Kenka
25 St. Marks Pl., New York, NY 10003
nr. Second Ave.
212-254-6363
Settle down, kids, and let me tell you a story. Like many good stories, it's a story about a bar. And like many post-modernists stories, it doesn't actually have much of a narrative. And like many stories my parents will probably be reading, it's really more of a restaurant and I don't even like the taste of alcohol, what are you talking about.
Kenka is a Japanese restaurant, but it is the last place on earth you should ever go for a romantic, sushi dinner. Unlike roughly 98% of the Japanese restaurants I've been to, I can't quite recall if Kenka even has sushi. Instead, Kenka serves Japanese bar food, from the easily-recognizable - fried tofu and chicken wings - to the slightly more exotic - okonomiyaki (a grilled batter cake, usually filled with egg and vegetables) and udon - to 'if you were raised 2nd generation American, you will only eat this if you are thirteen and on a dare' - namely, bull testicles. As an izakaya, Kenka's portion size and philosophy is most comparable to tapas, small, cheap and plentiful.
K enka is huge and opens directly to the street. It's usually crowded and always noisy. The establishment is perfectly clean, but between the wooden benches and the cotton candy machine it intentionally creates an atmosphere of cheerful and vaguely misbegotten rowdiness, that will have you feeling at home, especially with a couple glasses of shochu under your belt.
Regrettably but inevitably, seeing as how it's in St. Mark's Place, the hipsters have discovered Kenka. The lines to get in can be enormous. Also, as the years have gone the prices have risen as the size of the beer glasses have shrunk. But for a fun night out in the East Village, Kenka will always be my first stop.
