Bayou Eats | KōKō

ARTICLE BY STARLA GATSON
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KELLY MOORE CLARK

Chef Cory Bahr blends global flavors, intentional design, and a passion for hospitality to create an immersive dining experience at KoKo.

Cory Bahr is an artist. But he doesn’t work with paint and a brush, nor does he sketch with pencils and drawing paper. Food is his medium, and the meals served at his three restaurants, Standard Coffee, Parish, and KoKo, are the completed works. They’re almost too pretty to eat…just almost, though.

The smell of Grilled Peruvian Chicken from Bahr’s newest spot, KoKo, hits your nostrils before the waiter even lowers the plate to the table with an aroma so inviting that you’ll want to tear into it right away. Made with chicken from North Carolina’s Joyce Farms, aji verde, sticky rice, cilantro, and mint, the dish is both flavorful and comforting. No surprise it’s a bestseller. But it’s not the only menu item that brings people back. Patrons rave over KoKo’s impressive sushi selection, a lineup Bahr is especially fond of.

“Sushi is food that I crave and have desperately wanted in the Monroe region, or at least northeast Louisiana, for a long time,” Bahr says. “When I travel, I seek out great sushi joints, places that serve this type of food. And I just miss it when I come back home. So, when the opportunity came up to buy the building across the street from Parish, I jumped on it.” 

In January 2026, Bahr and his team opened KoKo’s doors to the public, and the idea the Monroe native had been carrying for around six years — opening a high-quality sushi joint in his hometown — came to life. 

“Something with this type of environment, this type of food, was just something that I craved,” Bahr explains. “So, I took a risk hoping other people felt the same way.” 

Thankfully, the risk paid off, and others indeed felt the same. The community response to KoKo has been just what Bahr and his team hoped it would be.

“Our focus here is bringing in fish from all around the world, so we’re bringing in fish from Japan, Hawaii, you name it,” he says. “People are understanding that, and they love it. A lot of our clientele travel and eat at other well-known sushi restaurants around the country, and they’re like, ‘Oh, my goodness, I can’t believe we have this here!’” 

As the KoKo menu features a variety of sushi types, it’s not hard for the restaurant to accommodate different preferences. There are even options for those who aren’t fans of sushi, including the previously mentioned Grilled Peruvian Chicken, Pork Belly and Kimchi Fried Rice, — that’s made of Korean barbecue glazed Dutch pork belly, edamame, Arkansas purple rice, garlic, and sesame — and Venison DanDan with Sichuan chili-spiced New Zealand red stag, udon noodles, bok choy, and fried peanuts. 

Since we’re talking about the menu, we’d be remiss not to mention the array of cocktails available to pair with your meal. One of these is the Wonderbird gin-based New Chapter, KoKo’s riff on the classic Bee’s Knees. Tracy Mashaw leads the restaurant’s cocktail program and explains that the choice to use Wonderbird gin in the drink was intentional, as it, like sake, comes from distilled rice. Combined with local honey, yuzu foam, and a gummy fried egg garnish, the New Chapter is a perfect blend of Southern and Asian culture.

The Purple Potato Painkiller is another noteworthy KoKo cocktail. According to Mashaw, it’s currently the top-selling drink on the menu. It gets its name from the ube — pronounced oo-bay, and it’s a purple sweet potato from the Philippines — it contains and features Oxbow rum, ginger liqueur, pineapple, and lime juice. Mashaw punctuates each Purple Potato Painkiller with a spritz of edible glitter; between that and its hue, it looks more like a magic potion than a cocktail. And maybe it is magical. Mashaw says it’s KoKo’s current top-selling alcoholic beverage, so perhaps it enchants everyone who sips it. Or, more likely, it’s just delicious enough to keep coming back to. 

Like the food items offered at the restaurant, KoKo’s beverage options are plenty. Between the cocktails, sodas, wines, and mocktails, there is plenty of variety. Variety was Bahr’s goal, not only so he could appeal to a wide range of KoKo patrons but also to give those with more adventurous taste buds enough options to switch things up every time they come in. 

“You can come in and have four or five or six different experiences,” Bahr says. “Every time you come in, it will be different.”

“Experience” is a word Bahr uses in relation to KoKo many times. That’s what he wants patrons to have in his establishment, an experience that takes you out of your everyday life. 

“If you’re coming to dine with us for two hours, I want you to feel like you went somewhere,” he explains. “Don’t get me wrong. I love where we live. But it’s nice to get away from time to time. We’ve all got hectic lives, so it’s nice to get somewhere for a couple of hours and just exhale. A lot of times, you just go eat. I don’t want you to just come here and eat. I want you to have a great experience. I want you to feel transported. I want you to feel taken care of. I want you to feel like everything in here is intentional.” 

When Bahr says everything in the upscale yet unpretentious space is intentional, he means it, from the dishes served to the menu font to the lighting fixtures.

“[KoKo] is from months and months of sleepless nights, obsessing about every single detail,” Bahr says. “This is not something I take lightly. This investment was huge for me and my wife, Whitney, who is my business partner.” 

However, Bahr says KoKo wasn’t born solely from his intention and efforts, declaring, “This is not just the Cory Bahr show.” Each member of his team, which spans almost 100 people across three restaurants, played a role in getting KoKo up and running, either directly or indirectly.

“[Opening KoKo] took me away from the other businesses, so I’m so proud of my other staff who have absolutely gone above and beyond on their ends to make sure our businesses are successful without my attention,” Bahr gushes. “That speaks highly of the leadership that I have inside these businesses, including Mya Smith, who’s in charge of hospitality, and Tracy Mashaw, both of whom are helping me here. I used to think for years I was in the food business, and now, I’m really in the people business. Without my people, I don’t make this happen.”

And, of course, without people to serve, Bahr and his team’s efforts are in vain. Bahr is just as thankful for his customers as he is for his staff members and deeply appreciates every bit of support any of his restaurants receives. 

When asked how it feels to know that so many in his community believe in KoKo just as much as he does, he answers quickly: “Humbling and terrifying at the same time. None of this is a guarantee for me. I don’t take a single day, a single dollar, a single customer for granted. This could all go away tomorrow. So, we try to show that we are thankful; we try to live with the heart of hospitality.” 

You might think that now, with three local restaurants to oversee, Bahr would be eager to slow down. However, that’s not the case. Rumors that Bahr’s got another culinary concept in the works have been swirling around Ouachita parish, and he confirms that’s correct, “It’s coming in the next 18 months, next door to KoKo in the Griffin Studios building.” He admits that, to some, it may seem absurd to add more to his plate, but he and his team believe in the community in which they live and are eager to continue serving it. 

“We’re not stopping because we believe in the positive momentum that we have in the community,” Bahr declares. “We believe in the other restaurateurs and people who are doing creative things here. Our community has always been about creativity and an entrepreneurial spirit, and we all depend on small businesses, and I just want to be a part of that. I’m thankful to be a part of it, and I’m optimistic and excited about the future of Northeast Louisiana.”