Azasu

Wizard of Az

Your New Japanese Drinking-Food Spot

None 14 Photos Azasu
Just a few things we want to remind you of today:

1) It will be 90 degrees pretty soon.

2) You like beer.

3) There’s now a place that completely freezes your beer mugs in five seconds.

Now, bearing that in mind...

Meet Azasu, your new LES home for Japanese street food and the exceptionally cold beer that washes it down, now open.

Quick cultural lesson here: azasu means “thanks” in Japanese. And the little statue guys bowing in deference to you all over the place—those are fukusuke.

Where you fit in: you and a group of fellow lovers of fun/beer will pile into one of the six- or eight-tops here and give thanks to the concept of drinking-food. Griddled octopus puffs, ham katsu sandwiches (the white bread is... so soft) and cup sake—it’s the sake equivalent of a canned microbrew, and no one else has it in NYC.

There’ll be laughs and more destinations after this, but don’t leave without downing a Hoppy—a frozen mug (they’ve got a flash freezer for mugs) that’s got frozen shōchū at the bottom, which is then thawed by a low-alcohol, beer-like liquid that somehow is not technically beer. This creates a beery-shōchū slushy.

Beat that, Mister Softee.

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