from “le détroit” · the strait
A small Japanese cocktail lounge named for a David Bowie album opened quietly under Book Tower and let the city find it on its own.
Most new bars in Detroit pick a moment to announce themselves. The Aladdin Sane skipped the moment. The cocktail lounge in the sublevel of Book Tower opened in January 2024 with no fanfare, then spent months letting the city catch up to it.
The name comes from David Bowie's 1973 album. The room is a Japanese-style whiskey and cocktail lounge. The venue describes itself plainly on its own site as "a strange little place at the base of the stairs," seating eight at the bar and 29 more in the lounge. Its bar program, the lounge says, draws on the tenets of Japanese bartending: gather the best spirits from around the world, express their essence, and find balance.
The lounge sits inside the Method Co. portfolio that fills Book Tower at 1265 Washington Blvd., the same group behind the building's other dining rooms, including the Japanese restaurant Hiroki-San that shares the lower level. Method Co.'s renovation of the tower brought a cluster of bars and restaurants under one roof. The Aladdin Sane is the one that stays hardest to find.
The design leans into that. Per Hour Detroit, the room was overseen by Stokes Architecture and Design with Method Co., and the walls carry custom work from Detroit artist Reverend Michael Allan. The whiskey list runs deep, with Japanese pours like Yamazaki and Hibiki alongside Scottish bottles, including a Glenfiddich Grand Yozakura finished in awamori casks that the bar has billed as the only one of its kind in a Michigan bar.
The cocktails take their cues from the namesake. Hour Detroit notes drinks built around Bowie tracks, among them a rice-infused gin number called Sake and Strange Divine and a miso-touched old fashioned. Patrick Jobst, beverage director for Method Co. and Book Tower, told Hour Detroit the space "feels like a room to drink whiskey in."
That was the whole idea. Detroit did not have much in this register before Method Co. arrived, and rather than open loud, The Aladdin Sane opened quiet and let word travel. You reach it down the same stone stairway as Hiroki-San, past the host stand, into a room most people walk by without knowing it is there.
1265 Washington Blvd., Detroit. Tuesday to Thursday 5 to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday 5 p.m. to midnight, Sunday 5 to 9 p.m.
One dispatch a week. No tracking, no filler. Free, always.