Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on September 2010

Photos courtesy of ANA Intercontinental Tokyo

Let’s start with semantics. A bartender is a person that makes drinks. A mixologist is one that makes unconventional drinks. A bartender might recommend a gimlet or Manhattan. A mixologist might offer a pamplemousse martini with essence of pork scratchings. Bartenders are technicians; mixologists are magicians.

You may have read about Tokyo’s “master mixologists,” but don’t believe a word of it: this is a city of bartenders. While New York and London have embraced mixology, Tokyo has turned its nose up at the practice. You could list on the back of a coaster the names of every bartender in this city who would be pleased to be labeled a mixologist.

But here comes the ANA InterContinental Hotel with its new MIXX bar, where the ingredient shelf is furnished with celery salt, cucumber syrup, aloe juice, pizza spice, “strawberry caviar” and gold powder, among other things that would make an orthodox bartender weep.

It opened early last month, sharing the 36th floor with Pierre Gagnaire’s new Tokyo outpost. When the French wizard arrived earlier this year, he found himself next to a dowdy old lounge called Manhattan. Now the neighbor has been transformed into a suitably sexy, utterly modern bar.

Tokyo-based Frenchman Gwenaël Nicolas, the multidisciplinary designer behind Omotesando’s Longchamp store, several Uniqlo outlets, and everything from architecture to packaging, has designed the best-looking hotel bar in the capital. His trademark sensual lighting is here, along with plush felt sofas and a clever layout that chops the room up into triangles, creating the illusion of intimacy in this massive 600m2 lounge.

Head bartender Yann De Oliveira was lured from Xex Daikanyama and given free rein to craft an unorthodox menu. He has selected the kind of liquors that I imagine Hugh Hefner serves—big names, high prices. There are no less than 38 drink categories on the carte, beginning with a sextet of signature cocktails.

I started with the Caprese, a vodka and tomato juice topped with “espuma mozzarella” (cheesy foam), basil and pizza spices. It tasted just like pizza. Actually, it tasted like someone scraped the topping off a pizza and shoved it in a glass of vodka.

“How do you like your Caprese?” asked Yuki, my black-clad host.

“Love it,” I said, but he must have known I was lying, because he suggested an alternative: the XO Presso.

Good call. The XO Presso is silver Patron tequila with Patron coffee liqueur and espresso. It’s a wonderful bitter-sweet balance that would suit a classic bartender’s repertoire, were it not for the chocolate garnish. When I bit into the brown blob, I felt a crackling from my tongue to my cerebellum. Either the chocolate was filled with popping candy or I was having a mild stroke.

I plowed through the other signature drinks (all ¥2,500), including the Magic Pudding, a sweet custard, caramel and ice cream thing of which Oliveira claims to be proudest, but the XO remains my favorite.

The mixologist’s argument is that he (or possibly she, but not here) has learned the classics and given them creative twists. Scrape the espuma off a Caprese and you’ve nearly got a Bloody Mary; the XO Presso is a play on all the recipes that combine tequila and Kahlua; God knows where the Magic Pudding came from.

There aren’t many standards on the menu, but I asked for some anyway, and the boys delivered. Call me an old fart, but next time I’m here, I’ll be drinking a gimlet.