It starts with a bottle. A cobalt blue one, brought to the table like a jewel. “This,” Khalil Lalani says, holding it like a secret too good to keep. “This one, people remember. They take it home. They come back and ask for another.”
This is a super limited bottle of sake from the Hakkaisan brewery in snowy Niigata Prefecture — the rice was polished down to 40 percent, and this sake was aged for two years, resulting in a smooth and glorious brew. Only a handful of bottles made their way into Texas, and Lalani got ’em. But when Lalani talks about sake, he doesn’t start with grain polishing ratios. He doesn’t mention acidity levels, mineral profiles or amino content.
He starts with bottles. Traditionally, sake bottles typically look the same. They vary in color, whether blue, brown, green or even clear, but the shape doesn’t differ that much. Then, the labels are emblazoned, typically, with kanji script that can be difficult to read even for Japanese people. But not all bottles look the same, especially for super premium sakes. “Guests don’t remember the name,” he says. “They remember the bottle.” This potion-like bottle, bulbous at the bottom with a stem to hold it, is memorable.
We’re sitting in Musume, a sleek Japanese restaurant in the Dallas Arts District, right across from the Meyerson Symphony Center. Musume has quietly built a reputation for hosting one of the best high-end sake lists in North America. This summer, he’ll open a second location in Frisco, one that will carry the largest sake list in North Texas: over 100 bottles, ranging from $50 easy-drinking brews to $1,500 rarities that few restaurants anywhere can get…