SAKE FEST
Sake, like a lot of other imports to the States, gets cheated by our native curiosity. We're eager for the best of everything and we've got the funds to deliver it, but we don't have the patience to deal with anything too strange. Then we go out to bars and get shamed by mammoth sake menus, or wind up ordering sad mongrel drinks like "the Saketini." Joto Sake and Sakagura propose something a little more refined. On Wednesday, June 14, the sake importer and the swanky Manhattan bar are hosting the Sakagura Sake Makers Festival. Ambassadors from five venerable Japanese brewhouses will be on hand to share their craft. A set tasting menu of 18 different types of sake promises to spare everyone the guesswork and mangled pronunciations. Food specially selected for the event will be available, and they're throwing in a raffle, too. Even if you don't win anything, by the end of the night, you'll have drunk enough sake so you'll never again order by pointing blindly at that plastic-wrapped menu and saying, "That one."