The venue takes its inspiration from Tachinomi, intimate ‘standing-up bars’ found in Tokyo, with White Moon offering a small selection of classic Japanese meals alongside a rotating four-bottle-bar of Sake.
Located at the same Australia Street site as Tokyo Lamington, White Moon Bar is the latest venture in homage of Japan from business partners Min Chai and Eddie Stewart.
“We were missing Japan and missing that kind of small bar culture,” Eddie told Bars and Clubs.
Eddie and Min had been based in Tokyo prior to the outbreak of the pandemic, where they would often go to small bars called ‘Tachinomi’. These venues often have only a handful of seats, one or two dishes, and a single proprietor.
“You know, that local small bar you’d go to just for a drink after work and maybe a few small snacks.”
Returning to Sydney after COVID hit, both Min and Eddie found themselves longing for the bars they had frequented back in Japan.
“We jokingly said to each other, ‘Maybe we should open a little Tachinomi bar in this spot?’”
But it was no joke – and White Moon was born, with the site of popular café Tokyo Lamington transforming into speciality Sake bar Wednesdays to Sundays, from 5pm.
“It’s very common in Japan for a bar to take over a shop – to have a day trade and then a night trade. One of my favourite bars in Japan does exactly that. During the day they’ll serve just black filter coffee and Japanese toast, and then at night, it would be like cheese, sake and wine,” Eddie says.
“But we never really found that Japanese bar in Sydney.”
“We’ve got no experience of running a bar, but we’ve got experience of being at a bar,” Eddie jokes, and it is this light-hearted energy and experience they have brought to White Moon – creating the sort of casual bar that they would like to visit.
“White Moon became reality because it was something we were missing and wanted to bring to Australia.”
“Newtown is perfect for this kind of thing, it’s a nice little community around here, and it resonates really well with that Japanese philosophy of the bar.”
With little experience of being on the other side of the bar, Eddie and Min have picked out Karen Kimura, a Japanese-native coffee and cocktail expert, to lead the drinks offering.
One of the most popular drinks since opening has been the ‘Yuzu Bomb’ – a super refreshing and citrusy drink based around Yuzu-shu, made by infusing yuzu fruit with sake or shochu. See the recipe here.
Heading the kitchen is Jieun Lee, an alumnus of Melbourne’s Cumulus Inc. and Sydney’s Quay Restaurant. Jieun has masterminded a small menu of iconic Japanese dishes, included Katsu Curry and Chicken Karaage.
White Moon also boasts a selection of imported Japanese beers, which have become increasingly hard to find on these shores, alongside well-made whisky highballs, which are something of a cultural obsession in Japan.
“We’re trying to cater for that local community, to be a place where people can come and just have a bowl of noodles and a beer and be on their way,” Eddie concludes.
Open Wed-Sun 5pm-10pm, 277 Australia Street, Newtown, whitemoonbar.com
