Cocktail Bar Near Me in Ebisu: Bar Trench's Absinthe Menu and 13 Seats

Bar Trench has poured absinthe and herbal-liqueur cocktails from Room 102 of the DIS Building at 1-5-8 Ebisu-Nishi since May 2010, and it still takes no reservations for its 13 seats. Doors open at 6pm and close at 2am every day, and house drinks such as The Smuggler cost ¥1,750. If you typed cocktail bar near me anywhere west of Ebisu Station, this glass-fronted room is roughly five minutes from the west exit and was named No. 74 on The World's 50 Best Bars 2026 list.

Ebisu Station is served by the JR Yamanote Line and the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line. Leave by the west exit and head into the grid of side streets in Ebisu-Nishi 1-chome. A local food account on Instagram timed the walk at five minutes. Time Out places the bar off an alleyway a few minutes from the station, and Punch gives the most useful tip: look for the sign beneath a street lamp.

The bar describes itself as a tiny back-street shop, a black room that sits at street level behind glass yet still feels like a hideout. HAMONI's listing counts seven counter seats and six table seats. Smoking is not allowed inside, but the team permits it on the private patch of ground directly in front of the door. Tatler reported in 2024 that the space was once a pharmacy and that Igarashi Vaz greets guests dressed like a chemist.

Bar Trench opened on 1 May 2010 as the second bar of Bar Tram, which Takuya Itoh started as a sole proprietor in 2003 before forming Small Axe Inc. in 2009. The name means a trench in the military sense. The bar's page explains it as an urban dugout where you hide briefly with friends, plan the next move, and recover enough energy to push forward again. Expect the same absinthe-heavy shelf that Tram built its reputation on.

Chief bartender Rogerio Igarashi Vaz was born and raised in São Paulo and has run the Trench counter since July 2010, after five years leading Tram. Tatler describes him as a third-generation Japanese-Brazilian who co-owns the bar with Itoh. He has judged the Chivas Masters global final and the Nikka Perfect Serve global final, both in 2017, and the company says two Trench staff have won national cocktail competitions in Japan.

The 2026 spring-summer card posted on the Small Axe website opens with an absinthe chapter. The Smuggler at ¥1,750 blends absinthe with orange, lemon, vanilla and tonka bean, a nod to the years when the spirit was drunk on the quiet. Amer la Mer at ¥1,850 reworks a Spumoni with ruby grapefruit, Kina, absinthe and tonic, and the menu decorates it with an engraving of a deep-sea diver.

Coat of Arms at ¥1,950 is the stronger choice, built on rye, Cocchi Americano, Gran Classico, absinthe and Peychaud's bitters, which the menu pitches as a drink halfway between a Negroni and a Sazerac. Horse's Tail at ¥1,750 is a highball made with habanero bourbon, allspice dram, orgeat and lime. The Tokyo team announced its autumn-winter menu in early September 2026, so seasonal names rotate while the absinthe focus stays.

Among the originals, Amaro Long Island at ¥1,750 stacks Cynar, Amaro Montenegro, Fernet, Gran Classico and Underberg with lemon and a cucumber garnish, and the bar posted it again on Instagram in August 2026. Eddie Edwards at ¥1,950 mixes Monkey 47 gin, genepy, Calpico and lime, named for the British ski jumper who competed in Calgary in 1988. Small Axe has imported Monkey 47 since 2012.

From the classic page, the Rattlesnake at ¥1,950 is a rye sour with egg white and an absinthe bite, and Don't Give Up the Ship costs ¥2,100. Coronation, a low-alcohol sherry drink linked to the 1902 crowning of Edward VII, is ¥1,750. Skip the Añejo Margarita at ¥2,850, the most expensive cocktail on the card, because it is the one drink that ignores the herbal shelf you came for.

Walk-in is the only way into the main bar, and the team asks that groups stay at four people or fewer because the room has just 13 seats. The menu footer adds a 10% service charge to the subtotal and requires every guest to order at least one drink. Alcohol-free options all cost ¥1,350, including a Lemon Float with apple soda and a Bloody Mary made with Nagano tomato juice.

If every stool is taken, cross the lane to Bar TRENCH ANNEX on the ground floor of Breeze Ebisu at 1-4-8 Ebisu-Nishi. It keeps the same 6pm to 2am hours, accepts online bookings, and still welcomes walk-ins on a first-come basis all night. For a party of five or more, Bar TRIAD is the better plan B, since Small Axe calls it the largest and most casual bar in its group.

Metropolis called Trench the maniac bar of the family back in 2013, aimed at true spirits enthusiasts, and that crowd still comes for the back bar that Punch describes as a library of spirits and bitters topped with esoteric bar books. En Primeur Club notes a local following of residents and nearby workers, and an Ebisu food account recommends it for two or three friends hunting a second or third stop.

Travellers are part of the mix too. In its October 2026 post about the World's 50 Best ranking, the bar wrote that it hopes to be a safe harbour for people who live in Tokyo, people who work here and visitors to the city. Asia's 50 Best Bars 2026 put Trench at No. 53, and the company records its best Asian ranking as No. 16 in 2018, and the bar wrote that a flood of congratulations followed the announcement.

The address is Room 102, DIS Building, 1-5-8 Ebisu-Nishi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0021, and the phone number is +81 3-3780-5291. The bar opens every day from 6pm until 2am with no closing day. HAMONI lists credit cards, e-money and QR payments. Trench also runs a sister bar in Kyoto, so make sure any map pin you follow says Ebisu-Nishi rather than Kyoto.

For a short walk around the block, Bar Tram sits at 1-7-13 Ebisu-Nishi on the second floor of the Swing Building, opens from 7pm and serves absinthe through a traditional fountain with no table charge. Bar TRIAD, opened in 2017, is reached by a private lift to the fourth floor of the Uchino Building at 1-4-1 Ebisu-Nishi, where the room is styled like an old railway station and smokers use the balcony.