Ahris Kim opens Somssi at 79 MacDougal Street on June 3, and reservations are already live. Book it now: Kim spent years as director of operations for Atomix, which ranked No. 12 on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list in 2025, and this is her first restaurant under Na:Eun Hospitality's umbrella. The pedigree is real, the format is accessible, and Greenwich Village will fill this room fast.
Who Is Ahris Kim, and Why Somssi Is the NYC Restaurant Opening to Watch
Kim's name hasn't appeared on menus before, but she's been central to Na:Eun Hospitality's rise for years. Alongside chef Junghyun 'JP' Park and Ellia Park, she helped build the operational backbone of Atomix, Atoboy, and Naro at Rockefeller Center, three restaurants that collectively represent the most coherent Korean fine-dining portfolio in New York. Atomix's No. 12 ranking on the 2025 World's 50 Best Restaurants list didn't happen by accident; it required the kind of front-of-house precision and operational discipline that Kim provided as director of operations.
That track record matters here because Somssi is not a vanity project or a casual side venture. It's Kim's first restaurant as the lead, and she's brought the Na:Eun kitchen infrastructure with her. Daniel Gronert, who cooked at both Atomix and Naro, will run the kitchen at Somssi. The continuity is deliberate: Kim knows exactly what she's building, and she's staffed it accordingly.
For context on why this opening stands apart in the current NYC dining moment: the operators who understand high-level Korean technique at the level Atomix demands are a small group. Kim is one of them, and Somssi is the first time she's directing that knowledge toward her own concept rather than someone else's vision.
What to Expect on the Somssi Menu: Korean, Asian, and European Flavors in Greenwich Village
Somssi is described as a neo-bistro pulling from Korean, Asian, and European influences, a format that sounds loose on paper but reads with real intention on the menu. The dishes are priced and structured for a downtown neighborhood restaurant, not a tasting-menu occasion. You're ordering à la carte, choosing what you want, and spending accordingly.
The menu details available ahead of opening give a clear picture of the kitchen's direction. Grilled ox tongue with romesco sauce comes in at $28, a Korean-inflected protein treatment with a Spanish sauce, the kind of cross-reference that signals a kitchen thinking in flavor logic rather than cuisine categories.
The Potato Potato Potato, a triple-potato preparation with caviar, is $32. Caraflex cabbage with crab and egg, also $32, leans into the vegetable-forward plating that's become a marker of Korean-influenced fine-casual cooking in New York. A market-price mutton chop rounds out the savory options.
Popcorn ice cream with popcorn brittle closes the meal at $10, a deliberately playful dessert that signals the room's register: serious cooking, lighter atmosphere.
The price points place Somssi in a specific tier: more considered than a neighborhood bistro, less formal than a tasting-menu room. A full dinner for two with wine will likely land in the $150 to $200 range depending on how many dishes you order and what you drink, though that figure isn't sourced from the restaurant directly. For comparison, Atoboy's casual prix fixe format runs in a similar range, but Somssi's à la carte structure gives you more control over the spend.
On the drinks side, sommelier Jenny Eagleton arrives from Daytrip, the Oakland wine destination, and will oversee a wine and sake list focused on lesser-known producers and regions. That framing, lesser-known producers, not natural wine or orange wine or any other category shorthand, suggests a list built around discovery rather than trend-chasing.
Head bartender Christian Gray is handling cocktails. The combination of a wine-forward sommelier and a dedicated cocktail program is standard at this level, but Eagleton's background at Daytrip, which built a reputation on unconventional selections, is a meaningful signal for what the list will look like in practice.
The dining room itself is designed to feel like a downtown bistro rather than a destination tasting-menu space: exposed brick, deep green walls, antique fixtures, and vintage pieces. The aesthetic is Greenwich Village in the best sense, neighborhood-scaled, warm, not trying to announce itself.
If you've eaten at Atomix, the contrast is immediate and intentional. Somssi is the version of Na:Eun's sensibility that doesn't require a special occasion to justify the reservation.
Greenwich Village as the Right Address for This Concept
The choice of 79 MacDougal Street, near Bleecker Street, is a deliberate one for readers who track where serious chef-driven restaurants choose to open. Greenwich Village has a long history of absorbing ambitious neighborhood restaurants that operate below the radar of the Midtown and Lower East Side dining circuits, places that become regulars' restaurants rather than destination restaurants, where the room fills because the food earns repeat visits rather than because the opening generated a single wave of press.
That's the format Somssi appears to be aiming for. The hours, Tuesday through Thursday, 5 to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 5 to 9:30 p.m., are tight by New York standards. No lunch service, no Sunday or Monday seatings. The constraint keeps the kitchen focused and the product consistent, which is a choice that reflects operational discipline over revenue maximization. Kim ran operations at Atomix long enough to know what a tightly controlled service looks like and what it produces.
The neighborhood also positions Somssi well relative to the broader Korean fine-casual wave in New York. Atomix operates in Midtown. Atoboy is in the Flatiron district. Naro sits inside Rockefeller Center.
Somssi at MacDougal and Bleecker is the first Na:Eun-adjacent restaurant in lower Manhattan, and it's opening into a neighborhood that has been underserved by this category of cooking.
The closest comparable in terms of Korean-inflected technique at a bistro price point would be restaurants like Oiji Mi in the Flatiron or Jua in the West Village, both of which operate at a higher price point and with a more formal structure than what Somssi appears to be building.
How to Book Somssi at 79 MacDougal Street Before It Fills Up
Reservations for Somssi NYC restaurant are open now, ahead of the June 3 opening. The practical advice here is straightforward: book before the first week of reviews land. Kim's operational profile and the Na:Eun connection will generate coverage quickly, and a room of this size in Greenwich Village will absorb that attention fast. The restaurant has not published a seat count in available sources, but the MacDougal Street footprint and the bistro format suggest a room in the 40 to 60 seat range, enough to feel lively, not enough to absorb a sustained reservation surge without a wait.
Hours are Tuesday through Thursday, 5 to 9 p.m., and Friday through Saturday, 5 to 9:30 p.m. The restaurant is closed Sunday and Monday. If your schedule allows a Tuesday or Wednesday dinner in the first few weeks, that's likely your best window for a table without a long lead time. Friday and Saturday seatings will be the first to fill.
For readers who follow the Na:Eun portfolio closely: Somssi is the first restaurant in the group where Kim is the named operator rather than a supporting architect. How she translates Atomix-level operational rigor into a neighborhood bistro format, and whether the kitchen under Gronert can deliver that menu consistently at the price points listed, is the question that will define Somssi's first season. The early indicators are strong. The opening is worth tracking from day one.
