Hanging at the Kanpai Club
Intimate bar adjacent to Hando offers craft cocktails, small plates and late-night bites.
THE CONCEPT
The Family Meal group, owners of the hand-roll restaurant Hando, has opened an intimate adjacent bar with a selection of craft cocktails, small plates and late-night bites.
THE SPACE
The 400-square-foot bar shares the same entrance as Hando but guests access it through a special door that access the long, narrow bar. With only 10 seats, it’s even smaller than the 22-seat Hando. Partners Jason Andaya and Ray Chan designed the space to feel as if guests are stumbling into a hidden bar tucked into a back alley in Japan.
THE FOOD
Kanpai shares Hando’s kitchen and some of their menu — small plates such a wagyu and mushroom gyoza, edamame with citrus salt, cauliflower with togarashi, blistered shishito peppers with yuzu aioli, and roasted Brussels sprouts with Japanese mayonnaise katsu sauce. A late-night menu includes curry fries, chicken karaage, flatbread, and wagyu skewers with ponzu. During daily happy hour from 4 to 6 p.m., a variety of dishes are
priced at $5 and half off all house cocktails.
THE DRINKS
Sake, wine and beer are available, but the cocktail program is the star. House cocktails include Hando’s clarified milk punch (made with rum, brandy, mezcal, milk and spices); Little Death (gin, cognac, aquafaba, lemon and lime); Lazy Suze (silver tequila, apricot, coconut cream, walnut and spice); Tokyo
Layover (mezcal, Aperol, Italian liqueur, and citrus); and Everything’s Lychee Keen (vodka, lychee, Falernum and grapefruit).
THE WORD
“The idea for Kanpai Club as a companion bar to Hando came shortly after dining rooms were closed due to the pandemic,” Andaya said. “With the belief that dining rooms would reopen under new distancing guidelines, we felt like we would eventually need to have a space that could double as a waiting area and an after-dinner spot to continue an evening out.”
ONE MORE THING
Kanpai means “cheers” in Japanese.