The sky seems to be the limit for Tokyo’s Virtu — and I’m not talking about its location on the 39th floor atop the Four Seasons Tokyo hotel in Otemachi. The bar is this year’s winner of the Michter’s Art of Hospitality Award as part of the 2024 iteration of the Asia’s 50 Best Bars rankings.
It’s the first award to be announced ahead of the annual ceremony, scheduled to be held in Hong Kong on July 16. It’s also the first time a bar in the country of omotenashi (hospitality) has earned the distinction since it was first awarded in 2020.
The accolade is likely to fuel further fervor for Virtu’s innovative cocktails. The bar is renowned for smoothly blending French and Japanese drinking cultures through concoctions that employ spirits from both nations in creative and unexpected ways. The signature martini uses Japanese gin and whiskey with French vermouth accented with hinoki (cypress) bitter, while the after-dinner Takara (meaning “treasure”) mixes Japanese whisky, vermouth, Chartreuse and Denki Bran, a quirky Japanese liqueur-of-the-people famed for its shitamachi (downtown) origins in Asakusa.
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