Yuzuki Japanese Eatery in San Francisco to Host Den Sake Tasting

Yuzuki Japanese Eatery in San Francisco will host a Den sake tasting on Thursday, August 23 from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.

Den sake has just been released in the Bay Area in 500 ml. and 1,800 ml. bottles by brewer Yoshihiro Sako who will be in attendance that evening offering free samples. Yuzuki will also have glasses of Den for sale.

The name of the sake is the character for rice paddy in Japanese (田) and the rice used in the brewing process is not co-mingled but is a varietal grown by a single farm in the Sacramento Valley. Sako started his career in sake in 2007 in San Francisco at a specialty sake and wine shop called Corkage and subsequently received Kikizake-shi certification in Japan. He went on to become sake sommelier and sake director at Yuzuki for six years and has been teaching classes about sake since 2008. Over the span of his career, Sako has also gone to Japan to work in sake breweries as an apprentice to master brewers. In 2017, he co-founded his own brewery in West Oakland and Den is his first batch.

Always available is Yuzuki's sophisticated monthly-changing dinner menu, daily specials, an omakase option, and the restaurant's signature house made tofu prepared utilizing traditional techniques. At the heart of Yuzuki's menu is one specialty ingredient, shio-koji (salt koji), an all-natural fermenting agent prepared in-house using a process that takes five days and coaxes out ingredients' umami character. As a result, the restaurant's chefs don't rely on bold but inelegant mass-produced seasonings to flavor Yuzuki's ingredient-driven cuisine.

Among the intriguing Yuzuki libations are select international wines, sakes and beers. Thirty kinds of sake are offered, an extraordinary number for a restaurant of this size, and the list is curated by a sake sommelier who also regularly trains the staff.

The unassuming ambiance and understated decor of the 49-seat Yuzuki dining room reflect a philosophy of affording diners a stage where the food is the star. Indicative of this is the white and persimmon color scheme, wood plank flooring, a high ceiling with tall glass windows, gauzy fabric curtain room dividers, wood-topped tables, mini-spot track lighting, hand-painted depictions of vegetables decorating one wall and the Kanji (Chinese character) writing of Yuzuki (癒月) done by renowned calligrapher Aoi. In keeping with the restaurant's philosophy of sustainability, they use cedar chopsticks from Japanese plantations that have sown their trees for over 75 years in an environmentally supportive manner, ensuring chopsticks that are eco-friendly and possess a refreshing cedar aroma. Typically chopsticks are made from bamboo that is chemically treated, or from Brazilian wood, the use of which contributes to deforestation.

Yuzuki Japanese Eatery is located at 598 Guerrero Street, on the corner of 18th Street, in San Francisco, California. Dinner is served Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m., Saturday, 5:30 to 10:00 p.m. and on Sunday from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Neighborhood street parking is often an option. Visit Yuzuki Japanese Eatery on the web at yuzukisf.com. Reservations, also available via Resy, can be made by calling (415) 556-9898.