Jake Freed and Hiroko Nakamura, the husband and wife team behind the successful fast-casual ramen house, Shiba Ramen, are pleased to share that The Periodic Table, the highly anticipated new taproom and sake bar in Public Market Emeryville, began its soft opening on September 1, 2017.
Located adjacent to Shiba Ramen, The Periodic Table serves a wide range of craft brews sourced from the Bay Area and beyond, sake and distilled spirits from Japan, and craft cocktails based on Japanese spirits. To complement the bar program, The Periodic Table serves simply prepared Western-meets-Eastern influenced bar bites.
Good Chemistry
The Periodic Table evolved out of Freed and Nakamura’s desire to fill the need for a taproom in the Emeryville Public Market, in addition to introducing Japanese drinking culture to a wider American audience in a food hall setting. Both Freed and Nakamura are Harvard-trained PhD chemists who met in grad school. The Periodic Table combines their organic chemistry backgrounds with their passions for Japanese culture, good drinking, and modern design.
Drink & Eat
The Periodic Table features a selection of curated sakes, craft brews from the Bay Area and Japan, as well as Japanese whisky and shochu. The menu showcases Japanese-inspired cocktails such as the Shochu Highball served with lemon or seasonal fruit ($6) and the Bloody Mariko, a shochu Bloody Mary with wasabi ($10).
The Periodic Table also operates as a bottle shop selling sake and other bottled alcohol, encouraging patrons to take their experience home with them. The food menu features an assortment of simply prepared dishes that pair well with sake and beer such as pickles, charcuterie and cheese and The TPT Burger with yuzu kosho mayo, shiso, griddled onions, and house slaw, served on sesame pain au lait ($11).
TPT will also serve dishes from Shiba Ramen that are available to order while sitting at the bar including Nagoya-style fried sesame pepper Shiba Wings ($7.50 for six pieces, $13 for twelve pieces), Chashu Pies stuffed with miso pork chashu ($4) and ramen ($10.50 – $13.50). The food program is jointly overseen by Nakamura and Chef Danny Keiser, who assumed culinary development and kitchen oversight for Shiba Ramen in late 2016.
The Design
The Periodic Table was designed by Oakland architecture and interior design firm Arcsine, with input from Freed and Nakamura. The décor features dark blue Richlite countertops, blue and white half-hexagon tile mosaics arranged in a traditional Japanese geometric tortoiseshell pattern and laser-cut oak screens in the same pattern.
The space employs extensive oak paneling and parallel oak ceiling beams, with the ceiling half-open to bring in ambient light. Six pendant lamps, shaped like chemistry flasks, hang in front of the oak screens. The back-bar shelving is fashioned to resemble the periodic table of elements featuring a collection of colored fabric panels.
Panel designs include elements like Californium and Nihonium, a 500-year-old sake logo and drinkware. The bar space seats 18 people and a wall-mounted TV shows sports and other programming. To further illustrate Freed and Nakamura’s connection to chemistry, The Periodic Table’s logo is a graphic representation of the ethanol molecule.
Hours:
Monday – Saturday: 11am – 9pm
Sunday: 11am – 8pm
Web:
Menu:
Photos: @tbtbar.com