Tokyo Bar

Last night a couple friends who unofficially make up the US offices of Brutus and Casa Brutus magazine (Japanese style and architecture magazines) took me to one of the most amazing Japanese eateries I've seen in New York. The decor alone blows the mind.

Tokyo Bar, which opened less than a month ago, is the brainchild of Sadahiro Nakamura (famous stylist, trendsetter and hotelier/restauranteur), and a band of bartenders from Angel's Share called B Flat (another awesome Japanese-style bar/eatery).

They have omu-rice (omelette filled with rice), Japanese curry (a much fattier and milder version of the Indian kind) and my favorite - pasta with spicy cod roe and Japanese garnishes. For $12 I got a Japanese-Western dish I can't seem to find anywhere else for less than $18. And their drinks? Well seriously, forget about it. The names are all kind of gay but appropriately, the cocktails are stiff and fragrant.

But the real masterpiece of this restaurant/bar is the atmosphere. I heard a muzak koto-version of Bjork's "Hyper-Ballad" (though it could have been a harp, in which case maybe it's just a Zeena Parkins solo thing but still...). And the artwork adorning the walls is a collection of popular print media - manga panels accesorized with neon lights, and a Taihei Shii installation of paperback book spines - suggesting a psychedelic library cocoon. And according to aforementioned friends/hosts, each and every one of these collaborators (but most especially Nakamura the stylist), is like a Japanese rockstar, down to the guy who created the restaurant's logo - who also designed the Uniqlo signs.

It's pretty much a hipster heart attack, but to be fed hard-to-find Japanese-style western food (they call it New Japanese Comfort Food) for under $20 in TriBeCa in a quiet environment is anyone's dream come true.