A couple of much-anticipated East Village joints are coming out of the shadows — last week the magazine published first photos of Sasha Petraske’s new coffee bar, Mercury Dime, and today on Flickr an aficionado serves up some glorious pics from deep within friends-and-family night at Momofuku Ko. Chances are this is as close as you'll get — for a while, anyway — to planting your butt in one of those fourteen seats, and luckily the snaps are primo quality: Even the house-made chicharrón looks leaps and bounds above what you’d find at a Bushwick bodega, never mind the kimchee consommé with Malpec oyster, pork belly and braised cabbage.

Don Lee’s Momofuku Slideshow [Flickr via Eater]