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Sophia Kim and Andrew Rhea, partners in life and the Korean cocktail pop-up Nuna
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One of the goals of the Nuna pop-ups was to raise enough money for a trip to Korea. Kim, who moved to Virginia at age 3, hasn’t been back for a visit in 18 years. She and Rhea have raised the funds and have a trip planned in April.
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A cocktail from a previous Nuna pop-up at The Jasper
Sophia Kim remembers Lunar New Year as a full-on family affair: the smells of dumplings and rice stew drifting from the kitchen, the tangle of siblings underfoot, the time-honored ritual of bowing to elders, the tiny thrill of lucky-money envelopes.
“We always celebrated Lunar New Year,” says Kim, co-founder of the Korean-inspired cocktail pop-up Nuna and beverage director at Alewife restaurant in Church Hill. “It was a really special time, because even though we were all close, having everybody come together [was important].”
Kim was born in South Korea. She and her family immigrated to the United States person by person from the late 1980s into the ’90s, many of them eventually planting roots in Northern Virginia. When she was growing up, her grandparents lived with the family, cousins were considered best friends, and relatives were rarely more than a 20- or 30-minute drive away — a closeness that shaped her understanding of togetherness, food and celebration.
That spirit is at the heart of Nuna’s upcoming Lunar New Year collaboration with The Smoky Mug. On Feb. 17, Lunar New Year proper, the pop-up will host a Korean feast at the North Side restaurant, followed by a second night of cocktails, street-food-inspired bites and dancing on Feb. 21.
Dan Lee, also of Korean ancestry and co-owner of The Smoky Mug, says his family’s celebrations were a little more flexible. “We just kind of picked whichever one was more convenient,” he says. “But the concept of New Year, the refresh and paying homage and being with family, has always been important in some way.” Lee will prepare the dishes at the upcoming events.
Though their childhood memories differ, Kim and Lee found immediate common ground through their heritage, meeting years ago through the city’s tight-knit hospitality scene. Lee, whose family once operated a Korean restaurant in Richmond, says he had always wanted to host a Lunar New Year celebration at The Smoky Mug but never quite had the space — until the cafe-barbecue concept moved into larger digs last year. When he noticed Nuna hosting Korean-inspired pop-ups, he reached out.
Nuna translates to “older sister” in Korean, and Kim says it embodies the ethos of being taken care of — and also schooling siblings on how to have a good time. “A fun nuna is always going to have good taste and know where to party, too,” she says.
Kim, whose bartending resume includes stints at the bygone Saison and Longoven, launched the cocktail pop-up last summer with her partner, Andrew Rhea, a longtime bartender currently at Lafayette Tavern and formerly of The Emerald Lounge. They have since hosted events at Cobra Burger, Pizza Bones and The Jasper.
At its core, Nuna is about identity: translating the flavors, memories and customs Kim grew up with in a multigenerational immigrant household and weaving them with her background in American cocktail bars to create something both nostalgic and new. Featured ingredients at past pop-ups have included roasted barley tea made into a syrup, a Melona ice pop as the base for a milk punch, kkaennip (an aromatic herb), the Korean rice wine makgeolli, mandarin orange, ginseng, sweet potato and black sesame.
For both Kim and Lee, the Lunar New Year collaboration has become a way to gently look inward.
“A lot of the pop-up for me has a lot to do with reexamining my identity, thinking about the past, thinking about the present and the future, and wanting so much as I get older to connect to my Korean-ness,” Kim says. “It’s exciting and fun, and to hear that Dan was also already thinking those things, too.”
She adds, “I think the Korean American experience, you grow up feeling like you’re not American enough, or you’re not Korean enough, and eventually you realize, I’m just both. Fully Korean American. And it’s so cool to explore what that can mean, especially in the food and beverage industry.”
As preparations ramped up, Lee invited his mother into The Smoky Mug’s kitchen to test time-honored recipes, a moment that felt equal parts nostalgic and revelatory, he says. “I’ve always really loved my mother’s cooking … but it was always kind of a mystery. This was kind of like opening the hood.”
Lee laughs about the “Korean spoon” — a large wooden spoon used to measure by instinct rather than exactness. What stayed with him the most was watching his mother read the room as guests tasted her food.
“She was looking at everyone’s faces, like, ‘What do you think? How do you feel?’” he says. “There’s a little bit of a cultural moment of acceptance and inclusion.”
The Lunar New Year menu reflects both the symbolism and comfort of the holiday. Dishes include mandu — “dumplings, potstickers, gyoza, a food of many names,” as the menu notes — which are traditionally associated with wealth, prosperity and family unity. Smoked pork belly will be served with green onion salad and a chile-soy paste.
The food menu for the Lunar New Year Korean Feast on Feb. 17 (click upper-right corner to expand)
For larger plates, dive into galbi, soy-marinated beef short ribs that are smoked and grilled and served with sides of rice and smoked kimchi. Or tteok mandu guk, a clear soup swimming with dumplings and rice cakes, topped with nori (seaweed), jidan (egg), sesame beef strips and brisket. Another bowl will feature dakdoritang, a rich, spicy stew studded with root vegetables, smoked and charred chicken thighs, Korean radish, potatoes, carrots, and onions. And of course, japchae, a stir-fried noodle with vegetables served over crispy pork belly and green onion salad.
There is also a “Feast” option, an everything-on-the-menu family-style experience that feeds six or more.
The duality of Nuna comes alive on Saturday night, Feb. 21, with a DJ-driven dance party and a street-food-style menu featuring tteokbokki — a spicy, saucy rice cake stir-fry — and brisket banh mi.
Kim’s partner, Rhea, who doesn’t share the heritage by blood, says the Nuna experience has been just as meaningful for him. He speaks with deep respect for the sense of connection and tradition that underpin Korean food and drink — ordering a round of Kloud beers for the table, noticing when a friend’s glass is empty, pouring shots of soju for one another and the lively “Try this” exchange as plates are passed around.
“I’ve been so blown away, not just by seeing people embrace the flavors, but this style of eating and drinking,” Rhea says. “It’s incredibly communal — and honestly, really beautiful.”
He adds that it has been especially rewarding to watch guests engage with the smaller details: sampling unfamiliar ingredients, flicking soju bottle caps across the bar in a nod to a popular Korean drinking game and leaning into subtle social rituals.
“Getting to see people try not even just the cocktails, but the raw ingredients, that’s such a special part of it,” he adds. “When you see a big group really embracing it, drinking communally, pouring for one another, sharing that moment around the table, that’s what we’re most excited about.”
The duo enjoy using the foundation of familiar cocktail classics as a way to introduce guests to something new. For Lunar New Year, Kim says to expect a toasted rice margarita, a makgeolli Paloma and a bokbunja (raspberry wine) El Diablo on the drink menu.
Above all, Kim says, the events are rooted in hospitality and a sense of trust — eating and drinking well, enjoying the moment, and feeling nourished. “When you’re eating at the table, you’re not only eating for yourself,” she says. “It’s always like taking care of everyone at the table,” as a good nuna would.
“It’s really cool to see both [Dan and I] kind of understanding the mission beyond just, ‘Let’s do a cool event,’ but rather ‘Let’s reconnect with our culture, and share it,’” Kim says. “Hopefully these events can bring some joy and create more community, because I think that we’re going to need a lot of that going forward.”
