Can you keep a secret?

It’s a fact, we’re not really good at keeping secrets. A confidential address on a quiet street in Clinton Hill, a speakeasy bar hiding behind a coffee counter in Chelsea and we instantly feel the urge to share it with you. So when we heard chatter about a restaurant concealed behind a Japanese butcher shop whose phone number is jealously kept secret, our curiosity was piqued.

Bohemian works only by word-of-mouth: to make a reservation you have to be recommended by a regular. They will give you the phone number and you will need to give their name to book a table. Well, in theory. After nosing around and investigating among our contacts, we eventually tracked down the phone number that is indeed not listed. As for the reservation, it is not as drastic as the website suggests it is and you can get a table with only a little bit of vetting.

Once you’re all set with your Holy Grail reservation, you will need to find the entrance of the restaurant. Push a door without a sign, engulf yourself in a dark corridor and ring the doorbell at Bohemian. Inside, you will find the ethereal atmosphere of a Wong Kar-Wai movie. We don’t know if it’s the sixties-style lounge chairs, the tiny zen garden or the guitars and bongos that adorn the room, but there is some poetry in the decor of this restaurant. The menu is idiosyncratic; a surprising mix of Japanese and French cuisine with an American twist. Quite astonishing at first but actually very well executed. Try the soba foie gras (delicious), the beef sashimi (the meat comes from the butcher shop out front) or the mushroom cream croquettes. The cocktail list is also worth a look. Verdict: a lovely discovery that deserves to be shared.

So now that you know the existence of Bohemian, all you need is to find their phone number. Lucky you, you know someone who’s bad at keeping a secret…

 

Bohemian
57 Great Jones Street, NoHo
212-388-1070 (but shhh… you didn’t get it from us)