Detective Bar Progress

Yellow crime scene tape stretches across the door. Inside, the outline of a splayed body is painted onto the floor. Detective gear is scattered about. It’s a foreboding scene, one where you’d expect to find blood and gore rather than booze.

Tokyo is home to countless themed cafes and bars, each one more imaginative than the next. While the likes of Vampire Cafe or Ninja Akasaka are perfectly fine options with their intricate designs and foods, the staff there are, sadly, not actual vampires and ninjas, but merely skilled cosplayers. At the Progress Detective Bar, however, things are quite different.

The people crafting your cocktails at this theme bar are merely moonlighting as bartenders. By day, they perform their duties as legitimate private detectives. They spend their time tracking down missing people or sleuthing around crime scenes.

By night, they’ll make you a drink, tell you about their jobs, and possibly even offer you their services. It’s their way of better connecting with the general public. 

In addition to a chance to chat with the detectives, the bar also lets you pretend you’re at a real crime scene. You can scan the room for bugs (the eavesdropping kind, that is) or get your mugshot taken. Pay a bit extra, and you can even try some fingerprinting.