Japonais - This Chicago import is the newest entrant to a growing list of mammoth-sized, high-design Japanese restaurant-lounge hybrids. Nevertheless, this fact doesn't detract from the Gramercy Park eatery's appeal: a twirl around the red revolving door leads you to a split-level design downstairs, separating the dining room on the left from the bar and lounge on the right. There, a rectangular slate bar serves Asian-inspired cocktails such as Peach Sake Sangria, a Green Tea martini, and its signature drink, the Floating Orchid, made with stoli, cointreau, fresh pear and lemon juice, with an edible orchid to garnish. Classics, such as the Manhattan, Bloody Mary and mojito are left to their own devices, as are the usual suspects of beer (Amstel, Heineken, Sapporo, Kirin). Choose to sip more cold sakes than you know what to do with from a plush red leather and velvet window banquette downstairs or the vantage point of the upstairs lounge overlooking diners below in what's referred to as the "Red Room," thanks to its signature red brick walls. No shortage of mirrors allows the beautiful people sipping wine by the glass to check themselves—or each other—out, discreetly.
