Istanbul from 6 to 6 | Beyond Hi-Fi and craft drinks: what a listening bar is, and isn’t
Born in Japan and now spreading across the big cities of Europe and the US, audiophile bars represent the spread of an analogue culture that puts experience, process and quality ahead of uniformity and fast consumption. One of the current versions of this approach, which brings food, drink and music together, is taproomx in Asmalı Mescit. In this instalment of the “Istanbul from 6 to 6” series, Can Çakmakçı, one of taproomx’s partners, tells us how the feel of vinyl and craft beer took the shape of a place.
The audiophile bars that have multiplied in the big cities of Europe and the US, especially since the pandemic, are about more than the aesthetic poses shown off on Instagram. They represent the spread of an analogue culture that puts experience, process and quality first, in response to the uniformity and fast consumption brought by digitalisation.
For the same reason, it should come as no surprise that the concept originated in Japan, a country that has managed to fuse quality, craft and technology in a single crucible. Inspired by early examples such as Japan’s jazz kissa (jazz cafés), listening bars have spread across Europe, mostly combining food and drink with music: small, simple but artisanal plates and craft drinks meet custom-designed Hi-Fi sound systems and music played from vinyl.
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