Keanu Reeves has been in Manhattan for about six hours. It’s a quick turn-and-burn from Los Angeles ending in a nondescript building on the Lower East Side. From the outside, the only thing to suggest something interesting might be going on within is the presence of three bouncers clad in all black guarding the doorway, one holding an iPad.
Once you’ve been granted access past the doors, a few hostesses do a redundant name check ahead of the evening’s hush-hush Japanese whisky-tasting event to commemorate Suntory’s 100th anniversary.
A long flight of stairs ends in a makeshift Japanese bar. Vinyl records, highballs, and neon signs add mood. A curtained hallway leads into a grand dining space where 100 seats along two long tables await guests.
In an hour, the basement of this space (which very much resembles the kind of industrial venue where the character of his current most popular franchise might have left those guards in a lifeless pile) will fill with celebrities, influencers, and whisky writers, who are in attendance for the debut of two new whiskies from Japan’s best-known brand.
Actor Darren Criss and Saturday Night Live cast members Heidi Gardner and Sarah Sherman are among the…
