Opening Tuesday in Oakland is Viridian, the city’s first explicitly Asian-American cocktail bar from an all-Asian ownership team.

The Uptown newcomer merges produce-driven cocktails, dim sum and Asian desserts, all in a distinctive, neon-lit space that channels Hong Kong New Wave filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai.

“Choosing this career path as an Asian American is not one you take lightly,” said owner and bar director William Tsui, who most recently managed the bar at San Francisco’s two Michelin-starred restaurant Lazy Bear. In college, he was on the medical track before dropping out. “Hospitality is a calling.”

For Viridian, Tsui has assembled an impressive team, including his childhood friend Raymond Gee (Noodle Theory Provisions, Hakkasan) and Jeremy Chiu (Shinmai, Mina Group) — all Oakland natives. They’re joined by general manager Alison Kwan (Lazy Bear, True Laurel), executive chef Amanda Hoang (Bird Dog) and consulting chef Alice Kim (Lazy Bear, Coi).

The roots of Viridian began four years ago, when Tsui started the pop-up Tiger and Crane with former Saison bar director Samuel Houston. Like Viridian, it also paired cocktails with dim sum, but efforts to find a brick-and-mortar home never panned out.

While Tsui always wanted to — and still eventually wants to — open a bar in Oakland Chinatown, he couldn’t pass on the prime Uptown location formerly occupied by Plum Bar, the Daniel Patterson establishment that helped pioneer Oakland’s now-thriving cocktail scene.

Brandon Jew and Anna Lee (Mister Jiu’s, Moongate Lounge) designed the 70-seat space, covering the windows with trippy dichroic film, which refracts the incoming light into vivid magenta, teal and yellow depending on the time of day. A rainbow of lamps hang in the back while cushy stools wrap around the long bar. A trio of whimsical art pieces portray the three owners riding giant versions of their dogs with edible clouds of soup dumplings in the background.

No, Viridian doesn’t take itself too seriously, and that’s the point.

“Fine dining is our background but it isn’t really us,” Tsui said.

The menu reads as pure Asian-American fun, too. Some of the $13 cocktails playfully reference classic Chinese dishes, such as Tomato Beef (Tequila, basil eau de vie, tomato water) and Honey Walnut Ron (rum, blood orange, walnut, amaro, local honey). The menus are constructed so cocktails often pair particularly well with one of the desserts, like the Honey Walnut Ron with the Blood Orange & Vanilla Semifreddo ($8).

Desserts make up the entire food menu apart from pork buns ($6 for three), chicken nuggets ($9) and a milk bun laced with chili, garlic and charred scallions ($8). To avoid an overload of sugar, the drinks lean savory.

Some desserts should be familiar to anyone who has eaten dim sum, such as the salted egg yolk custard buns ($6 for three) or the spin on the classic Portuguese egg tarts from Macau, with a custard infused with spiced rum, cinnamon and lemon zest ($12 for three). Others more obviously channel chef Hoang’s fine dining background, such as the Thai Tea Tiramisu ($8), draped with a rectangle of caramelized condensed milk; or the Black Sesame Chocolate Cake ($10), with caramel ganache and frozen yogurt.

The other key thread running through Viridian is environmental consciousness, seen in the seasonality of Viridian’s cocktails that support local farmers and the reuse of ingredients from drinks to food. If Tsui makes a strawberry syrup for a drink, he expects Hoang will find a way to use the remaining strawberry pulp in a dessert. Tsui’s goal is to use the same produce three times until it essentially vanishes.

The wine list will play a role, too, highlighting wines from small producers who use dry farming as a way to reduce water consumption. The wine list comes from master sommelier Andrey Ivanov, formerly of Lazy Bear.

Viridian. 4 p.m.-midnight Monday-Thursday, 4 p.m.-late Friday-Saturday. 2216 Broadway, Oakland. www.viridianbar.com

Janelle Bitker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: janelle.bitker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @janellebitker