(Photos: Daniel Maurer)
It takes a lot to stand out on St. Marks Place, so who can blame these two ADD-stricken restaurants for seeing what sticks.
Sushi Lounge, which moved in with its sister spot Natori after leaving the corner of St. Marks and A, has now changed part of its signage over at 58 St. Marks to reflect a new specialty: Hakata-style matsunabe. According to the menu, below, it’s “made from beef intestine, cabbage and Chinese chive, prepared in a special Japanese hot pot (nabe). When it is cooked, filled with Collagen broth it prepared pork bones boiled for many hours. The base soup is usually mild and spicy. Champon ramen noodles are often put into the pot and boiled to complete the dish.”
Sadly, when we stopped in last night we couldn’t verify that “the savory flavor of motsu spreads in your mouth with every chewy bite,” since we were dining solo and the hot pots (priced at $17 to $20 per person) are for at least two. But rest assured that in Japan, the dish “has made a boom by the mass media and become known nationwide.”
Just across the street at 79 St. Marks, another shape-shifting spot — which used to be Typhoon Lounge, and then became red-painted Saints Tavern, and then became purple-painted Saints Tavern, and then became gold-painted Kamikaze & Co., and then became gold-painted The Thirsty Buddha — has now gone black and is turning into an East Village outpost of Taqueria Lower East Side, according to the liquor license application.