BAR GOTO
Kenta Goto spent seven years at Audrey Saunders's Pegu Club, where he was head bartender, then opened this one less than a mile east and put his mother's okonomiyaki on the bar menu.
Why go
PUNCH calls Pegu Club legendary and Goto's pedigree impeccable. What he did with it was go quiet: a forty-seat room on Eldridge Street where the drinks are built small and the service runs on omotenashi, which he glosses as anticipating what a guest needs and meeting it without being seen to. The Sakura Martini is the drink that carried, a martini build with cherry liqueur and sake in which the petals of a shut sakura flower, imported from Japan, unfurl once it is dropped in the glass (PUNCH). The plum runs through the list too, in the Topaz Glow and in a Sazerac rebuilt on slivovitz.
Goto's grandmother's kimono hangs framed over the dark wood bar, and there is one white orchid in the room.6 The Spirited Awards, which the drinks trade votes for itself, made this bar one of four finalists for Best U.S. Cocktail Bar in 2022, and nominated it again in 2023 and 2024.7
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Sakura Martini, and watch the flower. Eater's account of the opening build has sake, gin and maraschino behind it.6
- Order: the okonomiyaki. Goto put it on the list to honor Ginnan-Tei, his mother's restaurant outside Tokyo, where he cooked as a teenager, and chef Kiyo Shinoki writes the food. The kitchen fills them with pork belly and chicken, and also builds one as a grilled cheese with cheddar and parmesan.
- Order: the Umami Mary if the martini is not the mood. PUNCH's venue file has it infused with shiitake and miso.4
- Order: the miso chicken wings if you stay for a second round. The Infatuation named them in its 2017 review of the room.2
- Avoid: a Monday. Both Goto rooms are shut.
What locals & experts say
- Kenta Goto, on why the okonomiyaki is there, in PUNCH, August 2015:
The first is to honor my mother. The second is simply because okonomiyaki is a perfect drinking food.
1 - PUNCH, on the style: in their subtlety and economy of presentation, these drinks are a departure from the blustery, exaggerated pouring the magazine saw taking hold in the city.1
- Bryan Kim, The Infatuation's editorial lead in New York, in November 2023, on the back bar:
You can also sample some Japanese whiskey, as long as you're willing to spend around $40 on a single serving. (The whiskey market is rough these days.)
8 - 50 Best Discovery, writing the room up, hears a Van Morrison-inspired soundtrack over the amber lights and the dark walls, and smells ginger, pickle and soy over all of it.9
Good to know
- Timing: evenings, Tuesday through Sunday, with an hour of happy hour early on.
- Booking: walk-in only, first come first served, in a room PUNCH counted at forty places.
- Which door: 245 Eldridge Street. Bar Goto Niban, at 474 Bergen Street in Park Slope, is a separate room.
- Timing: evenings, Tuesday through Sunday, with a happy hour at the start of service.3
- Booking: walk-in only, first come first served, in a room PUNCH counted at forty places.
- Price: 50 Best Discovery puts the average cocktail at $16.9
- Which door: this page is 245 Eldridge Street. Bar Goto Niban, in Park Slope, is a separate room.
Verdict
must-visit — Come early on a weeknight and sit at the bar. Eat while you drink; the snacks here are worth a course of their own.