Sama Street

10 Great Asian-Owned Bars In NYC

"Avi Singh and Rishi Rajpal, who are Indian and Indian Chinese, respectively, opened Greenpoint bar Sama Street in 2019, which serves Asian-inspired cocktails and food. They’re childhood friends and spent the majority of their lives living in and traveling through Asia. “We wanted to highlight the foods and beverages we grew up on, and share these memories... by shining a light on Asian culture and ingredients through cocktails and food,” said Singh. Their extensive cocktail list includes names like Lucy Liu and Bollywood Superstar, which use ingredients typically found in Chinese and Indian dishes such as chili oil (used as a tequila wash) and garam masala. For pre or post-dinner drinks, we recommend pairing drinks with some snacks and lamb skewers—and the pork ribs and steak should truly not be missed. The ribs are super tender and doused in a chili barbecue sauce, and the steak is topped with a sesame chimmi sauce and comes with fries and a side of fish sauce mayo, which is the only way we'll be having mayo from now on." - izzy chen, with warm welcome, neha talreja, bryan kim