Yabani, a new cocktail bar mixing Arabian and Japanese flavors, is settling into the former Nihon Whiskey Lounge space in the Mission. Opening on Friday, November 6, it comes from the owner behind amaro-focused Bar 821, Tsunami Sushi, and the former tenant, Nihon. The idea, says beverage director Mohammed Zagha, is to bring an Arab bar to San Francisco, naming it Yabani after the Arabic word for Japanese. “We were playing with the idea because [owner Khaled Dajani] is Palestinian, I’m half-Jordanian,” Zagha says. “We both lived in West Asia, and we’re thinking about all the different flavors … At the same time, we’re just thinking about how we still want to keep Nihon’s soul in it a little bit.”
With that idea in mind, Zagha set about experimenting with the flavors and found throughlines in how the ingredients could work together. He’s turned that into an inventive cocktail menu that zigzags between cultural references and ingredients. The highball menu is reflective of some of the work Zagha has done at Bar 821, where they allow visitors to choose a style of drink (fizzy, refreshing, spirit-forward), flavor profile (floral, herbaceous, fruity, or bitter), and type of spirit.
At Yabani, the highballs allow visitors to once again choose a spirit, such as vodka, shochu, arak, or whiskey, and a flavor profile of floral, fruity, herbaceous, sour, nutty, and umami. The breakdown of those flavors is where one can see Zagha’s experimentation come into play; floral, for instance, sees a damask rose hydrosol pair with toasted kombu, while a fruity flavor profile combines watermelon with yuzu kosho and vanilla. Sour, meanwhile, is composed of sumac and umeboshi. The nutty and umami flavors are on nitro, where tahini and neroli (orange) hydrosol and pistachio foam compose the nutty flavor, while tomato with mugicha, or roasted barley tea, thyme hydrosol, and soy sauce impart umami to the drinks. Visitors can mix the flavors in combination with nearly any alcohol, and they can even be made spirit-free, as all the flavors are alcohol-free and on tap.
Sour highball made with Japanese whisky and sumac salt rim. Yabani
A fruit highball with mezcal and pearl onion garnish. Yabani
Zagha has even gone the extra step to create his own mineral CO2 blend, deep-diving into making a sparkling water that has just the right bubbles and bite. He even adds his own minerals and acids to the kegs to coax more flavors out of the ingredients, such as malic acid in the fruity flavor mix, creating a “juicier” watermelon experience, Zagha says. “Each of the cocktails is dialed in for exactly what flavor we’re working with,” he says. “That way we can get the maximum fizz, the maximum flavor, but also how it falls on your whole palate — and that’s why we created this whole mineral program with this whole thing.”
But it’s not just highballs on deck; Zagha has also created his own take on classic cocktails in the vein of Arab and Japanese flavors. The Hinajiku, similar to a margarita, features arak and Japanese sake paired with a tea syrup made from spearmint, lemongrass, and cardamom — and topped off with a shichimi togarashi salt rim. Habibioni is a play on the Negroni, mixing mezcal and shochu with a house date aperitivo made with date puree and Granada-Vallet, a pomegranate amaro from Mexico. A yuzu vermouth tops things off. The Luisa O.F., Yabani’s Old Fashioned, is just as unconventional: Japanese whisky pairs with sugar and banana-bergamot bitters, served over an Earl Grey, lemon verbena, and mint tea ice cube meant to slowly add flavor as it melts. On the “simpler” side of things, the bar will also serve a more traditional arak and water, which is how the spirit is typically served (the combination turns the drink a cloudy white), but with a spear of cucumber and lemon peel. Meanwhile, the Bakanana is the bar’s ode to the Mission as a michelada made with sake and arak, house michelada mix, Japanese lager, and a house riff on chamoy dubbed Barkume.
A floral highball made with gin, with a rose petal salt rim. Yabani
Yabani martini, with olives tossed in za’atar and togarashi. Yabani
It’s an ambitious bar program, and the Nihon space has been updated to match. Dajani and Zagha didn’t want the bar to have “kitschy” decor, pointing to Arab restaurants with lanterns, pillows, and mosaics, Zagha says. “Over there [in Jordan or Lebanon or Egypt], you’re walking around and everything is posters and tags and graffiti, and inside is very simple furniture, and it’s all about the vibe with the people,” Zagha says. “… So it was like, let’s get that idea in and make it street-style bars that you go to in those countries.” Zagha brought in much of the decor seen at Yabani, thanks to a 2019 trip to Jordan where he acquired about 50 movie posters from an old, defunct cinema. He kept them in storage, and when the idea for Yabani solidified, he brought them out to be collaged on one of the major walls of the lounge. He added a mural on top, and a friend added a peace sign to the wall. “We can all live very peacefully together, and that’s what we want the space to be: music, great cocktails, and just everyone from every single culture, especially here in the Mission.”
The bar will launch in November with just Fridays and Saturdays to start, before a fuller grand opening in January 2027; they’re also bringing in DJs for a loungey vibe. Once the bar is settled, they’ll introduce sake bottle service, plus a food component, likely in February. Zagha will work with the chef at Tsunami Sushi to create a menu that follows the Arab Japanese theme, with items such as a grilled cheese sandwich with halloumi and white miso, or a Japanese hot dog with wasabi mayo and za’atar. When talking about the mural, Zagha says, “This basically just showcases the new generation of us wanting no imperial power, no kings, nothing like that. It’s all about us as a community doing things together and for all of us to roam free. So this whole thing is about liberty, about us being together, community.”
Yabani (1779 Folsom Street, San Francisco) debuts on Friday, November 6, and is open 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday, with expanded hours to come in January.
