If you consider the word oddball a compliment, you’re going to want to check out the brand new East Village spot with that very name at 188 Avenue B, where Hi-Note recently stood.
The Oddball team of LaTeisha Moore, Phillip Reichenberger, and Logan Rodriguez has created a lively mix of cocktails and small plates that will have you carefully reading the drink menu before making your choice. Rodriguez and his R+D partner Allen Oino have created an extremely varied set of drinks that are completely unique to the place.
The minimal, slightly futuristic decor at Oddball is the perfect setting for concoctions such as the “Far Side,” a Margarita made with fig leaf tequila, cilantro, dill, pineapple and tomatillo brine; and the “Infinite Loop,” a mix of sesame and hazelnut gin, guava, whey brandy and white aperitif that is their version of a vesper martini.
“I like how playful and offbeat the cocktails are, but they are also seriously composed,” says Rodriguez.
Some of the drinks, all created with Oino, were developed in one afternoon; others took up to a month to perfect. While everything available at Oddball is a brand-new blend, some are offshoots of previous inventions.
“The Space Cadet is similar to something I did at Smithereens, but this is the supercharged version,” he notes. It’s a gin and tonic that gains its power from a buttery rhubarb galette.
“Not every drink is for everyone,” Rodriguez notes, “but there’s something here for everyone.” To that point, many of the drinks are available in non-alcoholic versions.
The space was previously occupied by Hi-Note, a watering hole that doubled as a local radio station. Not so coincidentally, that joint was run by Moore and Reichenberger, life partners who met at a karaoke bar years ago. Her musical choices there ran from the Jefferson Airplane to Nicki Minaj, while he stuck to crooners like Sinatra and Norah Jones.
The pair decided that, as Moore explains, while it was “very ambitious to have coffee, drinks and music all in one space, what we realized was that our passion was really around the cocktails and the music.”
“So it was important for us to give each of those space to really breathe and thrive and be strong on their own. So Oddball is that representation of the cocktail side of things, and we will soon have a new space for Hi-Note Radio,” Moore says.
Food, it should be noted, is not taking a back seat at Oddball. Moore praises the team of Marco Huitzil and Hannah Anderson, who have created some delicious dishes to accompany the drinks, such as the Tuna Carpaccio with pickled daikon, cilantro and habanero.
“Marco’s Heritage, being from Mexico, means that the menu has touches of Mexican influence, but they wanted to go for this more eclectic, semi-Americana approach to the compositions. And some of it is just purely familiar nostalgia-driven comfort dishes,” Moore says.
A perfect example of that is the Papas au Gratin — scalloped potatoes with mornay sauce and cotija cheese, capped with mole and himeji mushrooms.
Rodriguez notes that one of the things that makes the place work is the good relationship between the bar and the kitchen and the common goal of creating something special — which, we should point out, can’t be easy in a kitchen that is, shall we say, somewhat compact.
The whole place is on the smaller side, holding about 45 patrons (but expanding to more in the warmer seasons, as they have a backyard). The decor and the name were carefully considered before settling into the current state.
“We had explored a bunch of different names,” Moore recalls. “This is one that was somewhere on a list, and I’ve always liked that word (Oddball). It’s very self-deprecating, which I appreciate. I do want to be honest with myself about a lot of the things that I like in life — in terms of art, music, design, food and drink. I keep exploring to go a little deeper.”
And, she adds, “there’s a little bit of a goofiness to embracing that as a name.”
As for designing the space, they left it up to Danny Taylor of House Under Magic.
“We always wanted a little bit of a slightly sci-fi touch that still had like a warmth to it,” Rodriguez notes. “I think that the line between inspiration and theming is kind of is, you know, it’s thin. And I think that Danny Taylor did a really good job of creating something that feels almost like anachronistic, where it is, this could be in the past, this could be in the future.”
For Moore, the difficult part of helming the spaceship is that “there’s only so many hours in the day and it feels like there’s always something that can be improved on or more to do. We’re just staying grounded and appreciative of what we have done and what we continue to do.”
The best part, besides being in a “neighborhood where there’s so much creativity, innovation, artistry and music,” is, she says, “being part of a great team and making people happy. I get the most excited when I see someone’s face when they try a cocktail for the first time.”
Oddball is open Wednesday through Sunday, 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. More info at oddballnyc.com and on Instagram at @oddball.nyc.
