Evangelion Cafe Collaboration
The Evangelion Bar named ‘Evangelion Sakaba’ is an Evangelion themed bar restaurant that is open for limited periods of time as a campaign. This campaign is in collaboration with the official Evangelion goods store in Tokyo called ‘EVANGELION STORE TOKYO-01’.
Background of the Evangelion Bar (Sakaba)
The Evangelion Bar or Evangelion Sakaba in Japanese is located in the Ikebukuro area Tokyo, an area that is as popular as Akihabara for anime otakus. The name ‘Sakaba’ in Japanese is a similar term to ‘Bar and Restaurant’ or ‘Japanese-style pub’, a very popular dining style in the Japanese culture.
The bar is open for only certain periods of time, usually during the promotion of a new movie and is organized in collaboration with the Evangelion official store and 46 Shokudo. In this campaign, the 46 Shokudo premises is transformed and decorated to the Evangelion theme. On entrance, fans will instantly recognize designs and colors found in the bar that are familiar to the Evangelion series. In addition to the decor, the menu contains completely original items all influenced by the Anime.
46 Shokudo
46 Shokudo is a cafe that is well-known in the otaku community for being a ‘Collaboration Cafe’. This is a revolving-themed cafe that is able to be transformed into different anime themes. In addition to Evangelion, in the past, the cafe has collaborated with anime such as Code Geass, Grand Blue and character franchises such as Sanrio and Hello Kitty.
Open Campaigns
To date, ‘Evangelion Sakaba’ had two open campaigns with the first starting in November 16, 2018 to January 6, 2019 with a period of just a few months. Seats were only available through reservation. From the very first campaign, the Evangelion Sakaba was so popular that another campaign was opened for a longer period of time. The second campaign started on April 20, 2019 and closed on September 1, 2019. With the second campaign, the organizers revamped the menu at the delight of fans.
Food Menu
As the bar is a Japanese-style pub the menu consists of a variety of small-plate snacks and drinks. In particular all the food items available are in one way or another related to the Evangelion anime series.
Here are the most standout and popular items:
Sachiel’s Squid Ink Pilaf
A rice pilaf seasoned with black squid ink in a hot grill plate with the white face of the Angel enemy Sachiel skillfully designed in white on top. Finished with a red cherry to resemble the Angel’s red core. A very near duplication of the angel’s image.
Lilith’s Soy Sauce Marinated Quail Eggs
Quail eggs on top of a red cross to create the image of Lilith from the Evangelion anime TV series. To make the reenactment complete, a Spear of Longinus fork spiked into the quail eggs, in which you can use to eat the dish.
AT Field Katsudon
A katsudon is a fried pork cutlet rice bowl, and this particular rice bowl has red pepper and seaweed nori designed to look like the AT field created by an Evangelion Unit robot.
Second Impact Kimchi Pork
Another dish on a hot grill plate, with sizzling stir-fried pork and kimchi topped with a fried egg, in the shape of the Second Impact explosion that was an important event in the TV anime series.
Congratulations Cake
A simple sponge cake topped with cream and a variety of delicious fruits. This particular item doesn’t resemble a character or scene from the Evangelion series. However it is an item created based on the memory of the last scene of the series in which all members of the series was congratulating Shinji.
Drink Menu
In addition to the themed food menu, the Evangelion bar also has a visually pleasing and delicious lineup of drinks. The drink menu creates an image based on the color scheme of the Evangelion series.
Here are the most standout and popular items:
Rei Ayanami Soda Sour
A white colored shochu-based cocktail with a blue popsicle dissolving inside the glass. Creating the image of Rei Ayanami (who has blue hair) wearing her white plug suit.
Asuka Shikinami Tomato Sour
A bright shocking-red colored Japanese-style Red Eye drink finished with a lemon. This color scheme is an image of the character Asuka in her red plugsuit.
Drinkable L.C.L
There are also non-alcoholic drink at the bar, and the most standout had to be this Drinkable L.C.L. An orange-based soda that comes with orange juice in a test tube. A drink that would remind customers of the L.C.L liquid that Evangelion pilots were submersed in the cockpit of their Evangelion Units.
Happy Hour
Like all bars have, the Evangelion Bar too had a Happy Hour, but not at the conventional hour. At the Evangelion Bar, Happy Hour is called Angel Hour and starts from 2:10pm in the afternoon, finishing at 4pm. In the Japanese Evangelion series, the Angels that the Evangelion pilots fight against are called ‘Shito’. In Japan, ‘Shito’ can also be the homonym for the number ‘4-10’ (shi-to). Therefore the time-frame for drink discounts starts at 14:10 in 24 hour time.
Using this homonym again, during Angel Hour, customers are provided with a 41.0-yen discount of all drinks.