In April, the new East Austin pub Parley won Bar of the Year at the CultureMap Austin Tastemaker Awards. It's wasted no time proving that it's ready to carry the title. Throughout the summer starting Memorial Day, May 25, Parley is teaming up with sushi restaurant Aburi Tora for a monthly pop-up featuring flame-seared sushi and $15 paired cocktails.
The pop-up will happen every last Monday at Parley for four months, from May through the end of August. Guests can expect signature creations from Aburi Tora, a new-to-Austin conveyor belt sushi concept, alongside a craft cocktail menu that's derived from Japanese flavors.
Sushi from Aburi concepts has a neat rectangular shape.Photo by MYLK Collective
A press release details the cocktails, while leaving the sushi selections a mystery. (Perhaps sushi-lovers can guess what's in the photo above.) The cocktail menu includes:
- Shisho Miso: Japanese whiskey, shiso, miso, and bitters
- Yuzu Negroni: Yuzu sake, gin, vermouth, Campari, and neroli (orange blossom oil)
- Japanese 75: Gin, sake, verjus (unripe wine juice), champagne cordial, and bubbles
Parley, an Irish pub that goes way beyond the Guinness, does more than dabble with unexpected cocktail ingredients. Some of the mixes on the menu when the bar opened in December of 2025 included ingredients like spent coffee, snap pea, eucalyptus, vanilla gelato, Ceylon tea, mascarpone tequila, and blue corn salt.
It also has strong Asian influences, including a food program by Oseyo, the neighboring Korean restaurant. The food menu has some Korean elements, but it is much broader, with equal or greater influence from Irish and American bar bites.
Aburi Tora is similarly international, in a more literal sense. Tora is part of the same restaurant family as Aburi Oshi, which came to Austin in 2023. Both specialize in flame-seared sushi that is pressed together rather than rolled. Aburi Hana was the first sushi restaurant in Canada to be awarded a Michelin Star, and Tora is the only Aburi concept in the United States, Canada, and Japan. Aburi Oshi has previously also partnered with Ellis, the bar at downtown Austin food hall Fareground.
Reservations are not required for the unfussy Parley pop-up, which works on a first come, first served basis. The cocktail menu will only be available when the pop-up is open. It starts at 5 pm on May 25, June 29, July 27, and August 31. Parley is located at 1628 E. Cesar Chavez St. B.
