With Sunn’s, Banchan by Sunny Finally Finds a Permanent Home

1. Yes, it’s the same Sunny Lee.

Lee is perhaps best known throughout the city as the curator and chef behind the wildly popular Banchan by Sunny pop-ups. You’ve likely seen her pop-ups at restaurants, breweries, and bars throughout town, like Hana Makgeolli, The Fly, Ops, and Achilles Heel, where she had a long-time residency.

“The pop-ups are really wonderful, but it’s hard to lay down roots. It kind of starts to feel like ‘Groundhog Day’,” Lee says. “Every time you go into a space, you have the same menu, but every other variable is different. I don’t know where the running water is. I don’t know if they even have running water.”

Lee and her husband, artist Michael Siporin Levine, were also running much of the pop-up business out of their home, working off of a Breville oven, a chest freezer, and a “college dorm” fridge in their guest room that also acts as a side table. “We couldn’t live like this [anymore],” Lee laughs.

Fans of the pop-ups have nothing to worry about, though. Much of the menu at Sunn’s is inspired by the pop-ups, Lee says, and there’s a chance she’ll still continue doing pop-ups (at least, sometimes) even after they open Sunn’s.

2. The road to Sunn’s has been long and winding.

It’s been a long road for Lee. She’s been doing Banchan by Sunny pop-ups in some form since 2015, working also as the chef at Greenpoint’s Achilles Heel. In 2017, she was set to open her restaurant, Ajjuma, in Williamsburg, but a variety of factors meant it never fully came to fruition.

“That was eight years ago. I think I really have needed all the time since then to figure out what I’m trying to say when I cook for people. It was the best thing that never happened,” Lee says.

Sunn’s marks her first solo brick-and-mortar spot. Lee was drawn to the space for its cozy size (there are just 16 dining room seats inside) and the vision she had for it to be a warm and welcoming meeting place.

She’s working in partnership with Grant Reynolds, of Parcelle, who was a fan of her cooking long before she decided to open her own place. (Reynolds has been particularly influential in terms of curating the wine list for Sunn’s, but it should be noted that Sunn’s is not a part of the Parcelle Hospitality Group of restaurants.)

“I’ve known Grant for several years now, and we have several mutual friends. He was a super enthusiastic diner; he came when I did the pop-up at Nightmoves, he came when I did a collaboration at The Fly. He came to Achilles Heel several times. When I left Achilles, he was like, ‘Well? What’s next?’ That’s when Sunn’s was born,” Lee says.

3. Inside, it’s cozy and curated.

They’re keeping the bones of the space, which was formerly Pig Bar, and boasts exposed brick and lots of wood paneling. They’ve built out a butcher block chef’s counter, with eight seats, overlooking the kitchen, and a standing rail in the front room for snacks and drinks.

Lee’s husband, Levine, is also designing a large piece of artwork for the dining room, which should be up in the spring. If his work looks familiar, it’s because it is — he also designed all of the iterations of Banchan by Sunny logos.

“He and I find a lot of inspiration in each other’s work, so I feel like this is a really great place to showcase that,” Lee says.

Sunn’s also plans to act as a small grocery and goods shop, selling their housemade kimchi and various other banchan, merchandise (likely designed with Lee’s husband), and products made in collaboration with friends of hers, like chile crisp and custom ceramic banchan plates.

4. Parcelle is handling the wine list.

Another benefit to having a permanent restaurant? Sunn’s can now have its own beverage program. With a partner like Reynolds, you can presume there will be lots of excellent wines on a list that they describe as “fresh and easy drinking”. Parcelle (the retailer, not the restaurant) is overseeing the selections.

Expect around 30 bottles of pours that span the globe, from Sicily to California, plus Korean lagers, some select sool from Hana Makgeolli, and soju.

“I really think of my food as predominantly refreshing, vegetal and light. We want you to be able to drink an ice-cold Korean lager as you also enjoy a bottle of Etna Bianco or Ploussard from Arbois,” Lee says.

5. The menu is full of pop-up hits and new dishes.

For the menu, Lee is bringing back some old favorites and introducing some new hits, but the most important thing to her is that you approach the menu like a choose-your-own-adventure novel.

