Mikkeler | Wallpaper*

Bar with solid wood top, floors and walls of exposed concrete

(Image credit: Takumi Ota)

last updated 21 July 2022

While Danish beer brand Mikkeller’s first Tokyo location closed down after only a year in Shibuya’s Udagawacho, Mikkel and his dedicated Japan partner, Hamilton Shields, were far from ready to throw in the towel.

After a quick divorce with their local Japanese partner, Shields started looking for new digs and found the perfect spot right in the middle of Shibuya’s famed love-hotel hill, where they now run their own show.

Mikkeller’s new home is a small art-decoish distinctly pale yellow building from the late Seventies with the main bar on the ground floor and a small, quieter room above on the first floor. The space has been designed by Japanese architect Yusuke Seki, who ripped out most of the existing interior and left the ceiling, walls and floors in exposed concrete juxtaposed with the simple, but artfully crafted wooden furniture also designed by Seki.

The menu includes Danish-style smørrebrød open-faced sandwiched on homemade rye bread, while the beer selection comprises 20 taps to choose from with guest beers from local Japanese breweries mixed in with Mikkeller’s own brews.

Glass door into bar showing the street outside, exposed concrete floor and walls and a simple wooden table

A view to the bar behind three wooden tables. Exposed concrete floor and walls

ADDRESS

2-19-11 Dogenzaka
Shibuya-ku

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Originally from Denmark, Jens H. Jensen has been calling Japan his home for almost two decades. Since 2014 he has worked with Wallpaper* as the Japan Editor. His main interests are architecture, crafts and design. Besides writing and editing, he consults numerous business in Japan and beyond and designs and build retail, residential and moving (read: vans) interiors.