Fukuko
43 Tyler St, Britomart Precinct
www.fukuko.co.nz I don't know how they do it. Not content with running a very nice Japanese food operation, Fukuko also manages to be a cracking little bar, all compressed into a space roughly equivalent to the cupboard underneath the stairs.
All right, I'm exaggerating a little there, but not by much.
Fukuko is discreetly tucked into a wall just along from Tyler Street Garage and is one of Auckland's truly intriguing experiences, being a Japanese bar where the amount of Japanese whisky far outweighs the amount of Scotch on offer.
It's also a shochu bar, shochu being sake's less-well-known cousin, and a kind of halfway house between sake and whisky. Fukuko takes shochu seriously and the collection of jars behind the bar offers an interesting visual effect. The jars are full of shochu being infused with various ingredients, so there are a variety of colours fighting for attention. It looks a little like a mad scientist's laboratory.
Being small, Fukuko is an intimate kind of bar, so it's probably not the best place for conversation, but it's a cosy space and made all the more welcoming by the friendly, knowledgeable staff.
