May 2, 2019

Text: Jesse Dorris

I In Tucks German Beer Hall Stand Schmatz into a Tokyo Shipping Container

A glass storefront system opens up the corrugated steel shipping container. Photograph by Tomooki Kengaku.

Three young Germans opened a food truck in Aoyama in 2014, dishing up sausages and Bergbaum, Hafenstoff, and Edelweiss draft beer brewed in-house. Five years later, the trio have 14 locations, including a new one tucked into a shipping container in a prime location near the Toyko Dome stadium.

With only 25 square feet, I In partner Yohei Terui had little space to work with. “We used a mirror to make the inside space look as big as possible,” he says. It also reflects the juicy sausage-shaped neon sign. “I really like the complex shape with the very rough, wood background.”

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Light Cube pendants illuminate the painted logo. Photograph by Tomooki Kengaku.

It’s all about the beer, though, served at a custom oak bar and oak tables with steel warmed up by copper accents. “We tried to make a strong advertisement for it from outside,” he says, “with the luminous spherical beer servers,” shining like beacons through the container’s glass doors. It’s enough to make your mouth water. And that’s no mistake: Schmatz is German onomatopoeia for the noise of smacking your lips in delight.

A window by Takenaka Corporation serves as a pickup location for food and drinks. Photograph by Tomooki Kengaku.
Oak tables and counters by Aics, with beech and steel stools by Public, sit on faux bois vinyl floor tile by Kawashima Selkon. Photograph by Tomooki Kengaku.
Custom taps by Aics balance frosted acrylic logo globes atop stainless steel stems finished in copper. Photograph by Tomooki Kengaku.
Daikan’s neon sign sizzles against the fireproofed oak walls. Photograph by Tomooki Kengaku.

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