A recent mini-boom in wild game meat (jibie, from the French gibier) has hit Japan, and boar and venison are no longer rarities on a menu. While horses are hardly wild, horse meat has been popular in Nagano and Kumamoto for centuries. From 2017 to 2020, a brewpub called 29BY specializing in horse meat was a fixture in Yoshida-machi, but the deterioration of the building forced a move to suburban Hakuraku in 2021. Its sparkling new location, just minutes from the east exit of the Toyoko Line station, features a modern brewery and kitchen and room for 30 guests.
Brewmaster Yoshinori Gojo, an alumnus of Yokohama Beer, and CEO Daisuke Matsumoto have partnered this enterprise for years, with two sister bars in Noge-cho. The menu features every permutation of raw, cured, and grilled horsemeat, but has expanded to include venison from Hokkaido and Tohoku, plus wild boar in winter. There are plenty of more conventional dishes on offer, though directed mainly at carnivores. Main courses average ¥1450.
Gojo is an inventive and versatile brewer. Recently one could choose among dry hopped saison, amanatsu sour, amber, and pale ale, as well as two IPAs and two Australian guest beers. All come in small (260ml) or regular (350ml) glasses, priced at ¥750 and ¥900 respectively. None are excessively strong or over-hopped; all are satisfying. The mercurial Gojo freely admits that he doesn’t plan ahead but brews on impulse, based on his long experience and what he wants to drink.
The restaurant is festooned with images of mouflon rams, their curving horns incorporated into Matsumoto’s stylish design. The sheep motif also explains the name 254: the two men were born in Showa 54 (1979), the Year of the Sheep. All fellow bovidae (I am one) will feel right at home in this corral!