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The Adirondack Café, a live-jazz spot in Jimbocho. The name comes from Adirondack Park in New York State, where owner Takizawa went camping with his family. The records and collectibles he gathered in New York fill the whole place, and every Tuesday and Wednesday night there is live jazz. Photographer ELLI dropped in on a sold-out show. (From installment 2 of “Photographer ELLI’s Town Walks,” Hon no Machi, July 2025 issue)
The café is named after Adirondack Park, where the family went camping just before returning to Japan from New York—a place full of memories.
—Owner Takizawa
This is the second walk by photographer ELLI, who says she “never had any connection to Jimbocho in my life.” The live-jazz spot The Adirondack Café takes its name, owner Takizawa explains, from the Adirondack Mountains that rise north of New York.
New Yorkers’ spiritual home
The café: live jazz on Tuesday and Wednesday nights
Live jazz every Tuesday and Wednesday night. In April I dropped in on a sold-out show. That night’s quartet featured alto saxophonist Higashide, a close friend of the owner since his New York days; pianist Ayako Mihara, who had just recorded a CD in New York; and a pair of rising young players. From the glossy, sensual tone of the sax on down, the powerful playing was both soothing and seriously cool. The room was full of regulars, lost in first-rate jazz over food and drinks. It’s a place you’ll want to come back to again and again.
Signature dishes: hamburgers and taco rice
The kitchen is run by the owner’s wife, Seiko, and their son, Yuki. The most popular dishes are the hamburger and the taco rice (an Okinawan favorite of taco fillings served over rice).
The owner: to New York in search of jazz
Talk with him and a deep passion for jazz, and a love of family and nature, come pouring out. In sixth grade he decided he would make music his career. In junior high he discovered jazz. After college he worked in cable music broadcasting and at a jazz kissaten in Ginza. Then he went to New York in search of jazz. To collect records, he would fly anywhere in Europe or America.
After returning to Japan in 1995, he spent 12 years working at a record shop serving collectors, then opened The Adirondack Café and filled it with the carefully chosen collection he had built over the years. Amid vast wilderness of mountains and lakes, with nothing to hear but birdsong—the name of the place whose stillness captivated him became the name of his café.
Shop information
▶Shop page (map and related articles)
Café & Bar The Adirondack Café
Address: 1-2-9 Kanda-Jimbocho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Phone: 03-5577-6811
Hours: Weekdays 12:00–22:00 / Closed Sundays, Mondays and national holidays
Live jazz: Every Tuesday and Wednesday night (as of our 2025 visit)
Nearest station: Jimbocho
▶View on Google Maps
*Address, phone and closing days are from the Hon no Machi member shop list (September 2026 issue). Hours and other details may change; please check with the shop before you visit.
Photographer ELLI’s Town Walks: All installments
▶See every installment and a map of the shops ELLI has visited on the series page
◀Previous: #1 Luncheon
▶Next: #3 Hasebe
#1 Luncheon
#2 The Adirondack Café (this article)
#3 Hasebe
#4 Toyodaen & Daisen
#5 @Wonder
#6 Book House Cafe
#7 Kissa Hotaka
#8 Mamekobo
#9 Banuken
#10 Asanoya
#11 Yamagataya Paper Shop
#12 Kissa Poupée
#13 Ochanomizu Hotel Shoryukan
#14 Kanda Awahei
#15 Daiki Shoe Store
#16 Sakaiya Sports
#17 Fuji Record Sha
Eri Ito (ELLI)
Photographer. In her Hon no Machi series “Photographer ELLI’s Town Walks,” she visits shops in Kanda, Ochanomizu and Jimbocho every month.
This article introduces installment 2 of “Photographer ELLI’s Town Walks” (photos and text by Eri Ito), published in the July 2025 issue (Vol. 3) of Hon no Machi, the community salon magazine of Kanda, Ochanomizu and Jimbocho.
▶Read the July 2025 issue of Hon no Machi (PDF, in Japanese)
Founded in 1980, Hon no Machi brings you the latest from Book Town every month, together with Jimbocho’s bookstores, publishers, cafés and galleries.
▶Back issues of our series are being published on our note page (in Japanese)
日本語で読む — Read this article in Japanese