Few gestures welcome us more warmly into a culture than an invitation to a table. With an offering of food and drink, hospitality traverses language and customs — whether familiar or foreign — and tells us: “You belong here.” At Nuna, the new Korean cocktail pop-up from Richmond bar maven Sophia Kim, guests are taken in with perilla leaves, honeydew melon milk punch and open arms.
Mixing traditional Korean flavors with classic American cocktails, Nuna is a personal invitation into Kim’s lived experience as a Korean-American, beginning from childhood. The pop up’s name, “nuna,” is the Korean word that brothers use to address their older sisters, and Kim fondly remembers the word echoing through her home.
“Being an older sister is really wonderful—my brothers know that when you’re with your nuna, you’re going to be taken care of,” she says, momentarily tearing up. “I wanted to put that same sentiment into the pop-up. I want people to feel that there’s trust there; you can trust that your nuna is going to take care of you.”
Born in Korea, Kim moved to Virginia when she was three, and lived in a bustling household surrounded by family. Her Korean grandparents moved in shortly after she arrived in the U.S., and extended family regularly came in and out. Home was a bubble of Korean culture, contrasting with the American life Kim was growing into outside. Merging the two worlds didn’t come without complications.
“I’ve talked to a lot of people in the Korean diaspora who live in this rich Korean cultural experience with family, but then there’s this question of, ‘Am I Korean enough to the Koreans? Am I American enough to the Americans?’” she explains. “Then you find out that you can be both; you really are Korean-American. That itself is an identity and an experience. A lot of my life has been balancing that duality, and that’s present in Nuna.”
Nuna’s menu draws from Kim’s lifelong memories of Korean flavors, transforming them into cocktails executed with the finesse she’s honed as a multi–award-winning bartender.
At Nuna’s first pop up inside Church Hill’s Cobra Burger, a packed house enjoyed drinks like a clarified Melona milk punch, a twist on an English-style milk punch that substituted milk with melted Melona ice cream bars, the iconic honeydew melon-flavored Korean childhood treat.
Another menu star was her award-winning daiquiri recipe (submitted to Probitas Rum’s “Home & Away: The Daiquiri” competition) featuring perilla leaves (kkaennip in Korean), a mint-and-anise-flavored plant. She brews a perilla leaf tea, combines it with lime and finishes with a pepper-infused rum — specifically the asagi gochu pepper, a mild variety whose onomatopoeic name echoes the crunch it describes.
In the future, Kim says she’ll be introducing more Korean beer and wine like makgeolli, an effervescent rice wine. She also plans to increasingly incorporate Korean food to enjoy alongside beverages — in traditional Korean drinking culture, she explains, you never drink without a snack.
With different aspects of Korean culture becoming increasingly popular within the American mainstream — from K-Pop bands to media like “Squid Game” and “KPop Demon Hunters” — Kim feels that now is an opportune time to bring Nuna to Richmond.
“I’m realizing not everyone knows what kimchi actually is, or gochujang,” she says. “My hope is to bring these flavors out in a way that’s fun and accessible even if you didn’t grow up in a Korean household.”
At Nuna’s inaugural pop-up, guests were eager to know what’s next. For now, Kim isn’t rushing toward a brick and mortar. Instead, she’s letting the project evolve with each event, exploring the best way for the idea to be served.
Like a good nuna, she’s holding out a hand to let you know you’re in the right place.
Check out Nuna’s second pop-up Monday, Oct. 13 from 5 p.m.-midnight at The Jasper. Kwame Hayford of Kwam’s Chicken Project will be onsite serving Korean fried chicken.
