How Katie Rue Runs Reception Bar, a Korean Cocktail Oasis on the Lower East Side
In our series Office Crush, we're asking people with the coolest jobs to take us to work. Up next, Katie Rue, the owner of Reception Bar on the Lower East Side, lets us shadow her for a day of cocktail creating, tea tasting, and tamales.
Katie Rue knows a thing or two about setting a vibe. Her (almost) all-day cocktail bar, Reception Bar, lures pedestrians off a quiet stretch of Orchard Street through circular doors that shine natural light (a prized New York real-estate commodity) over thriving houseplants and chubby pink booths.
These design elements may sound like millennial bait, but the aesthetic has a deeper meaning: The round doors welcome visitors by echoing the design of arched Korean garden gates, and the colorful prints wrapping everything from menus to matches are pulled from blown-up vintage Korean postage stamps. For Rue, a 27-year-old former options trader turned bar owner, every aspect of Reception Bar is an opportunity to celebrate Korean culture.
"I chose the name Reception Bar for the idea of being able to receive your heritage with love and have a lot of pride in being Korean American, and on the flip side, for people coming in to be receptive of understanding this culture," she says. "We used a lot of vintage Korean stamps for the branding to go with the idea of sending and receiving gifts, and our menus have garden imagery to suggest that the fruits of the garden are in your drinks, because we make everything in house."
Infused soju forms the backbone of almost every cocktail on the menu, from re-interpreted martinis to Yong Blood, a throat-clearing, eye-wateringly fiery blend of bokbunja wine, yumberry, and Korean green pepper soju. There’s also a fleet of non-alcoholic elixirs that eschew sugary juices for shimeji mushroom shrubs and single-origin teas, inspired by the traditional Korean medicines and home remedies Rue grew up with. “My drinks don't follow industry rules or standard measurements, but it works because what I’m trying to do isn’t something you can find in a classic cocktail book," she says.
Running a bar is a constant exercise in creative problem solving, from dealing with ingredient shortages to brainstorming new drinks. Luckily, she’s learning to embrace the unexpected. “At the beginning, there were surprises that would overwhelm or stress me out almost every day,” she says. “Now I know there’s always going to be something and to stay calm and work toward a solution.”
Photo by Emma Fishman1/6Emails and Market Runs
I’ve lived on the Lower East Side for about three years, and I live two blocks from the bar. This has always been my favorite neighborhood because it’s diverse, and there are lots of families forward-thinking food spots. I knew I wanted the bar to be on Orchard St south of Delancey—a little tucked away from everything but close enough to a lot of other great spots. I actually used to go to Lost Weekend [which used to be in this location] before it closed, and I remember thinking, “Oh, this is such an ideal spot.” It was out of business for two years before I saw the ‘For Rent’ sign!
I don’t really have an office at the bar so I typically wake up and go through all the emails in bed. I do a lot of work in bed when I first wake up because it feels like I’m not working because I'm still in bed! Then, depending on the day, I meet with potential vendors or go run errands at restaurant supply stores, specialty shops, and the Union Square farmers’ market. I go to Norwich Farms to pick up Korean melon, edible flowers, and perilla leaves. I actually used to think I couldn’t have perilla leaves on the menu because I’d have to buy them for almost ten times the price at retail, but now that all these Korean chefs like the chef at Kāwi [Eunjo Park] are creating a demand, I can buy a big bag wholesale.
Photo by Emma Fishman2/6A Not-At-All-Casual Ten-Step Skincare Routine
I started a three or four-step routine in 2013 when I moved to New York from California. There are actual seasons here, so I needed something to protect and revitalize my skin against the harsh winds. After that, it was about education and wanting to target things that I felt could use extra TLC, like my sun spots. Now it's evolved into something to start and end my day with joy and feel a little pampered.
I only use my oil cleanser at night, so in the morning I start with Then I Met You’s Soothing Tea Cleansing Gel, then use Klairs Supple Preparation Toner. My pre-essence is Missha’s Misa Geum Sul First Essence Booster, and my essence is Missha’s Time Revolution First Treatment Essence Intensive Moist. If I'm working from home the first half the day, I might add a sheet mask after my essence step.
