Japanese convenience store culture is taking over Philly menus

The most recent special on the menu at Almanac, the celebrated bar in Old City, is an egg salad sandwich-inspired cocktail. The base of vodka and shochu had been fat-washed with Japanese kewpie mayo. It shockingly evoked the fluffiness of a shokupan, or a milk bread-based, egg salad sandwich. Even more shocking, it is gluten-free, its breadiness deriving from milk powder that Almanac’s bartenders have toasted.

It might sound odd, but remember that egg whites frequently top non-egg-salad-sandwich-inspired cocktails. The tamago sando cocktail is lighter than typical egg nog, and is creamy but not custardy. Experimental savory cocktails have seen a nationwide surge, spurred by bars like New York’s Double Chicken Please, famous for its cold pizza and cold noodle cocktails.

And this one is part of a new menu that launches this Friday, Mar. 20 and takes its cue from konbini, Japanese convenience stores like 7-Eleven and Family Mart that have recently become significant culinary influences on Philly menus.

Other drinks on their konbini menu include the katsukare (katsu curry), which uses leftover wagyu from Ogawa’s omakase to fat-wash (infusing a spirit with a liquid fat, then skimming it off) Japanese whiskey, and it’s blended with a shrub made from apples seasoned with Japanese curry powder. Their daifuku (stuffed mochi) cocktail blends bourbon with shochu, sesame, adzuki bean, and amazake. There’s also a “7-11 French toast” and a “Ramune melon soda” cocktail on the menu, all made from obsessively house made and often locally sourced ingredients, like Jenny Lind melons preserved from the summer.

The lure of Japanese convenience stores, or konbini, has never been stronger. While exact replicas of Japanese Family Marts, Lawsons, and 7-Elevens have not yet encroached upon Wawa’s dominion, we have seen signs of their influence all over.

It’s not just Almanac. Rittenhouse’s new dancerobot, helmed by Royal Sushi & Izakaya chef Jesse Ito, just debuted menu items inspired by konbini. Late night (from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturdays) at dancerobot, you can pop in for a dupe of FamilyMart’s famous famichiki, essentially a large chicken nugget served in a paper sleeve. During dinner service, the same fried chicken is sliced and served over rice with curry. Dancerobot’s new brunch menu (10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sundays) also serves an exceptional pair of onigiri, taking its inspiration from the plastic-wrapped ready-to-eat arrays of rice balls found at every konbini in Japan (and also Hawaii).

Dancerobot’s onigiri are fried until their outsides develop crispy crusts and are served with a house made version of cheese whiz — something you’d probably never find in a konbini onigiri, but are a crunchy, delicious marriage or American flavors with Japanese formats.

Philadelphia, along with the rest of the country, has recently embraced Japanese cuisine beyond sushi and ramen. Philadelphia has seen a boom in Japanese restaurants in the last two years, from Ogawa’s high-end omakases to 637 Sushi Club’s delightfully quirky ones (which even featuring occasional coffee pairings) to more casual approaches like Javelin in Fairmount and hand roll-focused joints like Yuhiro and Chubby Sushi. Philly has fallen hard for matcha, drinking it to the point of disrupting supply chains and causing shortages.

And instead of hidden speakeasies, bars and restaurants across Philly have been installing listening lounges, directly influenced by the jazz kissas or jazz listening cafes in Japan. It’s no coincidence that vinyl collections in bars are suddenly everywhere, frequently accompanied by cocktails featuring Japanese flavors like yuzu and cherry blossom.

Japanese Italian restaurants have been reported by Eater as being the latest mashup restaurant concept trend sweeping the nation. With recent notable collaborations between Marc Vetri and Jesse Ito, fusing those two cuisines, perhaps a Japanese Italian restaurant in Philly isn’t too far off. Japan, in turn, has seen record numbers of international visitors, raised on anime and further enticed by the currently weak yen.

In Philly 7-Elevens, you can now also get egg salad sandwiches that strive to replicate the fluffy ones from Japanese 7-Eleven staples. They make a valiant effort at replication, with creamy yellow stuffing whipped up with Japanese mayo, more flavorful than the American stuff, due to rice vinegar. But the sandwiches are more bready and denser than their sources. Pro tip from a 7-Eleven cashier at their Market St. store: order on their app 7NOW and you’ll receive a delivery within minutes of fresh sandwiches that have not been pawed at by other people in any store.

But in true Philly form, the finest of our konbini-inspired options are simply that — inspired. The best konbini-esque things I sipped or tasted were worlds away from anything you’d find at Lawsons or FamilyMart. “We focused on the idea of deconstructing what is in a tamago sando and then bringing it back together again,” said Scott.