Sip
Photo Credit: The SG Club
There are bars that are “hot,” and then there are bars that shift the entire center of gravity of cocktail culture. The SG Club is the latter — a place that has become so influential, so stylistically definitive, that it’s hard to talk about the global bar world in the last decade without saying Shingo Gokan’s name.
For travelers, bartenders, and cocktail obsessives, The SG Club is one of the hottest bars in the world—not in the trendy, fleeting sense, but in the way that temples of craft and creativity become must-pilgrimage destinations. This is the kind of bar people reroute entire Tokyo itineraries for. The kind peers speak about in reverent shorthand. The kind that lands on every serious drinker’s lifetime list.
And importantly: the awards aren’t hype; they’re history. Since opening in 2018, The SG Club has been a fixture on The World’s 50 Best Bars list for seven consecutive years, including a Top 10 global ranking, an achievement almost no venue in Asia can claim.
Bathtub Yuzu Drop at Sip
Photo Credit: The SG Club
That consistency is unheard of in a city as fast, fickle, and fiercely competitive as Tokyo. It’s the kind of performance that solidifies a bar’s legacy—and its leader’s legend.
But here’s where it gets more interesting: Gokan’s global reputation is enormous, but in Japan, it carries a different texture. Internationally, he’s spoken about in the same breath as the most influential bar figures of our era. In the U.S., Europe, and across Asia, his name is synonymous with innovation, precision, and design-driven storytelling. He’s the kind of person bartenders all over the world dream of apprenticing under, and the kind of figure other bar owners study.
Yet in Japan — where craft, humility, and quiet mastery form the cultural backbone of hospitality — Shingo is both a superstar and a traditionalist at heart. His bars feel intentionally grounded in Japanese sensibility: no flash for the sake of flash, no ego for the sake of ego. Even when he’s redefining categories, the work remains anchored in something deeply cultural, deeply local. The SG Club is the purest example of that balance.
Guzzle
Photo Credit: The SG Club
The SG Club is split into four parts, but we’ll discuss its original spaces here: Sip&Guzzle (yes, it is the same group that owns Sip and Guzzle in Manhattan).
First up, Guzzle — the welcome mat to the universe. Upstairs is warm, buzzy, and West Coast–tinged, the easiest entry point into the SG ethos. Cocktails are approachable but still elevated; even the non-alcoholic drinks are crafted with the same level of detail you’d expect at a Michelin restaurant. It’s fun, it’s unpretentious, and it’s where you catch the energy of Shibuya pulsing through the walls.
Parmigiano Sour at Guzzle
Photo Credit: The SG Club
Then, there’s Sip — the soul of the building. Down the stairs, everything slows, darkens, deepens. Sip feels like an Old New York gangster club reimagined through a Japanese dream sequence: samurai shadows, velvet textures, clandestine whispers. The cocktails here are sophisticated, layered, and beautifully strange—the kind of drinks that taste like stories, not recipes. You can have your shoes professionally shined while you drink, which sounds decadent until you’re there and realize: of course you can. It’s that kind of place; a magnet for anyone who understands the power of a beautifully made drink, be it the Parmigiano Sour at Guzzle or the delicate Bathtub Yuzu Drop at Sip.
Visit again and again — you’ll see. It only gets better.
Photo Credit: The SG Club
The SG Club is located at 1 Chome-7-8 Jinnan, Shibuya, Tokyo 150-0041, Japan
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