Ebisu Yokocho

This guide to Ebisu Yokocho in Tokyo follows a tin-roofed alley of tiny izakayas tucked behind the boutiques and towers around Ebisu Station. It traces the site back to a postwar barrack bazaar that grew into Yamashita Shopping Center, and to the restaurant producer who reopened the shuttered market in 2008 with an unusual vision for how its dozen-stool bars should share the space. Thirteen shops opened that first night, elbow to elbow, sharing benches and smoke with strangers wandering in from the street.