Kenta Goto worked at Pegu Club for many years before opening Bar Goto in 2015. The Lower East Side bar is committed to Japanese cocktail discipline: hard ice, slow stirring, precise dilution, and a cocktail menu built around sake, shochu, and Japanese ingredients alongside the classics.
The Sakura Martini is the signature: gin, sake, fresh cherry blossom syrup. The Far East Side is a Japanese twist on the Old Fashioned with shochu. The izakaya food menu — small plates of okonomiyaki, miso eggplant, dashi-based bites — is excellent.
The crowd is mid-thirties LES locals and Japanese cocktail enthusiasts. Pair with Attaboy on Eldridge Street for an LES cocktail evening.