Wiz Craft Beer and Food opened in July 2015 and is a place I’ve been meaning to visit for a while now, but a trip to the UK and sick kids meant that it wasn’t possible until one bright, sunny Saturday in September. Again, the mini-bar crawl bug caught me, grabbed me, and made me drink too much at three different bars with Wiz Craft Beer and Food the second stop.
Open and airy
For some reason, I decided to take the most awkward possible route from Ueno to Awajicho as I was suffering from 3G woes on my phone and was left wandering around trying to find the bar. Wiz Craft Beer and Food is located between three different stations: Ochanomizu, Shin-Ochanomizu, and Awajicho and in hindsight I should have walked from the first option, though the second is much closer. Heck, you could even walk from Akihabara and stop in at Hitachino Brewing Lab on the way. There is a choice of outside and inside seating though inside does have an unusual selection of music going on.
I could swear I have seen this styling before.
There are over thirty taps of craft beer at Wiz Craft Beer and Food with the majority of them being domestic craft beer from across Japan though it’s hard to walk into Wiz Craft Beer and Food and not think of the styling being influence by the Craft Beer Market chain, with white tiles behind the taps that had the names, international bittering units (IBU) and abvs of the beer written on them in pen. It’s becoming a common sight now but seems a bit identikit in the long one.
The beer menu at Wiz Craft Beer and Food encompasses a wide range of styles and tastes from Japan with pilsners to weizens and dark lagers to stouts and everything between. There is also a happy hour on during the evenings where all beers on the menu have ¥200 off. Happy hour during the week is on from Monday to Thursday 17:00 ~ 20:00 while on Saturday it is on from 14:00 ~ 19:00. Cheap enough as it is, that price doesn’t include tax and the amount of head on the beers can’t be adjusted regardless of your preference. A damn shame as some of the craft beers coming up had about 80ml of head on top. Prices outside of happy hour vary are 420ml servings ranging from ¥780 and 240ml servings starting ¥450.
