IZen Drunken Bento; Clifton, Cincinnati

The first thing your greeted with when you walk into the Drunken Bento is a wooden divider. There isn't enough space for a formal entry way, so the divider acts as such. The picture referenced here is just about the entire dinning area for the restaurant. The size was very reminiscent to the first restaurant I ever visited while in Korea. It was a small chicken restaurant with an alley-like seating area just like this one. The only difference was that the Drunken Bento doesn't have the added upstairs seating. This leads to the restaurant feeling very personal. As if they've purposely kept it small to make sure that everyone was easily attended to.

The second half of the restaurant is made up of the essentials (kitchen, bathroom, register) but also the sushi bar. Now, sushi at a Korean restaurant might lead to a little confusion but you would be surprised to know that out of the three restaurants I interviewed, only one restaurant didn't offer sushi. It seems to be a staple of the area to serve sushi alongside more traditional Korean dishes. Perhaps the name Drunken Bento (the term bento being Japanese in nature) might have keyed you into this restaurants oddity. The reason behind the Drunken Bento's inclusion of sushi comes from the fact that one of the owners was a sushi chef prior to owning the restaurant. Call it a want to connect his past life to his present dreams but sushi became a major addition to the restaurant. I had the opportunity to speak to a handful of customers at the Drunken Bento and sure enough, all of them were there for the sushi.

The restaurant does have it's fair share of Korean dishes, with it's most popular by far being the Dolsot Bibimbap. Bibimbap is a stone bowl rice dish commonly topped with meat, vegetables, and gochujang or Korean chili paste. Aside from KBBQ, I would venture to say that bibimbap is one of the most recognizable Korean dishes. It's no surprise that it's popular here as well.

Something important that I want to highlight is the accessibility of dishes with different dietary restrictions. The Drunken Bento offers a variety of special diet (ex. vegan and vegetarian) sushi rolls, as well as having a generally modifiable menu. They also stated that they can work with gluten allergies.

Pictured, in an admittedly very blurry photo, is manager Jasmyn Jewell and myself. She did want to me to mention that this was taken during the Halloween season and that she doesn't normally dress like a Mortal Kombat character year-round.

While visiting the Drunken Bento I was able to interview their manager Jasmyn. I am very thankful for her willingness to work with me. Though, I must preference that as a manager, she was not able to answer every question that an owner might be able to but her insight was still very much appreciated. Jasmyn began working at the Drunken Bento on a recommendation from a friend. She wanted something a little faster pace than her previous job. After a year of working at the restaurant, she was promoted to manager. She did her best to answer my questions while also being pulled left and right helping to fulfill orders and answer to customers. It made for a very dynamic interview.

When I asked for the inspiration behind the opening of the restaurant, she stated that the owner wanted to make something for himself, as well as bring Korean culture to Cincinnati. As stated before, the sushi came with past experience.

For their food distributers, Jasmyn wasn't entirely sure where everything came from but she did know that the rice was from local manufacturers and that the sushi came from Chicago (this will become a recurring theme).

The Drunken Bento is home to both a host of regulars and first-timers. A lot of their first timers are college students looking for something good but inexpensive (or says one of the customers). The restaurant sits right outside the University of Cincinnati's main campus. As for the regulars, Jasmyn stated that they surprisingly tend to be older generations. There is a wide age range eating here. Obviously, they do get a number of Korean international students coming in as well.

The Drunken Bento is one of a handful of Asian restaurants in the Clifton area. They seem to be in fairly close contact with the other restaurants in the area and Jasmyn even says that there was once talk about creating a network between the Asian restaurants in the area but said that it hasn't gone anywhere as of yet.

As far as reception goes, Jasmyn believes that it has been fairly well received. However, things aren't always perfect. She told the story of times when other local Asian restaurants (not Drunken Bento) had been pranked by receiving large call-in orders that were never picked up and when restaurants asked why, they got responses like "Sorry, we don't eat dog." Jasmyn even spoke of a recent experience within the Drunken Bento, where she had to kick out a few customers for saying slurs to another table. Perhaps this speaks to a larger issue within the Cincinnati region and its treatment of certain marginalized groups.

Because of these ongoing experiences, Jasmyn feels a sense of responsibility towards the communities that come and eat at the Drunken Bento. She strives to make sure that everyone, but especially people of Asian descent, feel comfortable eating at the restaurant and has shown that she does not tolerate ignorant or bigoted behavior. She stated that the owners have worked hard to make sure that dishes were prepared authentically and that names were pronounced correctly. Everything done to make your time at the Drunken Bento a great one.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse