I found out about an interesting place from a blog I often visit. It’s a cake shop in Kyoto called Ghost, and unusually, it sells cakes made with alcohol. The blogger raved that they tasted amazing, so I dropped by on this trip to Kyoto.
A wine shop I found on the way
The owner of this wine shop is seriously impressive. His cellar was packed with wines from legendary vintages. From what he told me, when he drinks old vintages he never decants them; instead he takes days, slowly letting the sediment settle and savoring a little at a time. Must be nice… On his recommendation I bought a bottle here, asked him where Ghost was, and headed over.
This is the rather bare-looking exterior.
If you didn’t know, you’d have no idea what this place sells.
Inside, it’s more like a bar than a cake shop.
Once you actually go in, it really is set up like a bar. The person taking orders is dressed as a bartender, and when you pick a drink from the menu, they pour it for you. I’d heard that enjoying cake with alcohol is common in Europe, but this is the first time I’ve seen it in Japan. After all, people tend to think of cake as something kids eat.
Here’s the cake I ordered.
It’s a cake made with marc from Moët & Chandon. The inside is more complex than it looks. ^_^ Since it has strong liquor in it, I thought it might be a bit bitter, but there was none of that at all; if anything, the balance of sweetness and the aroma were exquisite. Because they keep the liquor’s aroma intact, it’s even more satisfying in the mouth than it looks. Considering how rare it is for an ordinary cake shop to care about aroma, I don’t think I’ve had a better cake anywhere. And that includes Igrek, Toshi Yoroizuka and Le Chocolat de H. Of course, if you widen the field beyond cakes to desserts in general, it’s a different story…
I ordered a cognac to go with the cake.
People often talk about the “4 Cs” to enjoy after a meal: chocolate, cigars, coffee and cognac. You can have that kind of menu at the cafés of high-end chocolatiers like Pierre Hermé, and it turns out you can here too. Since they have to recommend drinks that suit the cakes, the serving here has to be done by bartenders. Sitting there with a decent cognac in the middle of the day and a wonderfully fragrant cake, I was in a great mood. I guess that’s why there are no tables here. If there were tables, they’d probably have a lot of trouble with drunks…
Even though it’s a bit off the beaten track rather than in a busy area, tourists kept coming in. Once good word of mouth gets around, people flock to a place even if it’s pricey or hard to get to, so in Japan it seems you really can compete on flavor alone.
It felt wrong to go home empty-handed, so I picked up some souvenirs.
A pound cake, with alcohol in it, of course
One of these costs 500 yen, but again the flavor and aroma are incredible, and even several days after buying it, it’s moist all the way through. I don’t think there’s a better souvenir from Kyoto. But since I have no one to give souvenirs to, I polished it off all by myself… even though I’m supposed to be on a diet…