One of the Bay Area’s most interesting bars is hiding in plain sight

Sake and cocktails await at Umami Mart, a Japanese specialty store in Oakland

It’s not behind a bookcase that turns into a secret entrance, and you don’t need a password to get in. But there’s no sign for this bar, one of the best places in the Bay Area for Japanese drinks, hidden in the back of a shop in Oakland.

Umami Mart, a Japanese specialty store in the Temescal neighborhood, opened the bar in 2019, but people are still “shocked” when they stumble upon it, said co-owner Kayoko Akabori. It’s quietly become one of the best places in the Bay Area to drink sake and other Japanese spirits.

Akabori and co-owner Yoko Kumano moved Umami Mart from its original home in downtown Oakland to this location with the express purpose of starting the tasting room they’d always wanted. But then the pandemic hit, interrupting the bar’s growth.

Now, in the back of the shop, past shelves of sake bottles and imported soy sauce, people sip cocktails in stunning Japanese glassware while soft jazz seeps through the speakers. The tiny, ink-black bar, designed by Oakland’s Manual Labor, is meant to evoke the intimate back-alley drinking establishments of Japan.

A chalkboard menu offers an ever-changing list of sake, shochu, whiskey and beer. Cocktails are always inventive and expressive, featuring unusual spirits like hojicha-infused gin or ingredients like shio koji, the umamirich seasoning made from fermented rice. Umeshu, a tart, aged plum liqueur made by the owners, makes its way into the Umehattan, the bar’s spin on a manhattan. They soak unripened plums in a mix of sake and spirits for two years before serving it.

The owners think of the bar as an educational space, particularly for learning about sake, which in the U.S. was long limited to cheap, hot sake at Japanese restaurants. There are still few devoted sake bars in the Bay Area, but the drink has boomed in popularity in recent years, particularly at trendy restaurants. Akabori and Kumano have always been geared toward sharing information: Umami Mart started as a food-and-drink blog, which they still maintain.

Kumano, a certified sake specialist and Umami Mart’s sake director, picks six or seven bottles to open every week. There’s always a mix of styles: some unpasteurized and wild, some meant to be enjoyed cold or warm.

Flights and the by-the-glass menu are the best ways to explore Umami Mart’s extensive sake library, from an effervescent, delicate sake brewed in Kyoto to a junmai ginjo from Hiroshima that’s served hot and tastes like miso and caramel. The bar feels accessible to drinking newbies as much as cocktail experts (who can find here the sought-after clear Kuramoto Ice from Japan).

There’s no food, though you can, and should, raid the store’s shelves for a snack, like sweet potato-flavored mini Kit Kats. (A warning: After a drink or two, you’ll inevitably end up buying more Kit Kats, soba noodles and a bottle of that sake you tried.) The bar closes at 6 p.m., so it’s an ideal pre-dinner stop — and luckily, many of Temescal’s best restaurants are within walking distance.

Umami Mart’s bar is never static. It once served coffee and sweets in the style of a Japanese kissaten, or teahouse (here’s hoping that comes back). You can order a beautiful bowl of hand-whisked matcha during the day, or be surprised by a new sake Kumano has put on the menu in the evening.

“It’s always evolving and changing,” Akabori said.

Umami Mart. Noon-6 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday-Sunday. 4027 Broadway, Oakland. umamimart.com

Andria Lo/Special to The Chronicle Umami Mart in Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood serves Japanese sake and spirits in stunning Japanese glassware while soft jazz seeps through the speakers.

Elena Kadvany/The Chronicle Specialty cocktails of sake and shochu, left, and the Umehattan.

Andria Lo/Special to The Chronicle Umami Mart has a large selection of Japanese sake and spirits.