The recipe at this hot newcomer on the Lower East Side is easy: Take one food-obsessed young chef from Tokyo, cook up some family favorites (acquired from food-obsessed parents), keep the menu small, and get wildly creative (as in “Daddy’s favorite brick chicken,” with white miso gobo puree). Although Akiko Thurnauer grew up in Japan, don’t think Japanese cuisine, but rather Japanese-influenced, French technique, and a large dollop of pure personal creativity. For BBE members only, the individual flair that makes her cooking as unusual as it is outstanding will be on vivid display for a one-night-only omakase dinner with sake pairings. The restaurant is small, and the décor is kind of mix-and-match, too, with the look of a chic sushi bar that always wanted be a Manhattan coffee shop when it grew up. This is one family recipe you’re simply going to have to have.

welcome cocktail
Green sake

first course
Seasonal salad duo
(fall mushroom salad with quail egg and herbs; oyster and mizuna)

second course
Caramelized cauliflower
(with parsley, lotus root chips, and shiso oil)

third course (choose one)
Arctic char with sake lee sauce
Bento box of grass-fed short ribs and crispy rice

dessert
Kabochya pumpkin crêpe with cherry sorbet

The place is tiny, with not much variance in the seating. The tables along the wall sit under a seductive curve of blond wood, while the “sushi bar” is just as appealing.

Thurnauer’s father traveled constantly for business, bringing all kinds of ingredients from Asia, Europe, and the Middle East back to their home in Tokyo. Her mother took over from there.

hours
Tues.–Sat. 6 PM–12 midnight; Sun. 6 PM–11 PM
brunch: Sat.–Sun. 11:30 AM–4 PM*
closed Monday
*starts in November

$11 (vegetable bun) to $25 (brick chicken)