Korean food and jazz: That’s not a combination you see every day. Though as professional jazz singer and owner of Little Tokyo’s new Blue Whale jazz lounge and Korean small plates restaurant Joon Lee says, “I’m an improviser.”
Everything here is about improvisation. The walls display a rotating gallery of local artists. Cushioned, movable cubes serve as chairs and tables, allowing guests to configure their own seating arrangements and giving musicians plenty of free-form space in which to perform during weekend shows and Monday-night jam sessions. All of this takes place beneath ceiling panels adorned with verses by the mystic poets Rumi and Hafez.
Mixologist Martin Heynen’s cocktail list changes daily, too, but his signature Blue Whale cocktail is a heady mix of pineapple vodka, coconut rum, lime, orange and pineapple juice and just enough blue curaçao to color it.
Chef Chris Kim’s menu is inspired by the Korean street food he and Lee enjoyed during their youth in Seoul, livened up with secret additions from Lee’s mother’s recipe book. Paper-thin barbecued beef envelops sweet slices of apple and pear topped with sprouts. Spongy rice cakes come drenched with chili-laced sesame oil. Two kinds of chili paste spice up cuts of pork belly layered with onions over a slab of cool tofu, and the deep-fried chicken wings are seasoned with soy, ground green onion and a dash of sake. It’s music in your mouth—a jazz set, to be exact. 123 Astronaut E.S. Onizuka St., Suite 301, Los Angeles, 213-620-0908; bluewhalemusic.com
