Studio 151 is on Avenue C in Alphabet City, and you find it by looking for a single red light bulb above an otherwise unmarked door. Climb the red-lit staircase and ring the buzzer. Inside, the room reads like a 1990s art loft that someone decided to run cocktails and late-night sushi out of, which is not far from what it actually is.

The four-seat chef's counter is where the $80 omakase happens, around twelve pieces and widely regarded as one of the better values in the city for the format. You can also book a high top or a couch depending on whether you want to watch the fish or settle into a longer evening. Jazz records play through the early part of the night, and sometime around ten the bar shifts register and becomes something more like a dance club. Nublu, the music venue, is downstairs, which gives the whole building a layered energy that's unusual for this far east in the Village.

The combination works because it doesn't try to be two things at the same time. There's a sequence to the night at Studio 151, and if you arrive knowing that the space will change around you, it lands.