Community & Collaborations

A three-time, two-division world champion boxer from Kagoshima, Japan. She's a two-time WBO Women's Junior Bantamweight World Champion and former IBF Women's Bantamweight World Champion, and she trains at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn. We're proud to be one of her sponsors as she chases her next title. Off the clock, she's simply Miyo, a regular and a friend.

A New York samurai theater company founded in 2003 by Yoshi Amao, mixing comedy, drama, and TATE, the Japanese art of sword stage fighting. We sponsored Don't Cry, My Friend, their 20th anniversary production, an original story drawn from the folktales Urashima Taro and Naita Aka Oni.

A 501(c)(3) arts nonprofit creating spaces that explore identity, mental health, and the human experience through art and dialogue. TEN TEN NYC hosts their weekly artist meetup at Juraku every Wednesday night, and lists us among their organizational partners.

An annual hip-hop culture festival in Manhattan's Chinatown, with breaking battles, graffiti murals, DJs, and MCs celebrating the deep connection between Asian heritage and hip-hop. Organized by Ken Ji with fiscal sponsorship from TEN TEN NYC, Juraku was an early sponsor during the festival's inaugural year.

A community services organization running more than 50 programs across 33 sites in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens, serving over 8,000 people a day through education, family support, and economic empowerment. Their headquarters sits a few blocks from us on Suffolk Street. The CPC crew have been regulars and supporters of Juraku for years, and they've helped us host events, including Showdown Chinatown.

A Jodo Shinshu church on Riverside Drive, founded in 1938 by Rev. Hozen Seki. The bronze Shinran Shonin standing outside survived the bombing of Hiroshima, and has been a quiet symbol of peace on the Upper West Side ever since.

David, the current chairman, is a friend and a regular, and Karl of KarlsBalls works there. We served karaage and yuzu lemonade at their summer Bon Odori on 106th Street, the first thing we've done together.

A NYC-based singer-songwriter of Japanese and Irish descent, known by her stage name ChiChi. A longtime friend and regular, she has a dedicated wall at Juraku, complete with a signed poster and guitar, and two cocktails on our menu created in her honor: Hidari Chichi and Migi Chichi.

Abigail has been one of Juraku's favorite artists and collaborators for years. Much of the artwork behind our visual identity is hers: the Matcha Sake Bomb instructions, the Shake Shake Fries bag manga, the stickers around the restaurant, our digital sticker packs for Instagram, LINE and WhatsApp — and the illustrations on this website.

It started with a few stickers and never really stopped. We have still never met in person; she lives on the other side of the world. She is family anyway.

She takes commission work and can create in a wide range of styles. These days she works extensively in children's book illustration, bringing the same warmth, personality, and attention to detail we've always loved in her work for us.

NYC's original Saturday morning long run crew, founded in 2018, all paces welcome despite the name. Juraku serves as their wintertime home base, a warm spot to land after a cold-weather long run.

A NYC video game tournament comedy show: "Play Games. Win Cash. Get Roasted." Competitors battle it out while stand-up comedians (from Netflix, Hulu, and The Comedy Cellar) roast the gameplay live. Selected for the 2026 New York Comedy Festival. Juraku is a proud sponsor alongside KarlsBalls Takoyaki.

Osaka-style takoyaki, made from scratch at every event by Karl Palma and his crew. They're the only takoyaki business outside Japan recognized by the Japan Konamon Association, and they run a kei tora kitchen truck, the only one of its kind in the country. Karl sponsors Brotaku alongside us.

A NYC comedy podcast and live stand-up show hosted by Christos and Doc Jud, the same crew behind Brotaku, featuring comedians from Netflix and Hulu. We sponsor the show, and they've been good friends of the Juraku family for years.

Founded in 1927 by Mendel Schames and still run by the family, four generations on. They were at 3 Essex Street until 2010 and have been at 90 Delancey since, and they have been one of the city's largest Benjamin Moore dealers for decades.

Running a restaurant is mostly upkeep and repairs, and I do a lot of that myself, so I am in there constantly. Keys, paint, and a genuinely deep Milwaukee selection at prices that hold up against the big box stores, with service that those places cannot touch.

I will be honest: in an emergency, or for something they do not stock, I have run to the big places. But I spend where I can, and if you need anything for your apartment, go see them.

Michele Olivieri's shop at 88 Delancey, exotic skin shoes and boots, on the same block as Schames.

We got close during covid, the way a lot of the small businesses along here did, and it stuck. We keep an eye on each other's storefronts and check in.

In practice that means after a snowstorm I come over and do their sidewalk and the hardware store's. The shovel is a Milwaukee weed whacker and an EGO snow shovel that I put together myself, which is either resourceful or a warning sign.

I do not really wear fancy shoes any more. You will find me in the same pair of 511 side zips most days. But a friend got married and that was not going to do, so I got a proper pair from them.