Hard to Explain is on East 10th Street in the East Village and holds around ten people at full capacity. The decor is antique items and dried flowers under oil lamp light, which gives the space the feeling of a small room that someone put real thought into. Sake-based cocktails are the focus: the Falling for U-Bae comes in a teacup, the Cafe Purr-risa reimagines an espresso martini with sake as the base, and the Cameron Obscura is one of the most requested.

Happy hour runs from five to seven daily with ten percent off. The bar closes relatively early by neighborhood standards: eleven on weekdays, one on Friday and Saturday. Walk-ins only, no reservations.

At ten seats, the intimacy is not optional. You're either comfortable being close to strangers over a sake cocktail or you're not, and Hard to Explain has fully committed to the former version of that experience.