NR
Shigefumi Kabashima built NR on East 75th Street around one fact. Ramen reached Japan from China. Cocktails reached it from the West. The Meiji-era port towns took delivery of both.51 Carina Finn rated it 7.8 for The Infatuation.2
Why go
Kabashima's first room is ROKC in Harlem. The name is an acronym: Ramen Oyster Kitchen Cocktail. NR is the second.1 The Infatuation's Upper East Side guide explains the drinks in one clause. The room was founded by former Angel's Share folks.
3 Angel's Share ran nearly three decades in the East Village before it closed in 2020 and reopened in a Grove Street basement. It taught a great deal of this city's cocktail bartending.4
Scott Lynch counted 21 original cocktails on the opening list, each in its own vessel, built out of pistachio cream, strawberry jam, Thai tea, beets, truffle honey and Parmigiano.1 Three years on, Finn's account is that the drinks run savory, and that they often arrive smoked, on fire or in elaborate glassware.2 The Transparent Tomato shows the method. Tomato is worked three ways and then clarified.2
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Egg + Egg + Egg, which is uni and a drop of caviar on a deviled egg.3
- Order: the Transparent Tomato, and the Smokey Last Word after it.2
- Order: the karaage, four pieces with a crock of matcha salt beside it, under ten dollars in 2019.1
- Order: the Kyoto ramen, pork belly and egg and spicy bamboo shoots in a soy, chicken and fish broth. Finn's advice on the noodles is to take whichever appeals, because she found none of them bad.12
- Avoid: looking for it from across the street. A small card reading NR Open on a dark wooden door is the only notice outside.1
What locals & experts say
- Carina Finn, rating it 7.8 for The Infatuation on 6 July 2022:
At NR, you'll see someone else's cocktail go by and immediately ask your server for one of whatever that was.
2 - Scott Lynch, for Gothamist on 8 November 2019, on the dish he liked best that week, the Mussel + Beer + Cotton Candy:
a warm beer-based broth poured over a dozen or so plump, tender mollusks, melting the sugary puff of candy on top, a yuzu zest providing a nice counterpoint to all the yeast and brine.
He ate compliments of the house and says so.1
Good to know
- The name: Kabashima gave Gothamist three readings for it, 'n Roll, Non Resident and No Regrets.1
- The room: the former Seamstress space, holding about 120 and divided in half, with raw brick, blue fringe lamps and jazz and swing on the speakers.1
- Dark days: the kitchen closes for New Year's Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas.5
Verdict
could-visit — Order off the drinks list first and let the kitchen follow it. Take a seat at the bar.