![]() “Vodka, shitty ice, soda water from the gun, and a lime wedge.” But Urushido’s reinterpretation took a turn in a new direction with the addition of a certain disco-era Japanese melon liqueur. “Vodka Lime Soda, over and over,” he recalls, drawing on muscle memory to mimic making the drink with his eyes closed. The idea for the drink originated at one of the first bars Urushido worked at in New York: Kingswood, the now-closed high-volume bar in Greenwich Village where he fielded countless requests for vodka sodas. The neon green Melon-Lime Soda, a mashup of the vodka soda with lime and the Midori Sour, stands alongside the house Toki Highball and the fragrant Shiso Gin & Tonic as a top-selling highball at Katana Kitten. That extends to Katana’s inventive approach to highballs. The name-a mashup of the austere beauty and tradition of a samurai sword and the playful nature of an adorably curious little cat-is the perfect encapsulation of the bar, where a team of skilled bartenders comes together for a nightly house party set among Japanese movie posters and a soundtrack of ’80s hits. Urushido, known by most simply as “Masa,” is a managing partner, head bartender and “director of deliciousness” at the award-winning Japanese American bar Katana Kitten in New York’s West Village. “But what are you complaining about? It tastes like a highball.” It depends what you expect and what you pay for it,” says Urushido. ![]() “I don’t think it’s possible to have a bad highball in Japan. In Japan, the highball is a working-class drink that, while democratic in its appeal, usually displays care and consideration-even lifelong dedication-in its construction. He pictures a long, tall, cold glass filled with stacked ice, whisky and highly carbonated soda water. When Masahiro Urushido considers a highball, the first thing that matters is how it looks. ![]()
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