--- description: Many people know sake as a hot, often medicinal drink served at Japanese restaurants. But the rice wine is breaking out of its place in the U.S. as a mere sushi sidekick. More refined artisanal and... title: Cold Sake Is Getting Hot image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # Cold Sake Is Getting Hot by [Lisa Mclaughlin](/author/lisa-mclaughlin/) Mar 22, 2004 5:00 AM CUT by [Lisa Mclaughlin](/author/lisa-mclaughlin/) Mar 22, 2004 5:00 AM CUT Many people know sake as a hot, often medicinal drink served at Japanese restaurants. But the rice wine is breaking out of its place in the U.S. as a mere sushi sidekick. More refined artisanal and premium sakes, served chilled, have been turning up on the wine lists of top non-Asian restaurants. In New York City the wine list at the posh French-inspired Chanterelle features a wide variety of sakes. In San Francisco, sake is paired with the smoked meats at Memphis Minnie’s Barbecue and is sold at a sake-only retail store, True Sake, which stocks more than 125 brands. The beverage is also the subject of a major exhibition running through June at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, Calif. –By Lisa McLaughlin ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6737992/cold-sake-is-getting-hot/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6737992/cold-sake-is-getting-hot/"},"headline":"Cold Sake Is Getting Hot","datePublished":"2004-03-22T05:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-22T07:13:19.953Z","description":"Many people know sake as a hot, often medicinal drink served at Japanese restaurants. But the rice wine is breaking out of its place in the U.S. as a mere sushi sidekick. More refined artisanal and...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6737992/cold-sake-is-getting-hot/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lisa Mclaughlin","url":"https://time.com/author/lisa-mclaughlin/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6737992/cold-sake-is-getting-hot/","name":"Cold Sake Is Getting Hot"}}]}] ```