Rewind, an immersive nightlife and dining experience that blends the potency of nostalgia through food and drink with upscale karaoke rooms, has just opened in Long Island City, letting guests step back both in memory and time at the expansive venue that blends Asian culture with unforgettable flavors.
“The concept of Rewind is that the word has two different meanings,” said Chia Pan, the venue’s co-founder. “You can rewind music, which ties to the musical element, you can also rewind time, and when we’re thinking about the design, we want to portray that time only passes by, but there’s so many great memories in our life that we wish we can go back in time and relive the moment. It is really connection, like spending time with your families, Friday night date night with your significant other or tasting something really delicious that leaves that impression in your head.”
The venue, which had its grand opening on Sept. 9, is located at the end of a quiet corridor on 25-57 Davis St., with a simple illuminated cursive letter ‘R’ on the front of the building dotted by ornate traditional Asian lanterns amongst the entrance. The speakeasy-style venue looks like an otherwise ordinary building from the outside, until guests enter it and take an elevator covered in vintage Chinese newspaper clippings, bathed in red light, to get downstairs.
From there, visitors enter a retro room with a 1980s boombox at its center and press the “rewind” button, opening a door that reveals a grand dining room and a cocktail bar set in a moody, low-lit room, with red-covered vintage lamps that sit at the center of its marble tables.
Photo credit: Erik Bernstein
Rewind delicately balances the art of looking back without becoming suspended in the past. Throughout the room, repurposed Chinese instruments, woodwork and murals inspired by poetry from China’s Tang and Song dynasties pay homage to feelings, sounds and flavors while savoring the present.
“We use musical instruments because when you press the rewind button it brings you back to the ancient times of China,” Pan said. “But once past that door there is another time travel, and you have to become more modern using karaoke to vocalize your thoughts – the connectivity and the idea of music really flows throughout the entire space.”
Its menu doesn’t falter in keeping with Rewind’s theme, curated by the venue’s executive chef, Alexander Lee, a 15-year culinary veteran, known for putting a nostalgic take on Asian comfort foods.
Some of Rewind’s signature dishes. Photo credit: Erik Bernstein
His attention to detail and beloved flavors result in signature dishes like the Rewind Wagyu Don, made with imperial beef, BMS 8+, takaki-style over wagyu fat Koshihikari fried rice, oyster mushroom sous vide, Jidori egg, seasonal black truffle and micro cilantro.
The Rewind Wagyu Don. Photo credit: Erik Bernstein
Another signature, the Jiajang Bucatini is a bucatini pasta stir-fry, a Chinese-Korean dish with black bean sauce, tofu cream, minced pork belly and fried dace, takuan, cucumber and spring onion.
Other dishes include small plates, like the Toro Uni Caviar, the Jidori Egg Sando, an elevated play on a Japanese classic, and crowd favorites with a unique twist, like its Rewind Magic Chili Fries, Chicken Satay and Salt and Pepper Wings.
The Toro Uni Caviar. Photo credit: Erik Bernstein
“We like to take you back to childhood flavors and nostalgia,” Lee said. “When you walk in here, we want you to feel like you just walked into a 1900s Chinese speakeasy, but being in New York, we still have our bar classics like fries and chicken satay, but we add creativity and our own flavor palettes to make it our own.”
The venue’s cocktail menu, created by Ken Chen, Rewind’s beverage director, is inspired by tea culture and the five elements: metal, wood, water, fire and earth, recreated as flavors like spicy, tangy, savory, bitter and sweet.
Signature cocktails include the Tide Whisper, made with The Botanist Islay Dry Gin, dill, kombu, bonito, Tie Guan Yin Oolong Tea and Chrysanthemum. The Night Roast provides a fruity, elevated take on an espresso martini meant to be much more refreshing, and Kimchi Hal-mony is a tangy concoction, made of Altamura Vodka, kimchi, lychee, jasmine tea, fino sherry, dry vermouth, Moscato and rose cucumber.
Kimchi Hal-mony. Photo credit: Erik Bernstein
“We provide culture and experience through the cocktails, and every cocktail has a story and a cultural background,” Chen said. “The Kimchi Hal-mony is spelled that way because in Korea halmeoni means grandma, and every family has their own kimchi recipe created by their grandma, so we want to link that memory based on the flavor that can bring you back to your childhood. We try to give a whole new experience based on what you had back in the day and create it in a new form.”
The 9,000-square-foot venue provides the opportunity to give guests even more to explore with 8 karaoke rooms that fit up to 22 people and one private event room for 30 people, each thoughtfully curated to represent different eras, places and feelings, from a 90s-inspired Hong Kong-style parlor that pays homage to the history of Chinese and Hong Kong cinema, to a room filled with vintage LPs from the early 2000s from Mandopop to pop icons.
Rewind features eight karaoke rooms. Photo credit: Erik Bernstein
Photo credit: Erik Bernstein
Photo credit: Erik Bernstein
“Every single drink, every dish ties together and I think that’s what’s really unique and exciting about Rewind is the fact that it’s not just a bar or a restaurant,” Pan said. “We wanted to make the space a destination for everyone where people can eat, drink, socialize and just connect with each other.”
Photo credit: Erik Bernstein
Photo credit: Erik Bernstein
Rewind is open Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 6 p.m to 1 a.m., Friday from 6 p.m. to 4 a.m., Saturday from 4 p.m. to 4 a.m. and Sunday from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m.