I have a lot of sunspots from playing tennis in L.A. with no sun protection other than a visor, so I counteract that with Vitamin C serum. CosRX’s Triple C Lightning Liquid isn’t as well known as Drunk Elephant, but it should be. It’s so potent and really works! Then I layer a mist serum, eye cream, and face cream before finishing with my sunscreen, Thank You Farmer’s Sun Essence.
Photo by Emma Fishman3/6Getting Caffeinated at Tea Tastings
Out of all my vendors, I go to Tea Dealers in the East Village the most often. They source tea from Korea, China, and Japan, and they have the best quality tea I've found in all of New York.
Our drinks at Reception Bar are very dependent on what’s available with the teas and local fruits. Tea Dealers’ stocklist is very affected by weather changes because a lot of the teas are wild or cultivated in a specific way, and Korea goes through a lot of droughts, so I do tastings often. First I like to smell the tea leaves dry and take notes right away about what hits my nose first, what it reminds me of, and what I think can pair with it. Then we see what it tastes like in a few different steeping processes, which gives me an idea of how we can experiment with it at the bar.
After the tasting, I’m super caffeinated, so I go back to the bar with a few samples that I think have potential. I debrief my bartenders and bar managers with the notes and let everyone get involved, then we make infusions that play around with temperature, time, and ratio of tea to soju.
Photo by Emma Fishman4/6Tamale Time
My meal schedule is really out of whack. If I’m out running errands, I’ll go somewhere close to the bar to grab food for everyone working there. The new Essex Market just opened and there’s a great Dominican vendor there that does steak sandwiches with bread made from plantains [patacon], and it’s one of my favorite sandwiches in the area. Or I’ll eat pizza at Scarr’s, get a meatball sub at Reginas, or go to Factory Tamal to get chicken mole, salsa verde, and chipotle tamales.
If I have time to go home, I like to turn my brain off and just cook with whatever is in season that I picked up at the farmers’ market. Last week I made crispy-skinned lemon-garlic chicken thighs. If I don’t have time or energy to come up with something, I'll just make a stir fry with rice from my rice cooker.
Photo by Emma Fishman5/6Mixing Up New Menu Items
It takes about a week to really perfect a drink because, the first time, you just want to create a usable infusion. Then you find other ingredients that might marry well with it, potentially buying small things at retail price to see if you want to add it to the inventory.
We just added a new drink called Golden Dew that features a Korean melon called chamoe. It’s only in peak season for a month and a half, and we juice them in house—the acidity, sweetness, and floral-ness all vary in each batch, but I finally got a really great drink that’s clean but fruity and floral. The first people that ordered it were also Korean so I was nervous because they know the flavors and ingredients. But the guy said “Wow!” super loud and that was really validating because it took a while to source the melons and get the drink on the menu. It turns out they were nostalgic for these Korean melon ice cream bars, and it was nice to know there are people out there who were responding to this elevation of familiar flavors.
Photo by Emma Fishman6/6Behind the Bar
We have a very small team, and it’s a small space. I don’t want the bartenders to have to do non-bartender things, so I’m the one who cleans the restroom toilets, takes care of the plants, and does a deep clean. Depending on the day I’ll either be actually behind the bar making drinks for customers, bar backing, or being a hostess—whatever hole needs to be filled. If I’m not on that day, then I’ll be in the back with my own shaker experimenting with drinks until it’s closing time. I don’t work Fridays or Saturday nights anymore— I leave it to the professionals who have been doing this for a decade or so—but I’m always on call.
I do like being behind the bar because a lot of the people coming in have a lot of questions. We don’t use a lot of words to describe the drinks on the menu, so it’s fun to make drinks for people and explain more about Korean ingredients. Most non-Asian Americans' experience of Korean culture is tied to nightlife like Korean karaoke, barbecue, and drinking in K-Town. Although I also enjoy a night out like that, it's a very narrow view of what Korea has to offer in terms of heritage and flavors, so it's important for me to have it be a part of people's day lives as well as being a nightlife option.
