Shine a black light on Gold Bar’s latest cocktail menu, Two Faces, for more than meets the eye: famed temple Sensoji is suddenly surrounded by Shinjuku neon, a kabuki actor wielding a makizushi (rolled sushi) is joined by a burrito-brandishing Mexican skeleton, and a lonely, dead tree mysteriously bursts into full bloom.
The menu highlights the duality in life: light and dark, strength and weakness, traditional and modern. On one page, a beautiful woman in an ornate kimono coyly holds a fan, adorning the cocktail Sweet & Rose, which blends Haku vodka with Japanese rose water and sprinklings of almond, caramel, cranberry and citrus along the way. It’s masterfully concocted — the sweet, often perfumey notes of the rose are kept in check for a light and fresh drink that makes for dangerously easy sipping.
Perhaps that’s exactly the point — to lure you in to try its devilish counterpart. Shine a black light on the same page and the previously demure woman sprouts horns. This is the Thorns in You cocktail — a sharper concoction made with Don Julio Blanco tequila, chili, Japanese rose water, rhubarb jam and citrus, offering a pleasurable kick. The idea behind the menu — that everyone and everything is hiding another side — began with bartender Hideyuki Saito, who returned to Japan in 2020 to spearhead the bar after nine years overseas.