For a long time the only place I knew in Takadanobaba with good beer was Cafe Cotton Club – and even that only has two decent beers (but a great open air setting and nice food). I’d almost given up finding anything better in the area until I was told about Billy Barew’s Beer Bar.

Outside Billy Barew's

While there’s only Bass Pale Ale, Guinness, and Carlsberg on tap, the bottle menu at BBBB runs to five pages, boasting around 100 bottles. It’s pretty much limited to the large importers – there’s no Japanese craft beer there and no bottles from Nagano Trading or Rogue – but they do have some gems such as Pilsner Urquell, Brooklyn Beer, and Red Hook ESB, as well as Anchor Steam, a number of Samuel Smiths, and a fair few Belgians. The bottle menu is on their website, though some of the prices are different from the actual bar – for example, Young’s Double Chocolate Stout is listed as 1600 yen a bottle online but 1500 yen a bottle in the bar.

Red Hook Long Hammer inside BBBB

They also have a number of bottles not on the menu as I found out when I said to Til, one of the bartenders, “Ah, you have Red Hook ESB but not Long Hammer” – a few minutes later I was drinking a bottle of Long Hammer IPA. Nice. I got talking to Yukako, the bar manager, and asked what else they have that wasn’t on the menu – she brought out a bottle of Sam Adam’s 1997 Triple Bock and the last bottle of a beer she had made at Kiuchi’s brew on premises. While the Triple Bock wasn’t exactly my taste – unlike Utopia which is outstanding – I was pleased to try it, and rather astounded that this 12 year old “beer” was only 1300 yen, especially when bottles like the Young’s Double Chocolate Stout were comparatively expensive.

Sam Adam's Triple Bock and the last bottle of Billy Barew's "Original beer"

The atmosphere at Billy Barew’s is quite friendly, with the bar staff staff mostly all speaking English and many of the customers being regulars. Over 20 years the bar has been going apparently, which made me think “Why didn’t I know about this bar before?”

To get to Billy Barew’s is easy – come out of Takadanobaba Tokyo Metro exit 7 and head up the alley immediately to the left of the exit. The bar is on your left hand side. Their phone number is 03-3209-0952. There are also branches in Kanda, Ebisu, Shinjuku, and Kagurazaka.

My opinon? I’d like to have seen some Japanese craft beers and hoppy IPAs, but Billy Barew’s is the only bar with good beer in Takadanobaba – Cafe Cotton Club is more of a restaurant – and I can see myself visiting there whenever I’m in the area.