| BY AMANDA GABRIELE Want to know what the future holds? You need to meet the people building it. In our series Who’s Next, we profile rising stars of culture, tech, style, wellness and beyond. Nostalgia is a powerful thing. In the case of Varun Kataria, nostalgia for a legendary Midwestern supper club inspired him to attend a dozen auctions to acquire as many pieces as possible of the establishment, including an original bar where JFK himself sat. When the relocated Turk’s Inn opened in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood in June 2019, there was nothing else like it in the city. I was completely smitten by everything — the old-school relish trays served alongside Martinis, the kitschy resin toilet seats in the bathrooms, the way one could move seamlessly from dinner in the front to a show at the Sultan Room in the back. Although I didn’t grow up going to the original Turk’s Inn in Wisconsin like Kataria did, his vision was powerful enough to transport me to a different place and time, albeit conveniently located a mere 10-minute walk from my apartment. It was his first real foray into the restaurant industry, but his background in music helped him create a space that feeds the desire of why we all go out in the first place: to be entertained. | 