"Tokyo Noir is really the next step in my journey through the world of cocktails," Lee says. The menu is inspired by Lee's past experience serving a cocktail 'omakase' at the Wolves called Le Néant. The experience didn't have a set menu, instead serving cocktails based around produce at its peak season. While Tokyo Noir won't serve its menu as an omakase, Lee's menu will still be informed by California's microseasons. "The sensitivity to nature was really such a beautiful idea for me," Lee says.
At Tokyo Noir, Lee will take inspiration from Japanese bartending techniques, including a focus on 'precision, balance, and respect for every ingredient.' The bartending will be exact, from the ice-carving to the practiced shake that can remove notes of bitterness from Aperol. Bartenders will even be throwing cocktails, an impressive process not found at many bars in Southern California. "My focus is really on the process," Lee says. "It's about refinement, not excess, and with each motion and each ingredient having a purpose."
The opening menu will feature three highballs with whisky, mezcal, and scotch, plus cocktails like the Kaiju with Japanese rum, Midori, creme anglaise, and yuzu; the Hibiki Old Fashioned with Hibiki, Okinawan rock sugar, and nori bitters; and a shaved ice kakigori cocktail with shochu, guava, and grapefruit.
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