In Korea, “there’s this idea of rounds of consuming,” says Irene Yoo, soju skilled and co-founder of Brooklyn’s newly opened Orion Bar, which pays homage to Korean consuming traditions. “First spherical, possibly you’ll begin with Korean barbecue and get meals and drinks there, then possibly you’ll go to extra of a pojangmacha—a Korean pub-style place—and do extra meals and drinks there, so on and so forth… We’re kind of a second-round, third-round kind of place.”
Tucked right into a residential road in a shiny yellow constructing in Bushwick, Orion Bar isn’t valuable. You may get a Negroni there, or you will get a soju bomb or a frozen tropical drink served in a Spam can—the objective is to supply many factors of entry into the raucous, communal type of Korean consuming that Yoo and her husband, bar co-owner Nick Dodge, love.
Orion Bar’s informal ambiance matches properly inside in the present day’s prevailing bar aesthetic, which favors nonchalance, a scarcity of pretension, and, as a rule, slushies. (Orion Bar has two of the latter on the menu.) The cocktail record, illustrated by Yoo and designed by Jean Pyo, is a tightly edited group of 9 drinks, all based mostly on classics. The simplicity is intentional: “When Nick and I am going out—that is typical of business folks, I feel—you don’t need to futz with one thing sophisticated,” says Yoo. Plus, established templates supply a benchmark, from which Yoo and Dodge supply their perspective. “That is how we’re presenting our viewpoint.”
That POV builds on age-old Korean consuming traditions, however couldn’t really feel extra rooted in proper now. Taken as a complete, the menu is a cross part of in the present day’s most emblematic developments, methods and elements. The Negroni, for instance, a shaken model of the drink, incorporates medium-grain Korean rice for texture; the transfer is much like a fashionable method that calls on the starchiness of sushi rice. Omija, or dried magnolia berries, that are an more and more widespread sight in each high-concept cocktails and spirits, supply 5 flavors—candy, bitter, umami, spicy and bitter—in a single infusion that’s used within the spritz and served as a shot. And, like many bars publish–Martini Mania, there may be an extra-dirty Martini. Orion Bar’s model will get its brininess from dasima (a kelp, often known as kombu, usually utilized in soup inventory) and shiitake mushrooms, and it’s constructed on Oka Kura Bermutto and Tokki Soju Black, which was based by an artisanal producer utilizing conventional strategies to make a higher-proof, “clear rice spirit,” in response to Dodge.
Past cocktails, the bar’s spirits lists spotlight soju and makgeolli, obtainable on their very own or in a couple of party-ready mixtures. Their brothback—a staple of the boilermaker renaissance—gives a complement to soju within the type of spicy ramyun. The Soju Power Bomb, a mixture of samgyetang-infused soju and a Korean vitality drink, in the meantime, parlays the food-as-drinks development in a pared-back bundle. Samgyetang is a Korean dish during which medicinal herbs like ginseng are stuffed into the cavity of a hen; at grocery shops like H Mart, the herbs may be discovered dried and pre-mixed in a ready-to-make package. “I used to be like, Effectively, what should you took that and infused it into soju?” says Yoo. “It type of ended up being a extra well-rounded model of a ginseng soju, which is one thing that’s actually fashionable—however costly—in Korea.” Orion Bar pairs the infusion with Bacchus-D, “which I prefer to name a ‘Korean outdated man vitality drink,’” says Yoo. It’s a high-octane serve that feels proper at residence with the “second spherical,” rallying vibe of Orion, and fills the requisite name for one thing caffeinated within the period of the Espresso Martini and the carajillo. “That is type of our lowbrow model,” says Dodge.
Right here, a take a look at the elements and methods that make Orion Bar’s menu really feel decidedly of the second.
