New York City, home to a myriad variety of ethnic food and drink, is witnessing a quiet boom in sake bars, where the taste of the rice brew seems to blend with the deepening colors of fall.
The sight of vintage sake being poured from small jugs into sake cups is now particularly prominent among trendsetters in the lower Manhattan district of SoHo.
There, the pioneering sake specialty bar Denial is doing a thriving business as partygoers down sake to the beat of rock.
A nondescript late-night drinking haunt, Denial caters mainly to youngish architects, graphic designers and students. It offers prized brews such as Nishinoseki, from Ehime Prefecture, and Masumi, from Nagano Prefecture, at between $8 and $10 a jug.