Photograph by Ben Rollins
At Buckhead’s Brush Sushi, shiitake mushrooms float in a carafe of whiskey, the remainder like lava lamp blobs. These mushrooms will not burn, however they’ll finally impart their earthy taste to the whiskey, which is able to then be utilized in umami cocktails. A combination of mushroom-infused whiskey, mezcal, honey and house-blended shoyu, garnished with a hickory-smoked cherry, the cocktail is an uncommon mixture that one way or the other works. “Including these hickory-smoked cherries, sipping backwards and forwards and consuming — the garnish simply type of blew it for me,” mentioned Mona McAllen, Brash’s beverage director.
A number of omakase eating places, or omakase counters inside established eating places, have opened across the metro in recent times. Two, Hayakawa and Mujo, have been even awarded a Michelin star. Omakase eating asks company to relinquish management to the cooks working their craft behind the sushi bar; Lately, bartenders will ask them for a similar courtesy.
Drinks at omakase eating places aren’t off-menu just like the meals—normally, you’ll be able to choose your cocktail from an inventory. Nonetheless, that checklist is made up of creatively crafted drinks which can be designed to play properly with the meals positioned in entrance of you. It’s normal for eating places’ cocktail lists to conflict with their meals menus, says James Sung, beverage director at Umi in Buckhead. “Our aim is to intensify the cocktails and accompany the eating expertise,” he says. “It nearly acts as a secondary sauce for the meal or a phenomenal edible garnish.”
Beneath, three omakase eating places in Atlanta with notable cocktail packages.
Photograph by Andrew Thomas Lee
mujo
A sleekly designed respite from the busy environment of West Midtown, Mujo has earned a repute for its superbly ready sushi and chic Japanese delicacies. All the pieces right here is finished with function, from the eclectic playlist to the fastidiously positioned can lights above every diner. Cocktails are definitely no exception. “We attempt to reference the classics as a lot as doable,” says Muzo’s bartender Michael Satuski Haku refers to conventional Western-style drinks with Japanese spirits comparable to vodka and kome shochu.
The latter is a spirit not often seen on American menus. Shochu is a barely candy Japanese distilled spirit, constituted of rice or different starches comparable to candy potato; Its distillation course of leads to a a lot greater alcohol content material than its brewed cousin. It is a superb companion to different spirits, and Satuski loves to make use of it. “Speaking to company about shochu is unquestionably thrilling, and makes folks excited to strive it,” he says.
You may discover Shochu at Mujo’s Metropolis Pop cocktail, named for a style of music well-liked in Japan within the 80s, which regularly turns up on restaurant playlists. It’s made with candy potato shochu, further dry vermouth, grape liqueur and piment d’espellet. “This piment d’espellet underscores a few of the vegetal, earthy notes in shochu,” says Satusky, “and brings a whisper of warmth to the glass.”
Photograph by Ben Rollins
brush
Brush, which relocated to Buckhead from Decatur final August, hosts the O by Brush Omakase Room, a full eating room serving Edom-style sushi, stir-fried greens and ramen at lunch. The contemporary begin gave McAllen a welcome alternative to push his limits when crafting cocktails. “I wish to make enjoyable issues which can be accessible,” she says. “So once we opened right here, I actually wished to have one thing that was slightly extra difficult, perhaps took slightly longer.”
Working example: milk punch with greater than 10 substances, which could be McAllen’s private. “I wished to create a drink that jogged my memory of my mother’s banana pudding, however mixed it with Asian citrus parts,” she says. It is a labor-intensive course of that requires a number of spices to be poured into the milk earlier than permitting the curd to curdle, leading to a superbly clear, not-too-sweet concoction that hits notes of banana and vanilla.
McAllen’s creativity extends past the cocktail checklist; He’s now ingesting non-alcoholic drinks. After Brash’s proprietor and chef, Jason Liang, taught her easy methods to make kombucha, she began taking part in round with completely different flavors like yuzu-honey, rose and low. Espresso kombucha (made with espresso grounds from Brush and sister restaurant Momonoki) is used within the Monkey Enterprise Zero-Proof cocktail, with Zero-Proof rum infused with banana, coconut and cocoa bitters. “I really like the thought of mocha-coconut-banana, so it is a enjoyable drink,” McAllen notes
M room in Umi
Umi’s M Room, the upstairs omakase room named for its chef, Tasuku Murakami, differs from its downstairs sister in each dimension and design. Whereas the primary eating room is dimly lit with black partitions, wooden accents and assertion lighting fixtures, the omakase house is a shiny white field that seats simply eight folks. Whereas chef Murakami handles the sushi, beverage director Sung serves up a considerate cocktail program, impressed by the seven virtues of bushido (dominated samurai in imperial Japan).
For instance, the Meiyo (“Homage”) cocktail pays homage to Sung’s Korean roots in addition to the Japanese tradition that makes up the restaurant. “It is a Japanese whiskey/barley infusion,” explains Sung. “Barley is a staple in each Japanese and Korean tradition.” The result’s an unmistakable, contemporary earthy highball that pairs simply with nigiri. In the meantime, the gin (“grace”) cocktail is a posh fantastic thing about tequila, sake, house-made strawberry cordial, cacao and lime. The viscous strawberry cordial sinks to the underside of the rocks glass, making a layered drink. “As you drink it, the strawberry dissipates and it turns into a pink cocktail,” says Sung.
In fact, it would not be Umi with no little wow issue: “The spotlight of this cocktail is definitely going to be the garnish,” he says. “We get the most effective strawberries on the planet from Japan.” They are going to be Tochiotomes from Murata’s household farm, grown on a single household farm in Hokota. They price about $5 per berry—nevertheless it’s price it, asserts Tsang: “When you really chunk into one, it is actually the most important strawberry you’ve got ever had.”
This text appeared in our Might 2024 concern.
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