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Angel’s Share — the beloved Japanese-style cocktail bar that shut down this spring after a 30-year run in the East Village — will make a rare, two-night D.C. appearance this month in downtown's Eaton hotel.
On Sunday, August 7, Angel’s Share senior bartender Tsunetaka Imada heads to Michele’s for a one-night cocktail collaboration with three of D.C.'s star bar directors: Deke Dunne (Allegory), Will Patton (Bresca, Jônt) and Judy Elahi (Michele's, Gravitas, Baker’s Daughter). Each mixologist will come up with a cocktail. Imada’s “Harvest” creation calls for lavender-infused Tanqueray gin, grapefruit, honey, yogurt, galliano, and lemon.
“It’s a chance to get some amazing minds together and have some fun. I’ve always admired Tsunetaka from afar,” says Dunne.
Guests are encouraged to RSVP for the Diageo-sponsored evening (5 p.m. to 10 p.m.) and $1 from each $16 cocktail will go towards D.C.’s homeless-fighting nonprofit Friendship Place.
Imada stays put the following night on Monday, August 8, when he joins Dunne behind the bar at Allegory to showcase some original Angel’s Share cocktails. Eaton’s two-night homage to the Japanese-style speakeasy includes a special izakaya menu from Michele’s chef de cuisine Rachel Bindel. Look for roe-topped chirashi (mixed seafood) with sushi rice; shrimp and sweet potato tempura alongside tendashi sauce; king crab chawanmushi (custard) and grilled skewers like shishito peppers with yuzu and miso eggplant with sesame.
Angel’s Share, largely considered a pioneer of the craft cocktail movement, didn’t disappear from NYC for long. This summer, the legendary bar made at surprise comeback at Midtown’s Hotel Eventi in a space outfitted with tables and chairs from the East Village original.
Back in May, owner Erina Yoshida described the pop-up as a precursor to a future location down the line. Angel’s Share has now secured a permanent new address across Manhattan in the West Village, Imada tells Eater, and the team plans to start construction soon for an anticipated opening in early 2023.
Imada, who kicked off his cocktail career in Japan at age 18 before joining Angel’s Share a decade later, should feel right at home stirring drinks inside lobby-level Allegory. Both the NYC original and summer pop-up site of Angel’s Share also sport speakeasy-like settings and entrances behind unmarked doors. (This spring, Allegory welcomed another NYC cocktail institution with a one-night takeover from Employees Only.)
Patton and Imada go way back, as both friends and rivals in the Bacardi Legacy cocktail competition one year. “He beat me, but I forgave him,” jokes Patton, who just got his own big accolade — a 2022 Exceptional Cocktails Award by Michelin Guide.
Angel’s Share previously popped up in D.C. once before, at Patton’s two Michelin-starred Jônt as part of an omakase-style tasting two years ago.
“To expose our cocktail culture to Tsunetaka and his bar’s style is great for D.C., and expands our horizons as well,” says Patton.
The group got to bond at last week’s Tales of the Cocktail festival in New Orleans, where D.C. took home two big awards: Silver Lyan at the Riggs was named Best U.S. Hotel Bar and Jack Rose Dining Saloon won World’s Best Spirits Selection.
