Mono+Mono
An EVill Korean chicken and jazz joint
Opens Sept 15th: 116 E 4th St; btw 1st and 2nd Ave; East Village; 212.466.6660
Although America was the birthplace of Jazz, Asians have arguably become its most avid and sophisticated consumers, digging on everyone from Coltrane to, uh…DJ Jazzy Jeff, he’s jazz right? Bringing all that jazz back to its birthplace: Mono+Mono.
Decking its cavernous carriage house space with thick, offset wooden beam walls and heavy industrial accents (large, grate-covered ceiling fans, a vintage warehouse pull-cart), M+M’s from K-town’s Mad for Chicken mad geniuses, and, thanks to a glass wall housing 30,000 jazz vinyls, is being billed as an “analog music pub”, far better than a digital music pub, as all they serve are summonses on behalf of Metallica. For actual tunes, there’s a functional piano that doubles as a table, but good luck hearing it over the records, which you can pick out and watch get ferried to the DJ — and his antique tube amp-driven system — via a suspended ceiling track, so even if the bill’s low you’ll feel like you got taken to the cleaners. Theatrical noshes include traditional myung bean pancakes that’re ground tableside in a circular stone press and topped w/ everything from pork belly to sea urchin, and also 20+ flavors of steamed rice (lobster, beef short rib, green tea..), but chicken’s the highlight, served ultra-crispy (double-cooked & deep fried) with soy garlic sauce, grilled with a traditional fiery hot sauce, and braised at low temp over night in MJ’s Special Sauce –don’t stop ’til you get enough and they’ll have to tell you to beat it, though that’s just human nature…Thriller!
Beverage options’ll include soju & fruit cocktails elaborately served in beakers embedded in ice, plus local beers delivered by an automatic dispenser specially designed to pour the perfect ratio of body to head, sophisticated consumption that…hey, thats a beer, right?
