Atomix

Atomix is the second restaurant from Junghyun Park, who goes by JP, and his wife Ellia, two years after their first, Atoboy. It opened on May 30, 2018, in a row house on East 30th Street, and at the time Eater counted it as only the second fine dining Korean restaurant in the city, after Jungsik, where JP had run the Tribeca kitchen. The name borrows from ato, an old Korean word for gift. A Michelin star came in its first year; a second in 2021.

The evening moves through the building. Drinks upstairs, snacks in a lounge, then down to a U-shaped counter where the kitchen is the stage. Before each course a card arrives, a small abstract drawing on one side and the dish's ingredients and backstory on the other, and at the end they are boxed up for you to take home. The ceramics came from Korean makers; the chopsticks, from the Parks' own collection. JP describes the aim as balancing fresh ingredients against the fermented flavours Korean cooking is known for.

The ceramics came from Korean makers; the chopsticks, from the Parks' own collection.

It has been one of the hardest reservations in New York for years, and it is plain why: a small counter, two seatings a night when it opened, and a meal that reads less like dinner than a lesson in a country's cooking. When we checked, both the counter and the bar were sold out with only a notify option left. Plan for it. It is the dinner you tell people about.

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