Mory’s may no longer be serving cups, but a new sushi lounge will soon be serving up bowls of alcohol — and these ones are on fire.
The $20 Scorpion Bowl will be available at Koji, a new sushi restaurant and lounge scheduled to open on Temple Street in about four weeks. At 64 ounces, the Scorpion Bowl is a mixture of white rum, dark rum, amaretto, orange juice, pineapple juice, grenadine and Bacardi 151; it’s the most popular drink at Koji’s Hartford location, said Koji’s founder Tuan Pran. Pran said the New Haven Koji will be a New York-style restaurant, lounge and bar: a trendy restaurant during the day but something entirely different at night.
However, the space at 182 Temple St., which is about half a block down the street from the Omni New Haven Hotel, is still being renovated — the walls were recently painted orange and blue.
The New Haven Koji, which at 3,000 square feet will be nearly twice the size of the Hartford restaurant, will be divided into a dining and a bar area. There will be no cover to get in, Pran said, and the bar will offer a variety of upscale drinks. Hartford Koji manager Alex Levinson said martinis will be priced at about $9 and beers between $4 and $5, adding that a Koji lunch will be as affordable as fast-food.
Some of the most popular dishes at the Hartford restaurant include the California rolls and Koji rolls, which have spicy tuna and crab on the inside and tuna, salmon, avocado and fish roe on the outside, said Darren Piquol, general manager of the Koji restaurant in Hartford. On Fridays and Saturdays the bar will be open until 1:30 a.m., he said.
Pran opened the first Koji restaurant in Hartford five years ago and has been planning to open a Koji in New Haven for about six months, he said. Though most of the Hartford Koji’s patrons are between 25 and 40 years old, the New Haven restaurant will marketed to college students over 21, said Kate Solomson, a manager at the Hartford Koji.
Piquol said the new location is ideal for a number of reasons. Not only is New Haven a diverse and vibrant city, he said, but the store on Temple Street is located in a busy area.
“I can’t wait to get open and see what kind of a crowd we’ll attract,” he said.
In Hartford Koji, attracts a high-energy and trendy crowd with its late night DJ’s, sake selection and cocktail menu, Piquol said.
Rebekah Stewart ’13 said she is excited that Koji is opening in the area.
“It would be nice to have a late-night hangout rather than just a late-night party,” she said.
The restaurant got its name from an important sushi ingredient: koji, a steamed rice cultivated with mold spores.
Miso Japanese Restaurant declined to comment on Koji’s opening.
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