Takuma Watanabe

The Path

Head bartending at Angel’s Share in New York put Takuma Watanabe inside one of the city’s most closely watched cocktail rooms, where precision and atmosphere carried equal weight. The work there helped define the early arc of his career and set the terms of his approach: disciplined, quietly assured, and attentive to the way a drink can hold both craft and personality. Since 2022, that perspective has extended into Martiny’s, where he is founder and beverage director and responsible for the broader orchestration of a venue’s spirit, pacing, and point of view.

The Work Today

At Martiny’s (since 2022), the beverage program sits inside Takuma Watanabe’s control not just at the level of recipe, but at the level of rhythm. As founder and beverage director, he is shaping the bar’s language from the ground up, building a program that has to read as inviting and exacting at once. The drinks point to a style that favors clarity first and detail second: cocktails that meet the guest quickly, then continue to open up. The result is composed without becoming precious, expressive without losing ease. Japan functions here as structure rather than ornament. In Takuma Watanabe’s work, it shows up as a source of flavor, pride, and discipline, giving the bar a clear point of view without over-explaining itself. The program reads as modern, but it stays grounded in traditions and ingredients that carry depth. That leaves the role closer to authorship than performance: the bar speaks in a voice that is recognizably his.

Signature

Takuma Watanabe's signature cocktails include Grand Martiny's, Oriental Manhattan, Tea Ceremony, Mole Sandia, and Pumpkin Carriage. The names move across different registers—classic, playful, evocative—and together they suggest an understanding of how a drink can carry memory, mood, and anticipation before the first sip. The range also points to a bar program that can shift between layered and contemplative, or immediate and approachable, depending on the guest and the occasion.

In Their Words “Because it can be made with a variety of ingredients like barley, sweet potatoes, sesame, and more, it has lots of character, and the koji creates unique flavors.” The quote points to an ingredient-led way of thinking, where breadth and texture matter, and where fermentation, grain, and subtle sweetness are part of the same argument. It describes a maker attentive to nuance, but only when that complexity comes through the material itself. “I chose these elements because I am proud of Japan, and as a drinkable product I knew [the cocktail] had to be easy to understand and enjoy.” Here, composition and translation sit together: pride in place is being distilled into something the guest can read quickly and enjoy without decoding. The line frames hospitality as clarity, with enough restraint to let the drink do the work.

Acclaim

Martiny's won Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar (2023). Takuma Watanabe's honors include Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service (semifinalist) (2025), U.S. Bartender of the Year (nominee) (2025), Bartender of the Year (2024), Best Bartender in North America (2024), and Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar (2023). Taken together, the recognitions track a fast, sustained rise, with the awards marking both individual skill and the momentum around Martiny’s.