Sushi on Me Brings Its Bottomless Sake-Fueled Omakase Party to Brooklyn

Sushi on Me, the freewheeling, sushi-slinging, expletive-laden omakase party in Jackson Heights, is bringing the show to Brooklyn. According to owner and chef Atip “Palm” Tangjantuk, the team will be expanding with a Thai Japanese tasting menu spot opening in October on 742 Driggs Avenue, near South Second Street, in Williamsburg.

The new Thai and Japanese tasting menu is a welcome change for Tangjantuk, who has been running a restaurant where cooking was limited to portable butane burners behind the bar. Now, in the full Williamsburg kitchen, he can be “more creative,” he says.

The second act leans more heavily into Thai ingredients and elaborate cooking techniques. For the hot appetizers, Tangjantuk will cook and blend sea bream, red snapper and yellowtail in a red curry with coconut and galangal. This mound of mashed and curried fish will be served with a bundle of khanom chin, Thai rice noodles, and a deep-fried kuruma ebi, Japanese tiger prawn. For his ochazuke, or steeped rice course, he will marinate black cod in miso for several days before broiling it and setting that on top of sushi rice. On the side, there will be a dashi soup with delicate flecks of flavorful flesh from the head of a sea bream that diners will pour into the bowl of black cod over rice.

The $129 18-course tasting menu — with bottomless sake — includes a welcome drink, a hand roll, five appetizers, 10 pieces of sushi, and a dessert during a 90-minute seating. That format is up from 15 sake-filled courses for $89 in a one-hour span at Sushi on Me in Queens.

The larger space — which includes a 14-seat chef’s counter — suits an endless party. While the playlist in Jackson Heights crisscrosses through jazz and EDM, the Williamsburg spot will be blasting more golden oldies and disco like the Bee Gees. And after the last course is served, it doesn’t mean the party is over: There’s a backyard that accommodates up to 20 people for after-dinner drinks from the menu. “It’s for the people who don’t want to go home and want to drink and enjoy their friends,” says Tangjantuk. “You get fucked up over there.”

Tangjantuk didn’t set out to become a chef at the start of his career. In 2010, he left Thailand to obtain an MBA at DePaul University in Chicago but deviated from his parents’ wishes for him to become a university professor to instead pursue his chef ambitions. From Nano Sushi in Chicago, he worked his way up (and east) to more prominent positions in NYC, including sushi chef at Domo Domo and head chef at Sushi by Bou. He launched Sushi on Me in Queens in 2020 to express his own, more convivial take on the omakase format.

But, given the upscale setting and higher cost, will the vibe change? Don’t count on it. “We have to make sure you get drunk and smile before you leave,” Tangjantuk says.

Sushi on Me Williamsburg will host four seatings at 5 p.m, 6:45 p.m, 8:30 p.m, and 10:15 p.m. It remains a cash-only operation.