Why we started with rice, not grapes

Every cocktail bar in Hội An reaches for the same bottles: gin, rum, the odd craft spirit flown in from somewhere else. We wanted to start from what was already here. Vietnam has been fermenting rice into spirit for centuries, quietly, in kitchens and back rooms, long before anyone called it a category.

So Hèm opens behind Vietnamese-made saké and rice spirits, not as a novelty pour but as the base of the whole list. A saké base takes cocktail-making somewhere gin and rum can't: softer, rounder, closer to the food it sits next to. Japan gave rice spirits their craft and their reputation. We think Vietnam's version deserves the same.