Ame, a new Japanese restaurant from INK C.E.O. Charles Khabouth and Guy and Michael Rubino of Rubino Restaurants, opens Tuesday in the Mercer Street space formerly known as Rain. The 5,000-square-foot restaurant, designed by the award-winning firm Munge Leung, includes a private dining room for groups of up to 30, a main dining area, and a Japanese lounge and sake bar.
The space is filled with heritage wood (the design firm used walnut from an Amish community near Philadelphia to fashion the tables and bar), natural stone, traditional figures, and water elements. Kimono sashes are affixed to the chairs in the sake bar and lounge, which holds 50, and mirrors throughout the venue are etched with Japanese poetry. A series of dividing screens can be moved to reconfigure the space in the main dining room, which holds about 100.
Executive chef Guy Rubino is overseeing the kitchen, which has a custom robata grill that uses white coals imported from Japan. The menu focuses on sushi, sashimi, and nigiri.
In his blog, the chef said he and his brother had been planning a renovation at Rain to mark the restaurant's 10th anniversary: "The concept for the reno was to introduce sushi and sashimi to the menu as well as a new area for folks to dine in which was a little more casual than the formal dining area." When Khabouth came in for dinner one evening, the pair started talking about the project. "Before you know it we became partners and the reno went from a small one-month gig to a massive overhaul," Rubino said.
