Page 1 - CerTek - SAKAYA -9-21-16

SAKAYA

The journey of Rick Smith and his wife Hiroko Furukawa from simple fans of sake - a traditional form of
Japanese rice wine - to full-scale experts and entrepreneurs involved identifying a “gaping void” in their local
market of New York City - and possibly, according to Smith, a touch of naivete.

“My wife and I are passionate about sake,” said Smith, a long-time associate publisher at Food & Wine Magazine.
“We found in our search to find good sake in New York City that there were places that sold it, but nowhere
where anybody could help you or advise you or answer your questions. So without any experience (and
probably a little naively), we decided we wanted to do it.”