Imagine a Tokyo-style members-only restaurant and bar, but not in Tokyo. Imagine it instead on Montague Road in West End. That’s how Tony Huang, Alexander Lotersztain and Herve Dudognon shorthand +81 and Aizome.

+81 is a 12-seat kappo restaurant that will open in the new year. But first comes Aizome, its neighbouring bar, which served its first guests this week. And this ultra-intimate boozer is much more than a holding pen for its sister venue.

“Knowing the direction we want to go, and the level of experience to provide – if you want that in Japan, you have to go into those private restaurants, or members restaurants, which I was very lucky to go to,” says Dudognon, general manager of both venues.

It’s ambitious stuff, but owner Hisatake Kamori, who has a bunch of business interests in Japan and Australia, has seemingly spared little expense on the two venues.

Also, there’s a crack squad in charge of their delivery: French-trained Dudognon’s CV includes lengthy stints in management positions with Merivale and Howard Smith Wharves; Lotersztain is one of Brisbane’s most respected designers (Morning After, Ping Pong and Yolk are all highlights of his portfolio); and Huang has spent the past 10 years in Melbourne building an impressive reputation at bars such as Par, Lui Bar, Valhalla and Cloakroom Bar.

Aizome is named after the traditional Japanese practice of indigo dyeing and Lotersztain has delivered a corner venue of blue tiling, leather stools and curtains, with rich timber accents. The eye-catching element is a circular back bar, which Huang rotates to present different categories of spirits.

“I lived in Japan for two years back in the 2000s,” Lotersztain says. “I’m very passionate about their culture … we wanted to capture moments or experiences of things that are identifiably Japanese, but not the normal clichéd things that people associate with Japan.

“This is meant to be a local bar for the community. It’s inspired by the small bars in Tokyo where a local guy might’ve finished his office shift and will come and have a drink and develop a relationship with the bartender. It’s about creating something intimate.”

Cocktails are key here, with Huang serving many of them in ultra-fine Japanese glassware, using specially imported Japanese ice.

The list is split into two sections, Fresh and Neo.

Fresh presents modern interpretations of classic cocktails made with Japanese tea and fresh seasonal fruit. You might order the Watermelon Colada (Arette suave tequila blanco, Mirai Wakocha black tea, soy agave and Roper watermelon), the Botrytis Old Fashioned (Toki whisky with botrytis semillon, organic hojicha and banana), and the Dirty Mango Martini (Haku vodka with Denshin Junmai Daiginjyo sake, Condimento Bianco, organic sencha asatsuyu tea and Kensington Pride mango).

The Neo section presents specially aged cocktails that are intended to mimic the experience of drinking wine. It’s a multi-day process and involves freezing botanicals and fruit down to minus-20 degrees Celsius to break down their cell walls before cold infusing them into alcohol at minus-one degree Celsius over 48 hours. The drinks are then strained and bottled.

“The ethos behind it is when you pour a wine, and then it slowly moves towards room temperature as you drink it – if it’s a nice wine, it will still be good,” Huang says. “But if you pour, say, a classic Margarita, it’s only really good when it’s cold. With this technique, we wanted to create cocktails that really open up like a good wine.”

Neo cocktails include the Cacao Riesling (Roku gin, Saep Scarp riesling, creme de cacao, hachimanjyu white tea, white peppercorn and lemon) and the Tomato Rosé (Tantakatan shiso shochu, rosé wine, organic sencha saemidori tea, spiced tare, dill, strawberry and tomato, with chilli skin contact).

Away from the signatures, Huang will happily make the classics, and guests can tap the restaurant’s 200-bottle wine list. There’s also Heads of Noosa’s Japanese rice lager on tap, along with a short menu of Japanese of Australian craft beer.

For food, expect snacks such as Appellation oysters, a summer tartlet with manchego, sunflower praline and caviar, and prawn shinjo-age where a fried prawn head emulsion is served with yuzu kosho.

“I think Brisbane is ready for something like this,” Dudognon says. “When you see a chef or a bartender working like this, it’s not so much a restaurant any more but an art. I get goosebumps every time I think about it because we are trying to push things that far.”

Open Tue-Wed 5pm-10pm, Thu-Sat 5pm-12am

259 Montague Road, West End, 0473 958 399

plus81.com.au