When you walk through the doors of a certain short, graffiti-painted building on Eldridge Street, your eyes might convince you that a sushi party is about to take place. The Lower East Side space was, after all, formerly Bar Uchū, a Michelin-starred restaurant with a sushi counter up front and a kaiseki bar out back. The room still captures what you would expect from a high-end Japanese concept: minimalist, sleek and bright, with a contrast of white and light hinoki wood. But when you settle into your plush chair, a very different kind of experience begins. You’re not here for omakase sushi, you’re here for Cocktail Omakase.
No one is hitting on that. This latest venture from Greg BoehmS ‘ Cocktail Kingdom Hospitality Groupin collaboration with Tokyo’s Open the ribbonnamed as bluntly as possible: Cocktail Omakase. Boehm, responsible for New York hot spots Katana kittens, cat, Super good and The Cabinet, as well as the now-ubiquitous holiday bar sensation Miracle, developed the concept for Cocktail Omakase with his wife, Jessica BoehmAND Open the ribbonYujiro “Kiyo” Kiyosaki and Kazuaki “Kazu” Nagao. The experience goes a little like this.
You take your seat at the 12-seat, L-shaped counter and are greeted with a warm towel and a small welcome drink. For opening night, this was kind of a ram. Then you choose between three menus: non-alcoholic, low ABV or “spirit”. Over the course of an hour, you get four cocktails, created from the lead of the bar Mathew Resler and consultation with the beverage director Jillian Vosein collaboration with Bar Libre. The non-alcoholic menu naturally sticks to all non-alcoholic beverages, the low-ABV menu begins with a non-alcoholic drink followed by three lower-alcohol creations, and the lively menu progresses from zero-alcohol to low-alcohol to two full-strength cocktails. Each of them is served with an accompanying bite. It’s not strictly a pairing; more like a snack to complete your drinking experience. The bites are the same across all drink menus, the only choice is vegetarian or not.
Those menus will change every two weeks, according to Boehm, just as an omakase sushi menu changes according to what’s in season. The first iteration of the vibrant menu started with the Ember Highball, a soft drink that was smoky, sweet and tart with lapsang souchong tea, cedar, local honey and plum soda. There was something a little like barbecue sauce, but it was intriguing and refreshing enough to warrant further consideration. This came alongside a soy-marinated jam egg, cooked to perfection – all chef’s Phillip Kirschen-ClarkThe bites of this experience are successful, but the sweet egg is a triumph that this writer would have liked about six more.
The second low ABV cocktail was the drink winner. A Tomatillo Shiso Sour with gin, citrus and soda was bright and herbaceous, with a hint of sweetness balanced by acidity and foam – as refreshing as it is interesting. This came with a satisfying, umami-filled miso baked clam. The third drink, a Sushi Sazerac, was a rare weak spot. I was excited by the menu description: shochu, rye whiskey, nori, aperitivo, soy and soba cha demerara, bonita bitters, absinthe and melon flavor. There’s a lot going on there, and unfortunately, the rye prevailed. Not bad, but not the wildly layered flavor journey promised.
A Mizunara Negroni with ume ended the omakase on a high note – it was like a classic Negroni with the bitterness of Campari rounded out, finishing with oaky, slightly sweet, floral notes. The biggest bite came here: super-crunch chicken marinated in koji, followed by some ume patties in sour shiso sugar, I wish they were bagged and sold. Think elevated Sour Patch Kids that melt in your mouth.
Great shiso smoothies and jam eggs aside, one thing is sure to jump out at anyone reading this description: four drinks in an hour? Yes, you read that right, and it is QUICK. The cocktails are what Boehm calls “Tokyo-sized,” at about three to four ounces each. They didn’t look significantly smaller than a standard New York bar drink, and I started to feel a bit of whiplash as a new drink would be dropped in front of me before I’d taken more than three sips of the last one. (I am, admittedly, a slow drinker.) This isn’t the kind of experience where you’ll linger and take your time chatting—you have to concentrate to keep going.
This is not necessarily a bad thing. This whole omakase is only $55, half of what I expected based on the large amount of drinks and bites, their quality and the elevated atmosphere. Greg and Jessica Boehm say they’ve worked hard to stick to that price point to make this experience accessible (it’s all relative, of course), and while I wouldn’t mind paying a bit more for a longer slot, I think it might just require some reframing for guests. You’re not settling in for a long, quiet evening. This is his event, an hour where you immerse yourself in four different drinks that demand attention with their ingredients and flavors, as well as the accompanying foods. And when your hour is up, you can go for that more relaxed experience at Bar 7, a hidden seven-seat bar in the back of the space for both reservations and walk-ins, where you can order drinks and food à la carte.
There’s been talk of a growing omakase cocktail trend over the past year or so, with omakase options on menus at New York spots like Clement Bar AND Atomix. But Cocktail Omakase, as its name suggests, stands out in its total commitment to this kind of experience.
“I’ve been going to Tokyo to visit the cocktail bars for years,” says Boehm. “I drink more cocktails in Tokyo in a year than anywhere else in the world combined. The bar experience is incredible and not something you can get in other parts of the world.” Boehm credits this with an increased emphasis on hospitality, precision in mixology and smaller, more affordable cocktails that allow you to have more drinks and hit more bars in one evening.
The Boehms also love omakase sushi and began thinking about how to bring the experience of a Tokyo cocktail bar to New York through the lens of an authentic omakase. The idea began to evolve after the Boehms teamed up with one of their favorite bars in Tokyo, Bar Libre, as well as partner CKHG. Greg Nolen.
When looking for a space, they specifically looked for former sushi bars to tap into that vibe—Boehm says there wasn’t much to change about the location they chose, other than details like restoring the original wood floors and adapting the back bar to do drinks, not sushi. A large wooden canopy hangs over part of the bar, rounded and twisted; Boehm likes the way it reflects a bartender stirring a drink. The room effectively expresses its Japanese omakase inspiration, but when your first drink arrives, you’ll feel the ambience of a cocktail bar set in it.
That the menu will rotate every two weeks isn’t just a nod to the seasonality of sushi omakase; it also promises guests that they can keep coming back and discover something new each time. Without it, it might be hard to imagine anyone needing to do this more than once—or, at most, three times—after trying the non-alcoholic, low-ABV, lively trail. While the hour window is quick, at $55, it feels like a drinks-driven version of the omakase experience that could easily stretch beyond two hours and feel more like a grand special-occasion event. Boehm wants people to be able to incorporate Cocktail Omakase into any kind of night, whether it’s before or after dinner or a show, or the only thing they go out for before heading home to relieve the babysitter.
“Cocktail drinkers are looking more for a whole experience now,” says Boehm. “Of course they want a delicious cocktail, but having four drinks with four bites of food on our watch, compared to just one drink, is more of this choose-your-own-travel experience…and people can fit that into their busy lifestyles.” At $55 for a concise hour and with the lure of new drinks each time, I can see adding a Cocktail Omakase visit to an evening’s plans every now and then. I can just let my friend know that I won’t talk until the class is over.
