The Hotel Chelsea’s Newest Restaurant Blends History and Art Into an Intimate Showcase for Japanese Cuisine

1. Here’s how it all came to be.

Hotel Chelsea partner Charles Seich, who has worked with Sunday Hospitality on the reimagining of the property’s other food and beverage spaces (El Quijote, Café Chelsea, the Lobby Bar), says that for years the plan had been to turn the basement, formerly a nightclub called Serena, into a Japanese restaurant. Yokoi’s art provided an aesthetic and historic touch point for the new establishment.

“We were fortunate enough to be connected with her family to be able to get some of her artwork to display,” Seich says. “And the logo for the restaurant has these sort of red poppies that are derived from one of her paintings. We thought that was a cool way to honor her, aside from just naming it after her.”

2. The cuisine is Japanese, with touches of Western influence.

Yokoi’s influence also extends to the menu, which offers a selection of grilled dishes as well as sushi. The preparations, from executive chef Tadashi Ono, who previously manned the kitchen at Matsuri at the Maritime Hotel, are mostly classic Japanese, but Ono says that there is “a little bit of updated Japanese cooking — like a little French influence. Teruko used to live in Japan and lived in New York, and she moved to Paris, and she ended her life in Switzerland, so pretty international. We’re trying to [do an] homage to what she went through.”

The sushi, according to Ono “is pretty classical,” with much of the fish flown in daily from Japan. An omakase option is available, although the menu at Teruko is mostly designed to be enjoyed à la carte — and it’s when diners step away from the raw bar that they’ll see Ono really get to work. Signature dishes with global influences include a whole Dover sole that’s deep-fried and served with ponzu sauce, as well as yellowtail sashimi with scallion and jalapeño. “That’s pretty New York, in a way,” Ono says.

Then there’s the beef. “We have Ozaki Wagyu, which is the highest quality of Japanese Wagyu, from Miyazaki prefecture,” Ono explains. “It’s above A5 — it’s like A6, A7 — a lot of good fat content. I’ve been to the farm, and they really care about how they grow their beef.” The meat is available in two forms: seared on a binchotan grill and served with sea salt, fresh wasabi, and chimichurri; and in a sukiyaki, to which the chef adds a dash of red wine for “a little touch of Western cooking.”

3. Japanese whisky aficionados, you’re in luck.

To say that the team here did a deep dive into Japanese spirits would be an understatement. “We’re aiming to have the largest and most diverse whisky-from-Japan offering in all of New York City,” says Brian Evans, the hotel’s director of bars. “Starting with a focal point of the Mount Rushmore of Japanese whisky producers — your Nikkas, your Suntorys, your Fuji, your Mars, Chichibu — and then going into a lot of the new [distilleries] that have surfaced. We’ve collected [whiskys] for a really long time, and we’re really excited to put them in front of people and blow people’s minds.”

The cocktail list will also dig into Japanese spirits, with an emphasis on awamori and shochu. “One of the easiest ways that I’ve had experience communicating shochu with guests that are less familiar with the spirit category is feeding it into a cocktail, putting it in a familiar reference point for them,” Evans explains. On top of that, he adds, bartenders will be mixing cocktails from Japan, including the Bamboo, which traces back to the 19th century: “A Bamboo, classically, is a sherry-and-vermouth kind of martini-style cocktail, but for ours we blend in toasted rice, some unpasteurized sake, and a bit of charcoal oil as a finisher, so you get this really deep umami flavor.”

Speaking of sake, Rule of Thirds and Bin Bin Sake co-founder George Padilla also compiled a menu that is beyond compare. “A really cool feature is this showcase of a deep library of sakes from one particular brewery, Kikuhime, dating back to 2002,” Padilla says. “It’s really not common in the world of sake to have an opportunity to taste vertically across one producer.” Padilla has also made a point to wide-ranging by-the-glass selection. “What I’m trying to do with the by-the-glass list,” he says, “is to create as many entry points into the world of sake as possible.”

4. The design features a piece of history from another historic hotel.

The space has been completely transformed, with the vaulted ceilings being one of the few features that remains from Serena. Interestingly, while the Chelsea itself is the stuff of legends, one of the coolest design elements at Teruko comes from a landmark hotel halfway across the world. “The backbar is this distinct piece that was part of the Orchid Bar at the Okura Hotel in Tokyo,” Seich says. “When they renovated the Orchid Bar, they dismantled the backbar, and we were able to get a large portion of it, which is the backdrop for our very large Japanese whisky selection. It’s absolutely stunning, and pretty distinct.”

The rest of the decor is similarly bold, with dark wood, blue banquettes, gold trim, limestone floors, and a centrally located sushi bar. “There’s nowhere else in the building where we’re preparing food in front of the guests,” Seich says.

“It feels very cozy, very sexy, very intimate, and a bit refined,” Seich says. “But it also feels really cool. We’re not angling this to be a bumping music, nightclub-party vibe. We are certainly looking for a bit more sophisticated, refined dining experience, but not too buttoned-up. It’s the Hotel Chelsea, so it has to retain a little bit of that rock ’n’ roll.”

Teruko is open Tuesday and Wednesday from 5:30 to 10 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday from 5:30 to 11 p.m.