The Art of Atlanta’s Omakase Cocktails

Photography by Ben Rollins

At Brush Sushi in Buckhead, shiitake mushrooms float in a whiskey decanter, looking like resting lava lamp drops. These mushrooms won’t shine, but they will eventually impart their earthy flavor to the whiskey, which will then be used in the Umami cocktail. A blend of mushroom-infused whiskey, mezcal, honey, and house-blended shoyu, garnished with hickory-smoked cherries, the cocktail is an unusual combination that somehow works. “Adding these hickory smoked cherries, with the back and forth of sipping and eating, the garnish for me just exploded,” says Mona McAllen, Brush’s beverage director.

Many omakase restaurants, or omakase counters within established restaurants, have opened around the metro in recent years. Two of them, Hayakawa and Mujo, have even received Michelin stars. The Omakase restaurant asks customers to cede control to the chefs who work behind the sushi bar; These days, bartenders would like the same courtesy extended to them.

Drinks at omakase restaurants aren’t as off-menu as the meals: usually you can select your cocktail from a list. This list, however, is made up of creative drinks designed to pair nicely with the dishes placed in front of you. It’s all too common for restaurants’ cocktail lists to conflict with their food menus, says James Sung, beverage director of Umi in Buckhead. “Our goal is for cocktails to accentuate and complement the dining experience,” he says. “It almost acts as a secondary sauce for the food, or a nice edible garnish.”

Below, three omakase restaurants in Atlanta with notable cocktail programs.

Photography by Andrew Thomas Lee

Mujo
A stylishly designed respite from bustling West Midtown, Mujo has earned a reputation for its beautifully prepared sushi and elegant Japanese dishes. Everything here is done with intention, from the eclectic playlist to the can lights carefully placed above each restaurant. Cocktails are of course no exception. “We try to reference the classics as much as possible,” says Mujo bartender Michael Satusky. Infusing traditional Western drinks with Japanese spirits, like Haku Vodka and Kome shochu, just made sense.

The latter is a spirit rarely found on American menus. Shochu is a lightly sweetened Japanese distilled spirit, made from grains like rice or other starchy foods like sweet potato; its distillation process results in a much higher alcohol content than its brewed cousin, sake. It’s a great companion for other spirits and Satusky loves using it. “Talking to guests about shochu is really exciting and makes people want to try it,” he says.

You’ll find shochu in Mujo’s City Pop cocktail, named after a genre of music popular in ’80s Japan that often appears on the restaurant’s playlist. It is composed of sweet potato shochu, extra-dry vermouth, grapefruit liqueur and Espelette pepper. “This Espelette pepper highlights some of the vegetal and earthier notes of shochu,” says Satusky, “and also brings a whisper of heat to the glass.”

Photography by Ben Rollins

Brush
Brush, which moved from Decatur to Buckhead last August, is home to omakase room O by Brush, in addition to a full dining room serving Edomae-style sushi, grilled vegetables and ramen at lunch. This fresh start gave McAllen a welcome opportunity to push his limits in cocktail development. “I like to create things that are fun and approachable,” she says. “So when we opened here, I really wanted to have things that were a little more complex, that maybe took a little more time.”

Case in point: the milk punch with more than 10 ingredients, which happens to be personal to McAllen. “I wanted to make a drink that reminded me of my mother’s banana pudding, but combined it with elements of Asian citrus,” she says. It’s a laborious process that requires soaking several spices in milk before letting it curdle, resulting in a completely transparent, not-too-sweet concoction that hits notes of banana and vanilla.

McAllen’s creativity extends beyond the cocktail list; it is now also venturing into non-alcoholic drinks. After Brush owner and chef Jason Liang taught her how to make kombucha, she began playing with a variety of flavors, like yuzu honey, rose, and coffee. Coffee kombucha (made with coffee grounds from Brush and sister restaurant Momonoki) is used in the zero-proof Monkey Business cocktail, along with zero-proof rum infused with bananas, coconut, and cocoa bitters. “I love the idea of ​​mocha-coconut-banana, so it’s a fun drink,” notes McAllen.

Room M in Umi
Umi’s M Room, the upstairs omakase room named for its leader, Tasuku Murakami, differs from its downstairs sister in both stature and design. While the main dining room is dimly lit, with black walls, wood accents and trendy light fixtures, the omakase space is a glossy white box that seats just eight people. While chef Murakami tends the sushi, beverage director Sung offers a thoughtful cocktail program, whose names are inspired by the seven virtues of bushido (the code that governed the samurai of Imperial Japan).

For example, the Meiyo (“honor”) cocktail pays homage to Sung’s Korean roots as well as the Japanese culture that shapes the restaurant. “It’s a Japanese infusion of whiskey and barley,” says Sung. “Barley is a staple food in Japanese and Korean culture.” The result is a bubbly, earthy highball that pairs easily with nigiri. Meanwhile, the Jin (“compassion”) cocktail is a complex beauty of tequila, sake, house-made strawberry syrup, cocoa and lime. The viscous strawberry cordial sinks to the bottom of the rocks glass, creating a layered drink. “As you drink it, the strawberry dissipates and it becomes a pink cocktail,” says Sung.

Of course, it wouldn’t be Umi without a little wow factor: “The highlight of this cocktail will actually be the garnish,” he says. “We get the best strawberries in the world from Japan. » These would be Tochiotomes from the Murata family farm, grown on a single-family farm in Hokota. They cost about $5 per berry, but it’s worth it, says Sung: “Once you bite into one, it’s literally the best strawberry you’ve ever eaten.” »

This article appears in our May 2024 issue.

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