Flirt Sushi Lounge

By Author: John Tang
Total Articles: 510
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This is not the place to strategize over dinner with your systems analysis team. The booming world-beat music might make reasoned discussion difficult, and sushi rolls with names like Foreplay and Climax might not set the right tone. Subtle, this joint ain't.

Flirt, however, is true to its name. It's a date place. The room is boxy, but the two dozen outdoor seats behind Allendale's small-town main street are made magic by moonlight. Flirt is so appealing to twosomes and double-daters that weekend waits are inevitable. (Reservations are accepted for six or more.)

Flirt—with a branch just over the New York line in Suffern and a sushi bar in Hillsdale's Cornerstones sports bar—is the creation of Marko Radisic. Most nights he can be found circulating among the tables. The son of a Serbian pro-soccer coach, Radisic grew up all over Europe and speaks six languages.

My wife is Portuguese, and we love the Mediterranean lifestyle of hanging with your friends over wine and tapas or sushi, he says. Following his brother's lead, the 36-year-old Radisic, an ex-banker, settled in Allendale to raise his two ...
... kids and dreamed up Flirt. My wife and her friends feel that going out for a big, heavy dinner just isn't sexy, he says. Sushi is sensual to eat, and it doesn't fill your belly. But I thought that people were taking sushi too seriously. So at Flirt, it's sexy and fun.

Flirt's menu bulges with entrée-sized Monster Sushi rolls. Radisic's Chinese-born sushi chefs start with the standards and reinvent them with exotic fusion ingredients. The Latin Lover—tuna, salmon, and avocado—goes tropical with fresh mango. The eel-based Pink Pussy Cat gains delicious crunch from chopped cashews. The Flirt—eel, salmon, tuna, avocado, and pineapple—is good even though the pineapple is canned. The Hot Mexican—tuna, yellowtail, and avocado—is piquant with jalapeño.

The irresistible, if raunchily named, Big Balls seared tuna appetizer comes with three dipping sauces: wasabi honey, spicy mayo, and dark, sweet eel sauce.

This isn't sushi for purists, Radisic admits. It's sushi for lovers. Not just couples who are going home together, but people who really love sushi.

The dessert names are expectably risque—Slippery When Wet banana tempura and Won Ton Luv (won tons filled with chocolate ganache). Unfortunately, the flavors are kid stuff.
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