Noreetuh is one of the best open secrets of the New York wine scene. Tucked away on First Avenue in the East Village, its small dining room is plastered to the ceiling with Polaroids of guests holding empty wine bottles from their meal, smiling goofy grins or throwing a peace sign to the person behind the camera. Often enough, that person is Jin Ahn.
Ahn wears many hats as co-owner, wine director and general manager of the Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence winner. Distinguishing itself from other wine bars scattered across lower Manhattan, Noreetuh has developed a fan base for its impressive selection of German wines and refined explorations of Hawaiian food—a rarity in Manhattan.
The three owners—Ahn, chef Chung Chow and partner Gerald San Jose—dreamed up Noreetuh while working together at Per Se, chef Thomas Keller’s Grand Award-winning destination in Manhattan. All three had decades of experience working in fine dining and were ready to strike out on their own.
The idea of a Hawaiian restaurant in New York City came from chef Chow. As a young boy, Chow’s family emigrated from Hong Kong to Hawaii, where he was raised. Noreetuh’s menu is clearly defined by Chow’s life growing up eating Chinese, Cantonese and Japanese home cooking and working his way through Italian- and French-centric kitchens. Folding East Asian and indigenous Hawaiian flavors together, the contemporary Hawaiian cuisine at Noreetuh makes for an exciting take on wine bar dining, with dishes such as mochi flour fried chicken, bone marrow bread pudding and Spanish octopus with taro puree and pickled green papaya. The robust selection of musubi (rice and seaweed snacks) incorporates add-ins like uni, salmon and, famously, Spam.
With decades spent working the floor at the likes of Grand Award winner Jean-Georges, much of Ahn’s life has focused on restaurant experience, operations and true hospitality. Wine has always been a key part of that equation, he says. At these extremely influential fine dining spots, Ahn obtained a unique education in wine, with beautiful Burgundies and the like opened every day for the front of house to sample and educate themselves. “I learned pretty quickly as a server you could be lightyears ahead of the server next to you … Wine is a tool, and [it can become] a language that you speak with the person in front of you to guide them through to a better experience,” he says. “Rather than just talking about the weather, the conversation with the guest can be about the wine. We can better connect.”
Since Noreetuh opened in 2014, its wine list has found its footing by being grounded prominently in the wines of Germany. After the COVID-19 pandemic and a trip to Germany, Ahn became particularly fixated on Riesling, honing the list to include cult-classic producers and extended verticals. This focus allows Noreetuh to open elegant bottles at approachable prices, avoiding the high price tags that come with regions like Burgundy and Champagne that are popular at fine-dining establishments. “[Right now, there’s] this sort of German wine revolution, also a Silvaner revolution,” Ahn says. “I'm proud to say that I'm part of it.”
Wine Spectator’s Julia Larson chatted with Ahn about the fine dining habits that bled into Noreetuh, his take on Hawaiian cuisine and the wines he’d pull to pair with … Spam?
Wine Spectator: In your early days, was there one bottle that made you think wine might be for you?
When I was in college, I was just focused on beer and drinking culture rather than actual enjoyment, like in fine-wine culture. [After college] I had this one friend who would go to these wine bars [in Chicago] and I would look at him and ask him: “Why do you spend all this money on wine? Just drink some soda or beer! Let’s just keep it very blue-collar.” And he said I had to just come out and see. We went to a wine bar—I think it was called Cru—and I still remember drinking Riesling, just simple village stuff, nothing special. But as I was drinking, I was thinking “All right, this is good. This is very good.” I could sort of understand why he was really obsessing over wine. It was a Trimbach Riesling, and it changed my perspective.
What do people not understand about Hawaiian cuisine?
Hawaiian is a double-edged sword. I mean, no one came to the restaurant at first because we’re Hawaiian. In this day and age, people have diversified, finding different places to go to. But Hawaiian cuisine has never been on people’s radar. It was difficult for the first three to four years. Don’t get me wrong: Running a small restaurant with a tight margin is never an easy thing. But those first years, I didn’t realize how badly we could do as a restaurant. We could have easily given up, but between all of us we just kept it going.
I think there’s a little more awareness now, but still to this day, people don’t necessarily understand Hawaiian cuisine. Even we ourselves sometimes have a hard time understanding it, because Hawaiian cuisine is the ultimate fusion cuisine. You have the influence of Polynesians, Japanese culture, Chinese people, Korean people and the European settlers from the early days. They’ve been crossbreeding for a very long time, and the same thing goes for the cuisine.
