Drink in Focus: Off Wave at Dead Poets
The shochu-based cocktail, part of the bar’s Liquid Gallery menu, is inspired by Hokusai’s art and blends Japanese flavours
So what do a barbershop-by-day, cocktail-bar-by-night concept and Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock print art have in common? For its signatures menu, Dead Poets has gone from focusing on musicians to literature, to now spotlighting 12 artists and their famous works as inspirations for modern, casual cocktails.
Just as Great Wave is but one of many entries in Hokusai’s seminal collection, the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, the Off Wave is one of many flavour profiles the Dead Poets team sought to crystallise in its new menu. “We started from moods and structures we like to drink,” Matveev says about the new menu as a whole, titled Liquid Gallery, “and matched them to painters. In the case of the Off Wave, Hokusai’s print directly guided both the layered build of the drink and the visual of the garnish.”
Just as ukiyo-e requires meticulous carving and layered printwork, each Off Wave component appears to require equally precise prep work. Matveev says the syrup starts with brewing “strong” genmaicha then integrating it into a syrup, before white miso is added for its umami, toastiness and a light saline touch. The white peach cordial is clarified in-house for full control over sweetness and acidity. “We chose white peach,” Matveev says, “specifically for its delicate, aromatic character that supports the shochu and tea rather than overpowering them.”
The result is a cold, refreshing, peach-forward sour with a surprisingly deep body, helped in no small part by the garnish – a showstopping stencil in the shape of the Great Wave. “The stencil is done with an ube-based powder,” Matveev says, “which gives a vivid purple colour, gentle earthiness and a subtle vanilla-nut quality.”