Nicholas Jordan, Broadsheet Sydney, 23rd June 2017
Stanmore’s Getting a Sake Store. It’ll be the biggest sake retailer in Sydney.
Where do you go to buy Sake in Sydney? Dan Murphy’s? The Oak Barrel? At each you might find 30 different bottles, maybe 50 if you’re lucky. How about 100? That’s the minimum Chef’s Armoury is aiming for. Next month the specialised knife and kitchenware retailer will open an extension to their store called Sakeshop, a cellar and workshop space dedicated to Japanese rice-based spirits.
The idea was born when Leigh and Stephane Hudson, Chef’s Armoury’s owners, were in Japan buying knives for the original store in Melbourne. “Whenever you do business in Japan there's always exposure to sake. That's what you do, you sit down and drink while you talk business,” says Leigh.
They’ve been importing sake to Melbourne ever since, but their new store will take it to another level...
“We’ll have 100 bottles here initially, but we hope to really flesh that out in coming years,” says Leigh.
