Cocktail Bar and Rooftop Restaurant Add Asian Flavors to Adams Avenue

Adams Avenue’s largest restaurant and bar opens to the public on Wednesday, anchoring a mixed-use building in Normal Heights with a 4,500-square-foot dining room and bar on the ground floor and an additional 2,500-square-foot panoramic patio on the rooftop. SKA Bar and Restaurant adds another all-day eatery to the neighborhood; open at 11:30 a.m. daily, it will operate until midnight Sunday through Wednesday and until 2 a.m. Thursday through Saturday with a late night menu.

When the project was first announced, owner and developer Louie Chau, who also runs City Heights’ Lotus Garden restaurant, said that SKA’s menu would be a combination of “Pan Asian dishes with American bar food”. The global selection includes appetizers ranging from fried dumplings and duck wings to bulgogi-topped fries, vegetarian spring rolls, and chicken lettuce wraps and features entrees priced between $11 and $24 that run the gamut from mac and cheese with Asian sausage to teriyaki salmon and a Vietnamese pork chop. Even the burgers get an Asian twist with kung pao sauce and crispy cheese won tons.

The centerpiece of the downstairs space is a 40-foot bar — the domain of bar director Elliott Mizuki. Entrenched in the community, having helped run Polite Provisions for the past six years, Mizuki along with his team has built a menu that’s full of Asian influences. The drinks (priced from $9 to $11) hit the full gamut of styles, from a tropical take on a low ABV Sherry Cobbler with roasted pineapple and creme de noyaux to a draft Gin and Tonic made with Japanese gin and watermelon. The Abnormal Heights is a boozy rendition of Thai tea, with cognac, creme de cacao, and Jägermeister-soaked boba while the Dark Magician is a swirling mix of white rum, Singani 63, rhubarb liqueur, taro, Indian yogurt, and plum bitters.

Ska’s rooftop will be activated soon, offering a dim sum menu on weekends paired with brunch-appropriate cocktails like kimchi Bloody Marys.

Lucianna McIntosh