“Ultimately what I want to do is cook for people. I want them to just decide for themselves what kind of experience they want to have,” Lee says. “Banchan, to me, has always made sense — there’s just a whole range of stuff. I don’t want to be the conductor; I just want to be part of the audience once the food has been served.”

The menu will be seasonal, but some things will always remain on the menu, Lee says. In addition to banchan, expect things like mayak kimbap, hotteok, or Korean street pancakes, and crab gyeranmari, a rolled omelet stuffed with lump crab and topped with brown butter and cod roe.

Plus, here’s a bonus: On New Year’s Day in 2025 Sunn’s will be open early at 11 a.m. for a traditional soup service, offering tteokguk with short rib and oxtail broth, which has sliced rice cakes in the shape of coins, to represent prosperity for the New Year, julienned egg omelet, shredded gim (seaweed), and scallions.

“In Korea, everybody eats the New Year’s Day soup,” Lee says. “When it’s so cold, I want to eat it every day. You need beef bone broth.”

6. Here’s what you absolutely must try when you visit.

Back to the regularly scheduled menu, Lee tells us about three essential dishes to order at Sunn’s, in her own words.

1. Banchan Plate

“We’ll have a rotating selection of that banchan for $21, and we really want to encourage every table to get it. We’re going to make all of our kimchi in house. There will always be potato salad and marinated seasonal greens. I want to be able to have those classics.

“I also like to use my banchan as a way to showcase the current season alongside past seasons: That means fresh seasonal vegetables mixed with dried or salted or fermented vegetables from the previous season. The opening menu at Sunn’s will have preserved perilla leaves, salted shiso leaves, and dried green beans from this past summer.

“[I like that there can be] a table full of food that ranges from kimchi, potato salad, and marinated greens, to jiggly acorn jelly and raw marinated squid. There’s just a whole range of stuff, and you go to town like you’re a little kid on Christmas morning. Create whatever experience you want to have. That’s [part of] why the food that I cook now versus what I was cooking seven or eight years ago is a bit more interactive, but also not so specific.”

2. Sunn’s Salad

“Aside from the banchan, the thing that probably showcases my love for cooking the most is the Sunn’s Salad. This will always be on the menu. It’s just this sprawling array of vegetables that have been pickled, roasted, fermented, boiled, just made in every way imaginable. It can just be spread out in a way that you eat it with your hands, or with a fork and knife, or dragged through the dip on the plate.

“The ingredients within the salad will change, but it always has a creamy jang at the bottom. Our sesame jang is whipped silken tofu with tahini, sesame seeds and sesame oil, covered with a wide variety of vegetables. In the summer, I love to mix melons and nectarine with roasted string beans and tomatoes; and in the winter, I crust sweet potatoes in chickpea miso and roasted dates with radicchios.

“It’s like vegetable nachos. If you eat nachos with your friends, you’ll notice that everyone eats nachos a little bit differently. When I eat it, I want a perfect piece of cheese on top, and I go looking for a pickled jalapeño or a sliver of onion. A friend of mine has to eat three chips at the same time. That’s the part of cooking that made me want to open a place like Sunn’s.”

3. Sesame Mochi Cake

“This dessert first came together for me in 2018 when I had Hawaiian butter mochi for the first time. It reminded me so strongly of a dish my dad used to make me when I was a young kid. He would pan fry tteok until it was crispy, and then he would cover it with honey and sesame oil. This trio of texture and flavor is so nostalgic for me, that I really wanted to make a dessert in his honor.

“The mochi cake is coconut milk-based with mochiko, and baked before being cut and rolled in sesame seeds. The cake is re-crisped before it is marinated in honey, sesame oil, and some coarse salt. I serve it alongside toasted soybean powder (konggaru) as a little dip for the cake.

“I have had a couple friends reach out and ask if the mochi cake is going to stay on. I’m not a pastry cook by any means, so it’s probably going to be the only dessert I ever serve. We may expand on it, but to start, the sesame-crusted mochi cake will be on the menu.”

Sunn’s is open Wednesday through Sunday from 5 to 10 p.m.

Ellie Plass is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn. Follow her on Instagram and X. Follow Resy, too.