In the Nō with Jessica Joly
Image courtesy of Jessica Joly
Born to a Japanese mother and an American father, America’s first “Miss Sake USA” Jessica Joly is no stranger to navigating multiple cultures. Moving between Japan and California at a young age, she developed an appreciation and knack for how to understand, navigate, and bridge cultural divides. Developing a love for Japanese food, drink and culture from her early years in Tokyo, Ms. Joly hoped to share this once she moved to New York, and naturally found a home in the hospitality industry in NYC.
She has since gained impressive experience from both classic and contemporary establishments including Soba Totto, Bohemian, SakaMai, Ippudo, Patisserie Tomoko and Tokyo Record Bar. Joly regularly hosts her own popular sake event at SakaMai, a quirky experience she created to make sake more accessible for the US audience. She features select sakes paired with seasonal dishes, and explains these bottles through a corresponding soul music track for a true “east meets west” evening. Not only the inaugural winner of Miss Sake USA, Joly is also an International Kikisake-Shi (Sake Sommelier) WSET Level 3.
Jessica will be in from New York for a special saké residency at Skyline Bar + Lounge, February 12-13. The weekend will feature saké tastings, food pairings, open houses, anime film screenings, and more. Learn more here.
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Nō Studios : Saké consumption has been on a consistent rise here in the US in recent years, but it's still something that a lot of people may have not yet been introduced to. How would you inspire someone who has never had saké to give it a try?
Jessica Joly: I think this is something that I deal with every day, whether that's a you know, at an event or, at a restaurant, but my whole thing is saying: "wow, sometimes maybe these people had a stigma or a bad experience — or maybe they've just never had saké before". My first thought is to ask them, what do they normally drink? What is your go-to? Is it Chardonnay? Is it Pinot Noir? Do you love whiskey on the rocks? By understanding a person's palate, and what they enjoy, I can recommend something to them.
So let's say they love whiskey, they love something that's obviously a little bit more powerful. I'm going to recommend a style of saké that has a little bit more boldness and a little bit richer texture, maybe a genshu. Genshus are undiluted sakés that are a little bit heavy on the alcohol. I always say there's something out there for everybody. That's how I can guide people to give it a try — and I think I'm pretty convincing.
Between Saké Discoveries, Soul of Saké, working as a Saké sommelier, and being crowned the first ever Miss Saké USA, you are working with saké in so many capacities. What keeps you interested in saké?
Growing up as a Japanese American and living here in the US and in Japan, I knew that I wanted to have a voice that represented my cultural background and my heritage. For a long time I struggled with what that was — if it was fashion, or if it was food. Then I discovered saké and had that experience; seeing the brewers and the producers.
When you experience it firsthand, you get to meet the people who hand make this product and dedicate their lives to make this beverage. I felt that those stories weren't being told. That was that revelation in the sense that I was like, "wow, I can be the voice, I can be that bridge". I can share those connections and stories that sometimes gets lost in translation. I can tell people those emotional connections, and the stories, and what I've seen, and now I've found my voice and my calling, and I'm doing it every day.
"I've found my voice and my calling, and I'm doing it every day."
You’ve already done so much working with saké, but is there anything left for you that you’d still like to do?
This is such a tough question. I think, the coolest thing to ever do — I would love to go as a guest saké sommelier to the White House and serve saké. Whether that's a dinner, or an event, or a special occasion, that's the ultimate dream. Something fun that I would really love to do is, you know, Disney World is full of imagination. I love Star Wars. I would love to go to Disney World where they have a flower festival each year. I work with a producer called Amabuki that makes saké with flower yeast, and I'd love to be a part of that festival at some point in time. I just think it makes so much sense. Disney World is just full of imagination and that would be a really fun thing to do. I think I could do that in the near future.
Both sound so great. I'm excited to see you at the White House for sure. I'm definitely excited to get my ticket to Disney when I hear you're there.
It's really cool. Disney World has so many fun events and they have different representations of different kinds of spirits and booze obviously. They do have saké in the Japan area, but the flower festival is a really fun event. I haven't been yet but I've heard about it and I've researched it. But I just thought that's super cool. Like, what a great way to introduce saké to a special place like that.
Image courtesy of Jessica Joly
Here at Nō Studios we are trying to make saké more popular in the Milwaukee community — what piece of advice would you give us, or to anyone working to steward saké?
I think the most exciting thing about you guys is that you are setting the stage and you are at the forefront. I mean, we've been working on this project with you for almost a year. We started talking during COVID, and you guys are up and running on the rooftop — the space is amazing. I honestly think that in itself, you're making saké more accessible and you're making a space where saké is the destination. I think what's really important is that when people go to Nō Studios, they already have a connection, like "oh, hey, they are known for saké and they're doing some fun things". I also think it'll be fun — if you're not yet doing it — in the near future, to offer different ways to enjoy saké. I think sometimes people just think, "oh, maybe I have to enjoy it at a certain temperature, or it has to be chilled" and I think it's breaking those barriers and saying you can have ice with saké, you can have it with club soda, you can have it at a wide range of temperatures. You guys are building that consumer, you're educating them, you're creating an experience. So again, you're creating a destination, and I think that's most important. People want something that's outside of the box; an experience that they can Instagram and you guys are creating just that.
"... you’re making saké more accessible and you're making a space where saké is the destination"
Our motto here at Nō Studios is “socialize with purpose”, and that’s something we try to bring into all that we do. What would “socialize with purpose” mean to you and what you do?
When I read that it just resonated with me. We're all here for a purpose, and when you socialize, I think it's, it's the emotional connection that we have with like-minded people. Again, I'm going back to this as the experience, and you guys are setting that stage at Nō Studios, you know — ahead of the trend, creating these experiences. When I go there and I get to meet these people, we're going to create this new journey, this adventure, for people who want that. That, to me, is so important because I'm able to educate, I'm able to talk about my passions, and hopefully the others — if that's the team members that you guys work with, or if it's the consumer, or if it's just some random person that happens to walk in — they are going to take something away from that. It's so meaningful, it's so purposeful, and it's something that you don't find everywhere. I'm so excited to experience that in February when I go.
So February, you'll be here and we're excited. What can we expect from your tasting?
For this specific experience, we want to go outside the box and maybe do some fun things. Whether that's doing some blending, maybe doing different temperature variations — just simple and fun ways to enjoy saké. And at the same time it should be fun! I want people to have fun, have a great time, and also feel like they've taken something away from that. So we're going to do some fun and different things, some things that maybe we haven't done before, so I think it'll be really exciting. You have to stay tuned.
Stay tuned. Love that.
Image courtesy of Jessica Joly
Click here to get your tickets to Jessica's saké residency at Skyline Bar + Lounge,
February 12th + 13th, 2022.
