Festival dedicated to sake will be staged at select Dallas restaurants

A special event dedicated to sake is coming to Dallas: Called Sake Week, it'll take up residence at select restaurants across the city, with sake pairings and special sake cocktails. For four days, it'll be sake sake sake, everywhere you turn.

Held from March 20-23, the event is sponsored by the Sake Brewers Association of North America, a promotional group founded by North American sake brewers in early 2019, and the National Tax Authority of Japan, with a goal to highlight the tradition of sake and its culinary adaptability.

The first Sake Week took place in Dallas in 2024. In 2025, it returns with an expanded footprint: an accompanying Sake Week in Austin as well.

A word about sake
Sake fans appreciate it as a versatile and food-friendly beverage — but one that is perhaps overlooked outside Japanese restaurants. They know it's brewed with rice, water, yeast, and koji, a fermentation ingredient that creates alcohol, and can be an ideal partner for all flavors, not just sushi: barbecue, seafood, even spicy dishes.

Sake Week events
The campaign will launch in Dallas with two events on March 3, which all participating restaurants are required to attend, ahead of the event, and include an interactive, hands-on educational sake seminar at Dallas College Culinary Institute, 11830 Webb Chapel Rd #1200, and an industry gathering at Lady Love 310 W. Seventh St. in Bishop Arts.

In Austin, there'll be a similar event on March 4 at Texas Sake Co., at 440 E. St. Elmo Rd. — bringing together sake experts, sommeliers, media, and hospitality professionals with information on the pairing potential of sake.

Throughout Sake Week, participating restaurants will offer sake flights, pairings and sake cocktails. Dallas restaurants include Lady Love and Asian Mint. In Austin, participating restaurants include Lao'd, Fukumoto, and Texas Sake Co.

The confusing element is that they say it's "Sake Week" — when it seems to be "Sake Weekend" — since it runs from Thursday, March 20 to Sunday, March 23. But according to a spokesperson, the team felt that "Sake Week" sounded better than "Sake Weekend." We live in a world where the meaning of words does not matter as much as how they sound.

Weston Konishi, President of the Sake Brewers Association of North America president Weston Konishi says in a statement that their mission is "to educate and inspire a new generation of sake enthusiasts—to show them that sake is not just for Japanese cuisine, but for an entire spectrum of culinary experiences, much like fine wine and craft beer."