A Brooklyn Bar From Soju’s Biggest Fan

Irene Yoo didn’t always swirl soju bottles in front of millions of viewers on camera. In fact, growing up in Los Angeles, her parents didn’t drink at all. Her fascination with soju and other sool (Korean alcohol) was cultivated every summer when Yoo would visit her uncles in Korea, where the drinking culture was different: “It was less about getting wasted,” Yoo says, “and more about drinking and eating at the same time.”

Years later, Yoo has become an unofficial spokesperson for Korean spirits. In videos online, she educates her 83,000 followers about swirling, pouring, and mixing soju. Next year, she’s publishing one of the first English-language books on the Korean spirit. Next on her list? Getting you drunk. On Friday, Yoo is opening Orion Bar, a Bushwick bar putting soju front and center (157 Suydam Street and Central Avenue).

Yoo is opening Orion Bar with her husband Nick Dodge, the beverage director for the past decade at Nitehawk Cinemas. Their menu, which Dodge describes as “highbrow, lowbrow,” serves soju in a hundred different ways. The Korean spirit is mixed into salty martinis with seaweed and mushroom, and it’s swirled into frozen cocktails like the Melona, named for the honeydew-flavored Korean ice cream. One of the drinks, mixed with gochugaru (Korean red pepper) and malted rice syrup, is meant to taste like Spam.

If I were ordering, though, I would start with the section at the top of the menu: That’s where you’ll find headache-inducing items like soju bombs, ramen broth shots, and somaek, a Korean cocktail made by mixing soju and beer together. “We’re here to get a little rowdy,” says Yoo. “This is where you come for your second or third round of the night. You want to keep drinking and then you get hungry again.”

The food menu is Yoo’s take on Korean anju — drinking snacks that can be greasy, spicy, palate-cleansing, or full of carbs. “They help you drink more,” she says, “but they also help prevent your hangover the next morning.” There is a Korean carbonara, a recipe Yoo developed as a pop-up chef, and a patty melt with kimchi and pimento cheese. The chef is particularly proud of her instant ramen, served two ways: spicy Shin Ramyun with egg and American cheese or saucy Chapagetti with brisket and truffle oil.

The timing is right for a Korean American bar. Soju has surged in popularity in recent years, while new restaurants, like Seoul Salon and C as in Charlie, have shown there’s an appetite for imported Korean spirits in New York.

“We wanted to be that in between,” Yoo says. “Somewhere between drinking in Koreatown and an American dive bar.”

Orion Bar is open Thursdays from 5 p.m. to midnight, Fridays and Saturdays from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m., and Sundays from 5 p.m. to midnight.