Medicinal Cuisine and Tea Ceremony!? Shining with Extra Personality
2026's Most Promising Under-30 Bartenders.
- Part 2 -

New Year's Special: Doripura's Spotlight on Bartenders in Their 20s! Part 2 features bartenders from Ishikawa and Tokyo with unique qualifications—a medicinal cuisine coordinator and an assistant professor of the Urasenke school of tea ceremony.

writer：Ryoko Kuraishi

Left: Kimura, a bartender based in Kanazawa City, is active as a member of the "Hokuriku Bartender Charity Club," supporting the recovery of the Hokuriku region through food and drink. Right: The "musk mule," an arrangement of the Moscow Mule using "Ranja-shu" (蘭麝酒), a medicinal herb liquor made in Fukui City, Fukui Prefecture for over 400 years. The name plays on "Ranja" (蘭麝), meaning orchid and musk, and "Moscow Mule."

Kimura Takeaki（Dining bar JIMHALL）

Cocktail enthusiast, photography lover, and certified medicinal cuisine coordinator.

Kimura Takeaki, 29, hails from Sabae and manages the "Dining bar JIMHALL" in Kanazawa City. He encountered cocktails while in Kanazawa for university.

"My parents loved alcohol, so on special occasions, various wines and cheeses would grace our table. Familiar with drinking culture, I became interested in the industry and started working part-time at a cocktail bar in Katamachi while still a student."

That bar, operating for over 30 years, had an owner who won national competitions, and the senior staff actively challenged themselves in competitions too. Still, for Kimura, it was just a "part-time job during his student days"...

"Back then, I was passionate about music, which I started in high school, and once traveled to Tokyo for a vocal audition. That's when I visited 'Bar BenFiddich,' recommended by a senior colleague.

There, my perception of cocktails was completely overturned.

I was amazed by the cocktails made using a mortar and pestle, but I was also deeply impressed by Mr. Kayama's cool demeanor and gentle manner. Above all, I was drawn to his free and creative approach to cocktails."

I decided to get serious about cocktails! At my part-time job, I started enthusiastically making homemade syrups.

I got so hooked that I took over a corner of the commercial refrigerator at the shop for my own use. I quit university, gave up singing, and before I knew it, I was solely focused on bartending.