South Congress Japanese restaurant Lucky Robot is embracing its Japanese roots by introducing a sake sommelier. The job falls to assistant general manager Lora Blackwell, who received her sake sommelier certification — kikisake-shi — through the Sake Service Institute International in December.
With Blackwell’s new role, she hopes to extend her sake knowledge and passion into the expanded, curated menu to Lucky Robot. She wants to bring an awareness to more high-quality sakes, and shift away from perception of the rice wine being used only for sake bombs and cheap happy hour hot sakes.
Under Blackwell, Lucky Robot removed all sakes from its menu that are available for purchase at local large-scale vendors, ensuring that the in-house offerings provide unique options that might not be easy to find elsewhere in Austin.
Blackwell first became interested in sake when she began working at Lucky Robot in 2013, where her coworkers’ passion for the beverage sparked a desire to learn as much as possible. Further study lead her to a deep appreciation of the subtleties of the brewing process, which can rely on environment, weather such as snow and rainfall, and local minerals in the same way that wine varietals are shaped by minute environmental details.
As one of the few sake sommeliers in Austin, Blackwell feels a huge responsibility towards her community to bring more awareness to the variety and nuances of sake. This is especially so since Austin-based distributor Genji Sake made moves to bring an unparalleled variety of Japanese sakes to the local market.
It is in this spirit that Lucky Robot and Blackwell host kaiseki clubs (multiple course dinners with curated sake pairings) and sake soirées (unconventional sake tastings with accompanying snacks) as a means to introduce guests to more adventurous styles of sake.
Lucky Robot opened on South Congress in 2012 as a “digital Tokyo” restaurant, bringing a Harajuku theme to Japanese cuisine focused on fresh, authentically sourced ingredients, and creative takes on maki, sushi, sashimi and rice bowls to complement the Travis Heights neighborhood.
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