It takes three different employees to prep the ingredients for Obon's intergalactic cocktail menu. The downtown sushi bar makes everything from scratch (including the liquid "blood bits" on the zombie drink), so on Sundays the team will get together to dehydrate pineapples and cut up onions for the Japanese liqueur.
It takes them five hours.
But of course it's worth it, because when they're done the onions become the star ingredient in the Kung Füd, a showy beer cocktail that tastes rather like a "cheese plate," according to beverage director Matt Martinez. The onions are caramelized and then infused with shochu, a Japanese spirit made from fermented rice. (The shochu is actually produced in California at the Bay Area distillery St. George Spirits.) Oatmeal stout adds a chocolaty layer at the top of the cocktail, balancing out the sweet raspberry and the unadulterated funk of the onions.
The Kung Füd, $10, looks sweet but tastes rather savory from the caramelized onions inside.
Obon's house mixologist Martinez developed the menu along with the restaurant's bar manager Marlee Palmer. She's the one responsible for the squid ink cocktail with the edible glitter (pictured up top). The Space Oddity is dedicated to David Bowie and is pitch black like motor oil, with sparkly silver weaves of corn starch "pearl dust" that resemble a floating galaxy. (She originally found them at a Michaels craft store.)
The Space Oddity really doesn't look like something you'd drink, but the creation is actually rather tasty. It is sweet and syrupy with a lemony tang, perhaps from the apple brandy she puts in there. Other than color, the squid ink just adds a tiny bit of saltiness and that's it. Surprise, no fishy flavor!
If it seems like this article is all over the place, that's because it is. Obon's menu runs the gamut of contemporary cocktail trends, with nods to tiki culture, Japanese kitsch and the world of Mexican mescal (check out the Elote Libre with a corn spiced rim). Martinez said that they dreamed up each cocktail like they would a dish of food.
"If there's an ingredient we're really stoked about, we want to play around with it," he said.
The Zonbi, $15, is Obon's nod to the classic Zombie cocktail by Don the Beachcomber.
The Zonbi cocktail started like that, with the edible brain. Matt had the idea to make a coconut flavored jello shot with a brain mold, and then spray some cocktail bitters on top to look like blood. (Hence the "blood bits".) The rest of the cocktail is simple, with a blend of three rums and some cinnamon butter syrup they call Cinnabon. It's sweet and boozy like any good tiki drink should be. Oh yeah, and they put absinthe in there, because, why not!
Obon Sushi Bar and Ramen is at 350 E. Congress St. Call (520) 485-3590 to set up a reservation.