To name something Hawaiian, it’s a little difficult. At this point, we have become a Hawaiian restaurant. But do we do all Hawaiian tropical stuff? No! I mean, we have a very robust wine list and a huge German wine program. But does that make us any less Hawaiian? Not really. I think with the cuisine itself, we’re still emphasizing certain flavor profiles of Hawaii, certain colors of Hawaii. But understanding that Hawaii is the filter we have, there’s a very wide range of what we can do.
Why does Riesling work so well with Hawaiian food?
Let’s just put it this way: Because Riesling works well with almost all food out there. It’s high acid, and that generally tends to go well with a lot of dishes. It cleanses your palate, it’s refreshing. Wine is supposed to help you enjoy the food and help it go down and digest. Beer’s filling, Riesling isn’t! The ABV is also lower— for off-dry Riesling around 7.5 percent to a bone-dry Riesling at around 12.5 percent—so they’re drinkable and the versatility is through the roof. So comparing that with Hawaiian food, where you’re sprinkling in a little Asian factor, adding things that are fried … it always works well.
You’re one of the few people we can ask this question: What are your strategies for pairing wine with Spam?
You could take it so many different ways. Breaking down our musubi, you’ve got that piece of pork shoulder, so it’s lean meat—it’s not heavy like a pork chop— resting on top of rice. You are eating something meaty, but not super duper meaty. You could easily go to Champagne, because if you are approaching it like sushi, when you go to a sushi restaurant you are either drinking sake or Champagne or, these days if they are really elevated, white Burgundy or Riesling.
What do all of these wines have? They all have a relatively high acid factor. Now, our Spam musubi has some kombu soy, which gives you that extra layer of umami. Nori gives you umami. The rice gives you that texture. Spam gives you more like a block of meat, right? So if you want to cut through the touch of richness from the pork, you want something very clean and precise, like a Kabinett Trocken from the Mosel.
Now if you want to pair this in a more harmonious, umami-laden way, think about an aged Riesling with just a little bit of body. Maybe an Auslese with 30 years of age to bring out the savory aspect of the wine. You could even try a dry Riesling from the Rheingau or Nahe that is about 10 years of age, because [for those wines] just 10 years will already give you the savory aspect and texture. I like the Champagne idea, but what about sparkling Riesling? It would also work with this fabulous musubi.
Your list at Noreetuh features a lot of aged Riesling. Why should people be drinking aged Riesling?
I think everyone should enjoy Riesling, but it’s just like anything else—it’s a preferential call. Not everyone’s going to enjoy that flavor profile. I found over time that I have a particular preference for aged products because it shows you something completely different. It’s a flavor profile that you cannot find in young wine—only time will do that. Beyond the flavor, some people don’t see the value of aged wines. I think it’s much better to have the option for people who are curious and want to venture out. For others, it can grow; the next time you come in, you can try something slightly older, and then later on, try something really old.
How have your travels to Germany changed the way you structure Noreetuh’s wine list?
I think the way I approach the wine program has changed drastically. I used to cherry-pick quite a bit. I still do. Especially [as we] have a whole bunch of diners who are wine savvy, who like to get the bottles that they cannot find.
My trips to Germany brought me closer to people who are part of the big circle of life. It’s all a circle of life when it comes to wine. You understand the challenges of that year, see the similarities from this year to that year. This is their livelihood, and this is their life, and when you realize that, you are part of this whole wheel that has an impact on their livelihood. You become part of the story and you become their ambassador as much as we are of Hawaiian cuisine. They’ve worked hard to make this [wine], but because there was zero demand for these wines for the past 20 years, they sat in their cellar. Now you’re part of the storytelling and enjoying the fruits of many people’s labor.
As I’ve come to understand that, I can’t cherry-pick anymore. But you’ve got to strike the right balance, and I can’t share my love or my money with every single grower-producer out there. I focus a bit more on the people that I felt closer to or I feel like I have the duty to tell the story about.
What’s one wine pairing from Noreetuh that you just can’t get enough of?
One of the things that I still swear by is a Northern Rhône with one of our mochi-crusted fish. Sometimes it’s fluke, sometimes it’s bass. The crust is sweet rice flour on one side, and we serve that with a fermented black bean sauce. A Northern Rhône Syrah with some age to it is just mind-bogglingly good. One person did mention that their Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage 1991 was fantastic with it.
