Tokyo Butchers with OKACHI Beer Lab

There’s a brewpub under the tracks in Okachimachi that seriously commits to both meat and beer: Tokyo Butchers with OKACHI Beer Lab.

Yes. It opened as a restaurant in 2018 and got its beer brewing license in 2019. They brew once a week using American-made equipment with a 300-liter batch size.

Tokyo Butchers originally operates as a meat-focused business with several locations in Tokyo, and at the Okachimachi branch they took the step of making their own beer to pair with meat. Three staff members, including Yuichi Fujisaki, take turns brewing, so it’s a rare case of meat experts also making beer.

They’re all named after local neighborhoods. OKACHIMACHI Ale is a white-style beer with ester aromas, AKIOKA Amber has a caramel-like American amber character, and AMEYOKO Dry is a crisp lager. The standout is KACHIKURA IPA, brewed with 1.5 times the usual malt and four times the hops.

It’s brewed with German malt and American hops, and there’s a large charcoal grill right in the center of the 151-seat dining room. The combination is slabs of meat and freshly brewed beer in a New York-like atmosphere.