For Kenji Suzuki, the Type 47 liquor license he received earlier this year was the chance at reinvention for his family's restaurant. “We felt like we needed to evolve, to become something more than we were before,” says the second-generation owner of Suehiro, the widely beloved 52-year-old Japanese mom-and-pop café previously located in Little Tokyo. Last fall, after over half a century of serving the historically Japanese American neighborhood, the restaurant was forced to relocate. The only option? A much larger, grander space in Downtown’s Historic Core.
In the last few years, Suzuki had worked with a broker in hope of securing a license to serve hard liquor. Suehiro’s new address, which formerly housed Josef Centeno’s P.Y.T., practically begged for a liquor license, he says, with the multi-story layout, two bar areas and imposing high ceilings, but the process of getting one is quite difficult. Liquor licenses typically cost well over six figures, unless you win a literal lottery held by California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
But that's just what happened to Suzuki. Last October, his broker lucked out, drawing lucky number 15—in a year when the statewide agency doled out just a few dozen new, far more affordable licenses to serve hard liquor. Now, with the help of Seven Grand and Steep After Dark alum Huy Nang Pham, he’s opened Bar Suehiro, a craft cocktail den that will begin serving the public on Wednesday, July 31.
Housed in one of the restaurant’s two bar areas, the upscale sibling concept draws inspiration from Tokyo’s famous whiskey bars and American cocktail lounges. The opening menu consists of classic cocktails, including a premium martini that uses sake-derived Japanese vermouth, as well as 10 unique house creations. Drink prices top out at $32 for a Rob Roy made with Yoichi whiskey, but the bulk of the menu lingers in the more accessibly priced $16 to $20 range. A handful of thoughtfully constructed Seedlip-based nonalcoholic cocktails are on offer as well.
The mastermind behind the drinks and the concept as a whole is Pham, who’s previously worked at nearby Seven Grand and its Japanese whiskey-focused backroom counterpart, Bar Jackalope. He also created the opening menu for Chinatown’s Steep After Dark and has collaborated with Bar Sawa, the Little Tokyo omakase counter that serves some of the best cocktails in the city. (I’d rank the latter among the best bars in L.A., if not for the fact that the drinks at Sawa are primarily geared towards full-blown diners.)
Just like Sawa’s expert bartenders, Pham dons a white dress shirt and black waistcoat. In between shaking, mixing and stirring drinks, he takes great care to chat and interact with every customer that walks in the door. “Jack [Benchakul] is my idol,” he says, referring to the man behind Chinatown’s Endorffeine, the lone employee-operator behind one of L.A’s best coffee shops, when I ask him how he intends to run Bar Suehiro. While Pham does intend to hire a handful of staff to help out, he wants to be behind the bar more often than not, he adds.
Unlike many bars in L.A., he intends for Bar Suehiro to be a more intimate sit-down drinking den, best experienced in groups of four or fewer. If he or another Bar Suehiro employee are busy with other guests, your party might need to linger before getting your order taken. The wait, at least in my eyes, will be worth it for the best-in-class cocktails and Pham’s complimentary bar snack of choice: Kakinotane, a mix of roasted peanuts and crescent-shaped rice crackers that’s common in Japan.
If you’re feeling peckish, you can also order off the menu at Suehiro itself. The menu is virtually unchanged from the restaurant’s Little Tokyo days, from cozy, homestyle takes on ramen, tempura and donburi to my personal favorite dating back to the days I’d take high school field trips to the Geffen Contemporary: beef hayashi rice topped with an egg, sunny side up. For those who are in the mood for beer or wine, Pham says he’ll gladly serve those as well—though he’ll need to put an order in for those on the other side of the wall.
The debut of Bar Suehiro represents a bold, game-changing move for the namesake restaurant, which Suzuki’s late mother, Junko, opened with her sister Yuriko in 1972. Suehiro Café was originally located along Second Street in Little Tokyo, then relocated to its longtime space on First Street in 1989. Early last year, Suzuki’s then-landlord, Anthony Sperl, served the restaurant with an eviction notice.
After months of attempting to fight the eviction in court, Suzuki permanently closed the First Street location in early January, focusing his efforts on running Suehiro DTLA—as the restaurant is now called on Google Maps—and Chinatown’s Suehiro Mini, a satellite location serving a smaller, more streamlined food menu. The restaurant has served beer and wine since its opening, but Bar Suehiro marks the first time Suehiro will offer any kind of hard liquor.
For those who live and work within Downtown’s Historic Core, Bar Suehiro is a welcome addition to the area for another reason: The neighborhood recently saw the Varnish close earlier this month. The speakeasy inside Cole’s was one of L.A.’s most influential cocktail bars in the early aughts, and the bar’s closure represents the end of an era for the city’s drinking scene, not to mention years of attempted neighborhood revitalization efforts that have largely been cratered by the pandemic. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, Downtown as a whole is experiencing record office vacancies, with devastating downwind effects for many restaurants and bars in the area.
At a time when the city’s bar openings have slowed to a trickle, Bar Suehiro is the rare new cocktail den that dares to have ambition. Having experienced the drinks firsthand during Pham’s two-week soft opening phase, I can honestly say it doesn’t only carry on the torch of the Varnish—Bar Suehiro is already in the running to be one of the best bars in the city.
Bar Suehiro will host its grand opening this Wednesday, July 31. Initial hours of operation will be Wednesday to Sunday, 7pm to 1am. For now, reservations are accepted via Instagram DM.