Josh Barrie On the Sauce at Waltz: Tokyo mood isn’t lost in translation

I’m not sure if the backdrop of the hotel bar in Lost in Translation looks like an enormous picture of a sperm because we only ever really see Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson from the perspective of a bartender, but the one in Waltz does. The painting is part-mottled white dreamscape, part-biology textbook, and appears on a background of moody night-time blue.

Why the Lost in Translation reference? Waltz is run by the talented Tokyo-born mixologist Gento Torigata, possibly best known for his work at the highly rated Kwãnt. He named the bar after Bill Evans’ jazz piece Waltz for Debby, though Oasis is on when I visit.