Seventh Heaven arrives in Roppongi with a twist on its name and another for its cocktails.

In addition to being a loyal friend and skilled martial artist, Final Fantasy VII’s Tifa is a bartender, serving up drinks at the bar Seventh Heaven, which also serves as the initial base of operations for Cloud and rest of the game’s heroes. Within the game world, if you want to knock back a couple of cold ones at Tifa’s bar after work, you’d need to head to the Sector 7 slums of the town of Midgar, but during Japan’s Golden Week vacation period a new branch of Seventh Heaven opened up for thirsty Final Fantasy fans in the real world in Tokyo.

Given a slight renaming to Lemon’s Heaven, the saloon welcomed customers to its popup location in the downtown Roppongi neighborhood, specifically inside the Roppongi Hills entertainment complex. There’s an exit that takes you directly from the Roppongi subway station into Roppongi Hills, via a set of very long escalators, and situated above them was a massive sign featuring Sephiroth, who recently appeared in an ad for Lemon’s Heaven’s sponsor, Asahi.

The bar was set up in the outdoor O-Yane Plaza section of Roppongi Hills, and since it was only going to be open for five days, it wouldn’t have been a shock if it was just a couple of tarps with artwork printed on them to create the illusion of a building. In a pleasant surprise, though, the Final Fantasy bar was an actual building, with four proper walls and a roof.

Lemon’s Heaven didn’t take reservations, and there was a lengthy line of people waiting to get in. Thankfully, the queue moved quicky, in part because the bar was standing only and customers were asked to share tables with other groups if they had less than four people in their party.

After about a 15-minute wait, we were ushered inside, where the interior was bathed in a warm, inviting glow from the lighting fixtures.

There was another line to get up to the counter and place your order, but this one flowed smoothly too, since the menu was pretty compact. Lemon’s Heaven was a cross promotion between Final Fantasy and Asahi’s Future Lemon canned cocktails, and the drinks of offer were three different versions of it: the Original, Plain (dry), and Strong (higher alcohol) versions, all priced at 300 yen (US$1.95).

Up at the counter was a handwritten message from Tifa, welcoming the day’s customers…

…above the bar was a TV playing occasional snippets from Shinra News Network…

…and there was even a Volcano Bombs pinball machine, although only for decorative purposes.

300 yen is a little more than Future Lemon sells for in stores, but the extra charge wasn’t just for the ambiance, as you also got a packet of trail mix with mixed nuts and dried fruit.

And in fact, looking around, the most popular order of all was to splurge a little for the 350-yen set of a Future Lemon and a cup of Sacre Lemon.

Sacre Lemon is a popular brand of lemon-flavored shaved ice, loved for its strong citrus flavor that comes from each cup having an actual lemon slice inside of it, and “Has an actual lemon slice inside of it” is also the big selling point for Future Lemon.

The lemon slice really does give Future Lemon a crisp, fresh flavor on its own, but the Lemon’s Heaven staff recommended scooping some of the slushy Sacre Lemon into the drink, which kicked the refreshing sensation up a notch even higher, and was very satisfying on a day when Tokyo was finally getting some spring warmth in its weather.

Sadly, Lemon’s Heaven’s Roppongi run is now done. However, with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth coming to Switch 2, Xbox, and PC next month, and at least one more game to go in the Final Fantasy VII remake project, maybe we’ll get lucky and it’ll pop up again somewhere. In the meantime, at least there are two new permanent Square Enix Cafes on the way, one in Japan and one in the U.S.

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