Within the quiet range of the western village, Bartolo echoes the seductive sound of friends toasting among friends, the pig-sucking cazuelas placed on the table, and the sultry speed of Spanish jazz entering the vicinity. Bartolo is the second team restaurant that brings Ernesto’s and Basque Country Cuisine to the Lower East Side, setting Bartolo in a few steps down the street level and returning to Madrid’s Old World Tavern in time.
The restaurant waves from the sidewalk and greets passers-by into its three shelters, separated only by a curved sponge-like corridor, trying to feed the sucking pig cazuelas, vino blanco and salted tomatoes on porcelain platters. The first 20 seats restaurant is small and airy and opens up to a small terrace with three tavern tables. Even in the evening sun, the white stucco walls feature old-fashioned glass wall lights. Dark green with hand-painted wooden beams on the low ceiling that complements the Viridescent leather stall. A luxurious bar takes up most of the entrance, while another windowless red restaurant with a Spanish art wall has only six tables.
“We wanted a place where we could close our eyes and feel like we were in Madrid,” chef Ryan Bartlow, along with his wife Davitta Niakani-Bartlow, and her sister and business partner Alexandra Niakani told Observer. Their aim was to create a space that weaves Madrid culture into the New York community, which has historical Spanish restaurants since the 1920s, including El Faro and Sevilla, which closed in 2012. To make Bartolo look like it has been passed down from generation to generation, design company Coseen Collection focuses on purchasing old and new materials and decorations from Spain, while Bartlow focuses on food.
My night in Madrid in Bartlow started on a Sunday evening, and my server, Joe, is a 20-year-old Joe from St. Louis who thinks butter is good for the soul (I agree wholeheartedly) and describes his favorite dishes in detail. His understanding of the ever-changing menu reflects a rigorous training in which half of the staff rotated for two weeks before opening. I ordered two of his suggestions, partly because of his enthusiasm and partly because of my tribute to the anfish butter and cold soup for August.
an an antequilla is served on a small, heavy snowboard board, providing a umami umami flavor. Two thin rectangular toasts, each toast, each crisp and delicate dough, are covered with a thick layer of creamy butter topped with whole Calabrian Anchovy. The welcome saltiness and rich fat sink into my tongue as the city breeze blows across the terrace, and within a few seconds I chew for a few seconds, I feel crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
Tomates Aliñados is a simple dish made from Nicewicz Family Farm Farmations from Union Square Market. Salt and swimming in a rich olive oil pool, begging to soak in warm, crusty bread, a beautifully ripe tomato done all the work, while Bartlow allows.
As long as it stays on the menu for this season, Ajo Blanco ConMelón is the up-and-coming star of Bartlow. Not only does it represent the difference between Ernesto’s strict Basque fare and more regional, creative cuisine from diverse Spanish cities like Madrid, but it also offers the feeling of napping under the Cypress trees carved by statue racing at El Retiro Park.
“In Madrid, the kitchen is small and the room is small. [A taverna] You can be over 30 or 200 years old. Cooking is smart and intentional, with subtle nuances. You have to be creative. “Bartlow said. For his traditional white gazebo (and to cope with the 100-degree dates in the menu plan), he became creative. He made honey sorbet and soaked ice-cold melon seeds, in a cold powdery soup of butter-crumbed almonds, vinegar, vinegar and salt, the base layer was light and salty. Before Principal Plato.
In the main course I tried Rabo de Toro, a stark oxtail cow with a Spanish (rather than American size) thick Pub style Patatas Fritas. The dish is fragrant and sticky, almost too heavy to eat in summer, but faithful to hearty meat from Madrid.
There are also several light fish dishes on the menu, such as the Galician turbine. For just $45, it has a mild flavor and a very simple pistol Manchego that may benefit from certain spices. It is one of several options for pessearian (plus a vegetarian-friendly eggplant dish), but it pales compared to the fresh appetizers before. Bartlow also offers roasted suckling pig or lamb that must be ordered at market prices two weeks in advance, two dishes that made his time fall in love with Spain.
Bartlow is a Chicago native who is attracted by Spanish culture and his early career cooking. From 2003 to 2005, before moving back to Chicago to help open Alinea, he worked for Akelarre’s chef Pedro Subijana, starring Michelin in San Sebastian. He lives above the tavern in the hilly Basque countryside of the seaside city, and his roommate’s Andalusian mother taught him to make Salmorejo, a thick, cold tomato soup in Bartlow that would appear on Bartolo’s menu every now and then.
On vacation days, Bartlow travels to other areas with a group of young kitchen staff. One evening they visited a friend’s Campo and followed a winding road to a grumpy cave where the family aged cheese and fermented grapes. They were gathered by fire bags from clay containers and patatas panaderas forks and bitter green milk-raised lamb, with olive oil and a pile of raw onions.
Bartrow told Observer: “People, food – I probably won’t have it again. “It’s the moment when food connects you to other cultures, almost a ritual.” This is what a restaurant should be: give your time to enjoy life. ”
While Bartrow was unable to recreate an ancient Spanish cave in downtown Manhattan, he did cultivate a series of moments that made me feel rich and I could bite like my oxtail slipped off my bones and gently slipped into them. That’s the difference between thinking of Bartolo as another good neighborhood restaurant. This is a story worth rereading.
