Limone, our house-made lemon highball.
The first glass at Bello Vero.

By mid-May, the Kyoto evenings have already grown long. Walk down from the Philosopher\'s Path to Shirakawa-dori, turn the first corner, and on some days you arrive with a thin film of sweat on your forehead.

On an evening like that, when a guest takes a seat at the counter and asks for "something light to start," the glass most often poured at Bello Vero, our little Italian place in Kitashirakawa, is this one — Limone. Our house-made lemon highball.

In the jar, lemons make friends with time

Limone is built from a lemon infusion we keep ready behind the counter, simply lengthened with soda when you order it.

The infusion is straightforward: lemon peel and juice, steeped in vodka. Leave the peels floating for a few days and the oils slowly come out of them — what was once clear vodka turns a pale, sunlit yellow. The aroma shifts, too. It is no longer the bright tang of squeezed juice but the scent of the peel itself — that green, faintly bitter, unmistakably lemon-y note that lingers on your fingertips after peeling one with a knife.

Juice alone pushes "sour" to the front. Peel alongside it keeps the true aroma of lemon sitting behind the acidity. If Limone tastes a little different from other lemon highballs you may know, it is probably thanks to this small extra step.

The vodka behind it: Stoli

The base spirit is Stoli — a classic Russian-born vodka, long known here in Japan as Stolichnaya.

Vodka is distilled from grain (typically wheat or barley) and filtered repeatedly until what remains is a light, clean spirit with very little of its own character. Stoli runs especially straight down the middle — direct, unflashy, without aggressive aromatics or sweetness. Steep lemon in it and the spirit does not get in the way of the citrus. That, more than anything, is why we choose it.

"A supporting actor for the lemon — light, straight, but with backbone." Think of it that way and we always end up reaching for the same bottle.

Not sweet — and that, it turns out, is the treat

The first sip of a Limone almost always draws the same reaction from our guests.

"Oh — it\'s not sweet."

We don\'t round it out with syrup or liqueur, so what reaches you is just lemon aroma, then acidity, then the lift of the soda, in that order. Nothing heavy from sugar stays on the tongue, and your hand sets the glass down lightly again. Few cocktails earn the phrase "easy to keep drinking" as honestly as this one does.

It is perfect as the very first glass of the evening, on an empty stomach. It is just as good somewhere in the middle of dinner, when you want to rinse the palate clean. It never gets in the way of the food — that may be the situation where we pour Limone most often.

Lemon and rosemary on top

When we send the glass out, we float a single round slice of fresh lemon on top. The idea is to layer raw lemon scent on top of the aroma already drawn from the steeped peel.

Tucked alongside it is a sprig of rosemary. This isn\'t only for looks — when you bring the glass to your mouth, the green, herbal note of the rosemary lifts at your nose, just a small extra bit of theatre. Yellow lemon against the deep green of the rosemary, seen through the ice — it is the very colour of early summer, and even our walk over to your table feels a little lighter.

What it loves on the plate

Limone is a glass that "starts light and stays light right through the middle." Set it next to a heavy red-meat dish or a cream-based pasta and they will not flatter each other. Pair it with the right small plates, however, and the opening of your evening becomes much more pleasant.

• Fish carpaccio with salsa verde — lemon acid and soda quietly wash the fish oils away
• Carrot rapé — its lemon dressing meets Limone head-on, aroma to aroma
• Jamón Serrano — the soda\'s crispness resets the salt and fat on your tongue
• Fried potatoes with anchovy garlic butter / Vegetable fritto — lemon and bubbles slice cleanly through the oil of anything fried
• House-made focaccia — the oil and rosemary in the bread line up exactly with the rosemary on top of the glass

Of course, a single glass on its own before dinner is a lovely use of it too. As the ice slowly melts inside the glass, the drink softens a touch in the second half — easier still to keep sipping. A drink whose flavour shifts together with the time you spend on it, well suited to a slow, drifting hour at the counter.

A glass for a Kitashirakawa evening

After a stroll through Ginkaku-ji and the Philosopher\'s Path, head a little south along Shirakawa-dori and you\'ll find us. Two minutes on foot from the city bus stop "Kitashirakawa," about fifteen minutes from Ginkaku-ji. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 1pm straight through to 10pm — whether you arrive in the early evening or late at night, the evening can begin with a Limone.

Open the door of the Kyoto summer gently, with the scent of lemon and rosemary.