The area around Setagaya-Daita Station in Setagaya used to be packed with roughly 200 shops that comprised the Nakahara shopping district. Due to an overhaul involving construction for a ring road, however, many of the local businesses were forced to either close or relocate and with just 40 stores remaining, the once bustling district saw a significant drop in visitors.
Now, however, things are slowly picking up as exciting new businesses like Bonus Track and, most recently, the Nakahara Sou complex make their way into the district. Produced by the same design office behind Muji's flagship store in Ginza and the Yuen Bettei Daita ryokan, this new complex is an urban haven complete with office spaces, a bar and a restaurant. For obvious reasons, we're most excited about the latter two.
The restaurant, called Songbook, is on the first floor and headed by Chef Kyohei Nishi of Kabukicho’s farm-to-table restaurant Neki. Like its sister establishment, Songbook focuses on using seasonal produce and natural ingredients for rustic, European-style dishes with a Japanese twist. The menu will change depending on the time of year, but items you might find include cacio e pepe pasta with cod milt, wood fired pizza topped with shrimp and risotto with hamaguri clams.
Downstairs, you’ll find the Quarter Room – a bar belonging to the same group as Asakusa’s standing bar Nomura Shoten. The menu here is on the experimental side, with cocktails that reinterpret artworks from the Renaissance to now, which are developed in the backroom lab.