On a Friday night after 10, the lights at En Japanese Brasserie, in New York’s West Village, are low. A D.J. in a leopard hat and purple T-shirt has just taken up his post behind vintage turntables next to two Westminster Royal Fidelity speakers. The sound system, including the McIntosh amplifier, is likely worth $80,000.
Opposite the music bar, two large abstract paintings by August, the son of En’s Taiwanese-Japanese owner, Reika Alexander, hang on the wall. August is 15 now, but he painted the canvases in Julian Schnabel’s studio when he was 10.