Orion Bar opened its doors on Suydam Street earlier this summer, bringing nuanced, yet approachable Korean-American fare to Bushwick’s Central Avenue corridor – an area already home to mainstays like Maite and Nenes. It’s run by married couple Nick Dodge and Irene Yoo. Dodge used to oversee the bar program at the Nitehawk Cinema locations in both Williamsburg and Park Slope, and Yoo had been running a Korean-American food popup in Williamsburg and Crown Heights since 2015 called Yooeating. They are making their debut together at Orion, which they’ve turned into a compelling tribute to Korean and American culinary and drinking cultures and the way that they can seamlessly blend together.
“With Orion, we wanted to create a place in Brooklyn where people could drink soju and get Korean drinking food” says Yoo. The pair have lived in the city for over sixteen years, having moved here from Detroit (Dodge) and California (Yoo) and currently live in East Williamsburg. They say they landed in Bushwick “because it has such a vibrant bar and drinking scene.“
Yoo started putting together the menu at Orion Bar along the same time she created Soju Party, a cookbook she says Alfred A. Knopf is putting out next year.
“Korean-American food is a unique evolution of Korean immigrants, like my mom, adapting their home country’s cuisine to the ingredients they had access to in America,” she says. “Ultimately, I’m chasing comfort in the food I make, which is something that’s universal to all food, and that’s the North Star that guided me when uniting these Korean and American flavors.”
Her menu includes dishes like a patty melt ($21) that showcases Yoo’s ability to synergize memory, tradition, and innovation within her food.
“The patty melt is inspired by a late night patty melt we used to eat at Extra Fancy in Williamsburg [which closed in 2020], and I think it’s the perfectly greasy, filling, and absolutely comforting thing you crave after having a few drinks,” says Yoo. “The key was keeping it as classic as possible by using Levy’s rye bread and caramelized onions, while infusing the pimento cheese and burger patty with kimchi flavor, which adds both a deep richness and a balanced acidity.”
Her version of chips and dip ($13), marries popular Korean shrimp crackers with creamy mascarpone infused with myeongnanjeot, a kind of Korean salted pollock roe. Her Spam musubi is a leveled up take on the classic snack, with the Spam prepared using a Korean technique called jeon where it is breaded in flour and eggwash and fried, and then layered with furikake, american cheese, and butter-caramelized kimchi.
Dodge, like he did at Nitehawk, is running the bar at Orion. Here, he’s infusing Korean flavors into staple American-style cocktails. His soju and tonic ($15), for instance, mimics a gin and tonic, but adds in the complex bright and grassy flavor from yuja citrus and perilla leaf, while Dodge’s negroni ($15), is shaken with rice for added texture and incorporates a jujube-infused soju that’s subtly nutty and raisiny.
The most eye-catching of his designs is his “Space Spam” ($15), a frozen drink served in a custom clever, plastic Spam can. The cocktail itself intends to mimic the layered, sweet, smokey and non-meat flavors of the Spam brand in the form of a tiki drink, and blends rum, pineapple, and slightly smoky and spicy gochugaru rice syrup together; a refreshing drink that’s not as cloyingly sweet as most frozen cocktails. His beer and shot combo goes for $10 and comes in the form of somaek (soju and beer) or with ramyun broth back shots.
A warm space for a casual dinner or a quick drink, Orion feels like a friend’s quirky, yet stylishly appointed apartment. Yoo says that’s why she’s filled the place with plants and “various tchotchkes that came from our house,” including framed colleges that were made by friend and local artist Michael Hentz.
“We wanted it to feel kind of like you were hanging out in our kitchen, where we love to host our friends until the wee hours,” says Yoo.
Orion Bar is located at 157 Suydam Street, open Wednesday to Thursday from 5pm – 12am, Friday to Saturday 5pm – 1am, and Sunday 5pm-12am.
Cover Image Foreground Image by Sam Kang, Cover Image Background Image by Seth Gilgus, Cover Image Edit by Alec Meeker
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