The Mission Welcomes an Arab and Japanese Crossover Cocktail Bar in November

The Hinajiku cocktail, with togarashi rim, at Yabani. | Yabani 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 a