Million Air Summer 2024

LEADERS IN LUXURY RESTAURANTS

Fromtop Coqodaq’s signature The Bucket

Victoria James made history at age 21 when she became the youngest sommelier in the US at the time

List fried chicken feast; Coqodaq has the largest champagne list in the US;

Wine anddine To someone not in the know, being presented with a wine menu can be somewhat intimidating. Without a certain level of understanding, some lists may as well be written in a foreign language for all they communicate about the content of a restaurant’s wine cellar, with vintages, producers, regions and price tags all scrambling into uninterpretable nonsense. Fortunately, most restaurants worth their salt will have a guardian angel; a savior in smart dress; a translator: a sommelier. The role of a sommelier goes much further than helping you choose a bottle, though (and no, they are not just trying to upsell you — on the contrary, somms will often be the fi rst to tell you about a great deal). Instead, it falls on a sommelier to work closely with winemakers and suppliers to craft a wine list that not only intrigues and entices guests but also tells a story with every cork popped and glass poured: Who owns this vineyard? Who picked these grapes? Who designed this label? Whether you’re an oenophile after something a little o ff the beaten path or a novice looking for some hand-holding as you navigate your way through a list, befriending the sommelier is all but key to elevating the restaurant experience.

UNUSUAL PAIRINGS “We made a speci fi ccuvée with grower/producer Gaston Chiquet called Coqodaq Collection Champagne. So, if you walk into the restaurant and you don’t know what you want, that is a great pairing with our classic fried chicken — it’s one of our most versatile champagnes. But once you start to get saucy with it and add in some spice, you can toy with more rosé-style champagnes, which are heavier and sweeter.” — Victoria James

by KimAyling

VICTORIA JAMES GRACIOUS HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT (COTE; COQODAQ), NYC

In line with Kim’s vision, Coqodaq proudly contains the largest champagne selection in the US, with over 400 varieties to choose from. “I wanted the list to express what champagne is today,” James says. “Who are the cool new growers? Who are the blue-chip classics? But also, I wanted it to be diplomatic. One of the tenets of the Gracious Hospitality Management beverage program is that we have the audacity to do something crazy,” James says. While champagne drinking was once reserved for the upper echelons of society, Coqodaq aims to break down the wine’s accessibility issues with a 100-strong bubbles list for under $100 (still not cheap , but by NYC standards, a steal) as well as a number of half bottles. “I wanted everyone to be able to drink champagne,” James says. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a college student or a billionaire, you can come to Coqodaq and have a great experience. You can have a bottle of champagne and some fried chicken, or you can come and have some really cool things — we spent a lot of time sourcing some really rare bottles.” While Coqodaq might be doing something a little avant-garde in pairing a dish that’s typically considered fast food with highbrow bubbles, James is certain that those in the champagne industry are on board. “They love it!” she tells me. “It’s funny — last year I was in the Champagne region, and I was asking all the wine growers about new restaurants I had to check out. I thought they’d tell me about a fancy Michelin-starred place but they all said, ‘You have to go to Soccer Burger.’ It’s a burger joint with an amazing champagne list — the winemakers just love this casual style of dining.” coqodaq.com

There is, particularly in the fi ne dining circuit, a stigma that wine must be serious and that the drinking of fi newine should be reserved for the enjoyment of serious people only. Fortunately, a new breed of restaurants, drinkers and sommeliers are here to stomp such a stigmatism into the ground — and among them is Coqodaq, where the wine program is led by Gracious Hospitality Management’s beverage director Victoria James. Introduced to the world of restaurants at an early age (“I grew up working in a greasy-spoon diner under the railroad tracks in New Jersey when I was 13,” she tells me), James made history at age 21 when she became the youngest sommelier in the US at the time. “From there, I moved my way up through Michelin-starred restaurants, and then in 2015, I met Simon Kim,” she says. Together they opened Korean steakhouse COTE in 2017 (which went on to earn a Michelin star), a second outpost in Miami and another in Singapore, and then, eventually, Coqodaq. Fresh on the New York City scene, having opened in the cold days of January, the Flatiron District restaurant is the brainchild of Kim who, simply put, wanted to serve great Korean-style fried chicken alongside some equally great champagne. A posh twist on the traditional Korean concept of chimaek , which pairs fried chicken with beers, the coupling is said to use champagne’s e ff ervescence to cut through the meat’s fat. Salty, crunchy fried chicken washed down with decadent, rich bubbles — the city has gone mad for it (reservations are hard to come by, and walk-in lines stretch around the block), and how could theynot?

Photos Evan Sung for Coqodaq, SouthWorks Creative