A 5-minute walk from Murayama Station. Marked by a red lantern and an dark red colored brick.

Located in Tateoka, Murayama City, Yamagata Prefecture. This tavern opens from 4:00 p.m. on weekdays and from 1:00 p.m. (subject to change) on weekends, so you can have lunchtime drinking on weekends!
It is very rare to find a tavern where you can have lunchtime drinking in Murayama City, so it is very valuable.

The tavern has about six counter seats and one tatami room (seating for four). It is a little cozy, but that is also good.

Beer served in bottles only

The first glass is a bottled beer, Sapporo Akaboshi. (Basically, serve only bottled beer.)

The appetizer of the day was pickled cucumber wrapped in shiso leaves. Since it was a humid day, the refreshing feeling was very nice.

Old-fashioned octopus-shaped sausage

Appetizers vary from yakiton (grilled pork), stewed pork, sashimi, ham and eggs, and more. On Wednesdays, there is also a limited selection of horse sashimi!

Now, for the first item, I ordered the old-fashioned “Octopus-shaped sausage (450 yen).”
The octopus is of course a red sausage. And it is very cute with a face.

I can’t wait to drink with this as an appetizer while feeling nostalgic for my old lunch box.

Lemon Sour is Mokkiri!

Now, next up…order the yakitori “sagari” (180 yen per piece) and the lemon sour (800 yen).

The bottom of the skewer is usually covered with green onions…
‘Cause leeks this time of year are skunky and tasteless! so add meat instead of onions!

“Taste is more important than appearance” says the owner.

And the lemon sour. But when it came out, I was surprised!
(I looked at the menu and saw that it was a lemon sour set.)

A glass of shochu and a glass of ice. And a bottled Yaesu lemon sour is served as a set.
Gently, I spilled the shochu into the glass so as not to spill it… I spilled a lot, but the owner showed me how to fill it carefully without spilling it!
(If you are unsure, ask the owner how to drink it.)

After all the hard work? The lemon sour I put in it is good. There were three glasses of it!

And, as you may have noticed in the photo here, this tavern is cash-only.

Please have your money ready on the silver tray! The owner will give you a firm check for each order.

And here is the “Motsuni (beef offal stew　600 yen)” that I secretly visited on a different day.
Salt-flavored Motsuni. Very clear and clean soup, not like a stew.
The taste, of course, was superb.

Just right for a quick drink.

This time, I went for a drink alone as a woman, and I was very satisfied even by myself. The owner may seem a bit scary…but he was very friendly, easy to talk to and kind.

All the local customers who come in on the way are very nice.

As mentioned earlier, lunchtime drinking is available on Saturdays and Sundays, but please check the tavern’s Instagram as opening hours vary.