recommendations for pairing the Umami Mart Junmai with your favorite dishes?
Yoko Kumano: 24:03
Yeah. So one of the big parts of making the sake Kayoko. And I wanted something that would pair well with a lot of things. so we wanted something versatile. I love french fries and these do well with french fries. I’m going, I’m going to, uh, tell you. Uh, and I also, um, the other day I had black cod with it. I like making saikyo miso gindara is really good with that. I also like, or I love pasta, so I have it a lot with pasta. So like pesto pasta is really good.
Timothy Sullivan: 24:46
Yeah, I can imagine like having a kind of an something with anchovy in it would sound really good to me with this
Kayoko Akabori: 24:52
Like clams too.
Timothy Sullivan: 24:53
clams? Yeah. Or an umami driven tomato sauce with a little bit of a, um, just a umami driven pasta sounds really, really great. The Parmesan cheese would pair really well with this as well. it’s not a complicated sake. The flavors are, um, very well rendered, but they don’t overpower, and I feel that that’s what makes this such a good food pairing sake too.
Yoko Kumano: 25:23
There’s always a place for fancy sakes. But I think that we really wanted to have our dream house sake in this bottle. And so, yeah, like what you said, it’s like, it’s the sake that you can have on the weekdays. Yeah. I love the dry finish. It’s just, in, in a good way, takes like the, supporting role. To the meal, which is quite nice, but also really good when we serve it at the bar, chilled in a glass is just really satisfying.
John Puma: 25:55
Yeah, this definitely comes across as something that is gonna be friendly with all kinds of foods like you guys described. But also, as you point out, this is very sippable. This is something you can just drink. It’s really nice. This is so versatile. That’s one of the things I’m really liking about it. personally, I, like a sake, can do a little bit of everything, it seems like it’s definitely right there.
Kayoko Akabori: 26:14
It’s also great at any temperature. So that’s really nice to showcase, to have a sake where we could showcase at the bar, uh, different temperatures according to the weather. You know, I personally like sakes at room temperature, and this one is awesome room temperature. You know, you get a, you get a little bit more of the, the yogurty notes and then you get, good texture and, it’s a nice balance with the dryness. So I think it does really well at all temperatures as well, uh, as well, all.
John Puma: 26:43
so we’ve gotta ask now, uh, what’s next for Umami Mart? You know, apart from, you know, our little scoop earlier about maybe another sake
Kayoko Akabori: 26:50
yeah, we always have a lot going on Yoko, and I like to keep super busy. we’re traveling to Japan a lot. Now that it’s, it’s a little bit easier to get over there. So, you know, hopefully more collaborations with the Japan side. We have a variety of products like Yoko said. So it’s, you know, cocktail barware. So we go to Niigata for that, we go all around Japan for sake, and then for Shochu we go down to Kyushu. So we make some friends along the way. you know, we’d love to bring in some more ceramics. And what I said earlier with the events, you know, we’re gonna keep going with lots of events, with friends from all over. We’ve got kind of like a bar takeover, sort of, lineup happening, with, uh, Wakaze is coming to Umami Mart from Paris, and that’s happening at, the end of February. We’re planning a few very exciting events in May, with a bar in New York and then, Izakaya in Kagoshima that will be popping up at Umami Mart hopefully. So we should have details on that soon. But that’s not until May, but, you know, follow Umami Mart on Instagram and, and get on our newsletter for the, the latest details on that. And we also are con, you know, we started out as a pop-up and so we’re constantly doing pop-ups. We had a pop-up in Chicago, you know, several years ago. We did a pop-up in LA. We would love to make it over to New York, for a pop. Except New York and its pesky laws about how you can’t sell wares along with alcohol. So that is a little bit of, um, an issue that we don’t have here in California. Of course,
John Puma: 28:40
We have a lot of dumb laws here, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Timothy Sullivan: 28:44
WTF, New York
Kayoko Akabori: 28:46
Yeah. Well, California does too. California does too. But that one was kind of a big one because, you know, we can’t, you know, the tasting room concept and then the sake shop it’s a huge part of, of our program, so,
Timothy Sullivan: 28:59
Awesome. Now you mentioned Instagram and your website. Let our listeners know where they can get in touch with you if they want to buy the Umami Mart Junmai for themselves, or check out your barware or follow you on the socials. Uh, let us know where they can find you.
Kayoko Akabori: 29:16
Yeah, of course. Thank you. UmamiMart.com and that’s, almost everything is online. we ship sakes everywhere nationwide, except for maybe three states, Of course there’s our club. we have a Sake Club called Sake Gumi, that ships nationwide as well. That’s a club that Yoko does every month. Two bottles under one theme, so you can find that information on UmamiMart.com. and @UmamiMart on the Instagrams we’re, we’re very active on Instagram. And then I, write the email newsletter every week. So please sign up for the email newsletter, and you can do that at our website as well.
Timothy Sullivan: 29:58
All right, well, thank you so much. And of course, we will have all the links to connect with Umami Mart on our show notes. So if you want to find any of the other socials we spoke about, be sure to check out our show notes at SakeRevolution.com. Kayoko Yoko, thank you so much for visiting with us today. This was a lot of.
Kayoko Akabori: 30:22
Thank you.
Yoko Kumano: 30:23
So much for having.
Timothy Sullivan: 30:24
thank you guys so much. And I also want to thank our patrons. If you would like to learn more about supporting Sake Revolution, you can join our Patreon. We have a wonderful community there. And to learn more, visit Patreon.com/SakeRevolution
John Puma: 30:42
and, uh, if you’d like to support us in other ways, you can also go to, uh, apple Podcasts and write us a review. Writing reviews on podcast platforms really does raise the awareness of our show, in the, in the algorithm, and gets our show in front of new eyes, which gets it into their ears. And so we really appreciate when you guys do that.
Timothy Sullivan: 31:04
If you would like to review all the information about Umami Mart, visit our show notes and you can get all the links there. And also we’ll have a full transcript of today’s episode as well.
John Puma: 31:16
And so without any further ado, please grab a glass of Umami Mart Junmai Remember to keep drinking sake and Kanpai.