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Wasabi Beer to Be Served at New Bushwick Restaurant Okiway

By Serena Dai | July 7, 2015 3:49pm | Updated on July 7, 2015 7:05pm
  It's one of several more adventurous items to be offered at Okiway.   
Wasabi Beer to Be Served at New Bushwick Restaurant Okiway
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BUSHWICK — Talk about booze with a kick.

Okiway, a new Japanese restaurant set to open at 1006 Flushing Ave., plans to have a diverse set of Japanese craft beers — including a wasabi-flavored beer that is exclusively being offered in New York at the restaurant.

Wasabi Ale Niigata, a beer with 4.5 percent alcohol by volume, is a light beer with just a slight spicy kick at the end, said Okiway owner Vincent Minchelli.

It's drinkable and it goes well with food, he said.

"It's not so spicy that you cannot drink it," Minchelli said. "It's very soft, and it's a cute bottle."

It will likely cost around $10 a bottle.

Wasabi-flavored beer's not the only adventurous item on the menu at Okiway.

The restaurant will specialize in a grilled pancake called okonomiyaki, with variations that feature unusual ingredients for the Japanese classic, like chorizo, brussel sprouts and cheese.

It will also serve dishes likes cactus sashimi, cactus tempura and cheese nori, a cheese wrapped in seaweed and deep fried.

Minchelli hopes to give locals a chance to explore different flavors — or at least experience familiar flavors in a different way.

"It’s products you can see everyday at the market that you probably don’t pay attention to it," Minchelli said, referring to ingredients like cactus. "They're unusual things, but still very approachable."

All dishes range from $5 to $16, with many shareable dishes.

Okiway, whose name might be familiar to people from stickers that were posted across Brooklyn and lower Manhattan a year ago, will open late next week.

"I want them to come to me and share something," Minchelli said. "I’m ready to taste new things with people."