For jaded, Brooklyn-weary Manhattanites, there are various issues in regards to the standard new Cobble Hill restaurant La Vara that seem, on first inspection, to be distressingly acquainted. There’s the quaintly basic storefront location on a picturesque, tree-lined stretch of Clinton Road. There are the noise-enhancing exposed-brick partitions (and on this case, duct work); the slender, railroad-style eating house (adorned with the work of native artists); and the traditional, swiftly repainted stamped-tin ceiling. There’s the still-evolving liquor state of affairs (“Proper now we solely have wine, beer, rum, and gin,” our waiter cried merrily over the din), and the rows of intimately spaced tables (little doubt cluttered with child strollers on weekends), which may make snooty guests from throughout the river really feel, on crowded evenings, like they’re eating in a neighborly commune as an alternative of a first-class New York Metropolis restaurant.
However La Vara will not be fairly what it appears. The proprietors, Alex Raij and her husband, Eder Montero, come to Cobble Hill from Manhattan, the place they run the wonderful tapas institutions El Quinto Pino and Txikito. Like an increasing number of high New York cooks today (Taavo Somer opened Isa in Williamsburg final yr, Fireplace’s Marco Canora shall be opening a Park Slope restaurant this summer season), they see Brooklyn much less as a refuge or escape than as a promising marketplace for their specific model of casually elegant (i.e., Brooklyn-style) connoisseur delicacies. Which on this case means you may get piles of crunchy, paprika-infused garbanzos fritos (fried chickpeas) for $3 a plate, together with different basic Iberian delicacies like empanadillas de millo (moon-shaped empanadas) stuffed, the way in which they do in Galicia, with minced razor clams, and skewers of pincho de ceutas, which is what they name grilled hen hearts in Gibraltar.
Raij and Montero are identified in Manhattan meals circles as severe students of conventional Basque cooking, however at La Vara they flip their consideration to the intertwining influences of Moorish and Jewish recipes on basic Spanish delicacies. As they do at their Manhattan eating places, Raij and Montero serve an array of finger-size pica pica and frito dishes, which embrace a wide range of crisp croquettes (strive the croquette of the day, no matter it occurs to be), plates of grilled Spanish purple shrimp splashed with lemon, and tiny frizzled artichokes garnished with anchovy aïoli within the Roman “alla giudia” type. The tiny little Gibraltar hen hearts turned out to be peppery and pleasingly tender on the night my fellow vacationers and I sampled them, and went very properly, all of us agreed, with a plate of the basic Catalonian grilled-vegetable dish escalivada made right here with peppers, charred leeks, and a crunchy, almond-rich romesco sauce.
Within the grand tapas (and Brooklyn) custom, you can also make a feast at La Vara for what it prices to purchase a spherical of cocktails at a number of the swanker eating places throughout the river. I paid $19 for a block of soppy, completely sizzled lamb’s breast (topped with a dab of Moroccan-style date jam) and one other $18 for an admirable model of the tough Valencian noodle paella dish fideúa, which the kitchen mixes with a really un-kosher medley of clams, squid, and shrimp. The opposite nice un-kosher Spanish basic, suckling pig, reveals up on the menu as a particular (it’s completely crisped, with a pot of chimichurri sauce on the facet), and you may complement it (should you’re feeling responsible) with a wedge of basic torta Santiago Passover almond cake, or the sinfully scrumptious egipcio—a date-and-walnut-filled tart, served with lemon curd and topped with a dollop of candy whipped cream.
Gwynnett Road, which opened not too long ago in a homely, brick-walled house on Graham Avenue in Williamsburg, is one other deceptively scruffy Brooklyn institution with outsize, Manhattan-style ambitions. Like a number of joints within the neighborhood, this one encompasses a comfortable hour Mondays by way of Thursdays. As an alternative of fruity, antifreeze-colored margaritas, nevertheless, you may get 50 p.c off cheekily named cocktails like Idiot’s Gold (Herradura Silver, Luxardo maraschino, lime) and the lethally easy Bitter Reality (Plymouth gin, Fernet Branca, grapefruit). A loaf of the densely scrumptious home whiskey bread isn’t free, nevertheless it’s properly well worth the $5, and should you order the pedestrian-sounding slow-poached-egg appetizer, it’s delivered to the desk by your chatty, tattooed waiter plated with backyard peas, sprigs of celery lettuce, and little spiky antennae of what transform crispy, flattened pork fats.
The architect of those surprising treats is Justin Hilbert, who labored at well-known kitchens across the globe (Mugaritz in Spain, wd-50 in Manhattan) earlier than settling on this obscure Williamsburg nook. Like different high-minded cooks of his era, he has a keenness for combining sous-vide-soft proteins (duck breast, strips of lamb, Amish hen marinated with hay ash) with limitless esoteric vegetable mixtures (moth beans, gooseberries, and so on.). Nothing my bedazzled tasters and I sampled was disappointing, and a few dishes (the ocean scallops with stinging nettles, the salmon smothered in an opulent oyster cream) are themselves well worth the journey. A few of the desserts (coconut panna cotta with coconut “snow”; an un-spongy mint sponge cake with pickled strawberries; a deconstructed, bizarrely tasty chocolate ganache) appear overstudied by comparability, and should go away you pining for a extra normal, old-school dessert from the neighborhood, like chocolate cake, or a easy bowl of vanilla ice cream.
La Vara
268 Clinton St., nr. Verandah Pl., Cobble Hill;
718-422-0065
Hours: Dinner Monday by way of Thursday 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday to midnight, Sunday to 10 p.m.
Costs: Appetizers, $3 to $16; entrées, $8 to $19.
Excellent Meal: Croquettes, fried artichokes or shrimp à la plancha, fideúa, roasted lamb’s breast or suckling pig, date-walnut tart.
Be aware: The home sangria is spiked appealingly with Sprite, and should you’re feeling courageous they’ll add a shot of gin.
Scratchpad: One star for the completed big-city tapas, and one other for the world-class suckling pig.
Gwynnett Road
312 Graham Ave., nr. Ainslie St., Williamsburg; 347-889-7002
Hours: Dinner Monday
by way of Thursday 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., Friday
and Saturday to midnight.
Costs: Appetizers,
$5 to $12; entrées, $18 to $28.
Excellent Meal: Whiskey bread, lamb breast with carrots, duck breast, salmon or sea scallops, chocolate ganache.
Be aware: At comfortable hour, the cocktails price an astonishing $6.
Scratchpad: One star for the
$6 happy-hour drinks, and one other
for Justin Hilbert’s nearly unnervingly completed cooking.
La Vara
Picture: Danny Kim
La Vara
Picture: Danny Kim
La Vara
Picture: Danny Kim