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By Manos Angelakis
Lizarran
45 Mercer Street
New York, NY 10013
(646) 837-6580
The New York outpost of the Lizarran restaurants opened in March 2010 in Soho. Lizarran is a group of almost 200 restaurant/bars in Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Germany, Russia, China, and the US, that offer tapas and pintxos (a style of tapa mounted on a slice of baguette popular in the north) as well as a good variety of wines and some sherries. The original Lizarran started in 1988 near Barcelona, while the first Lizarran on US soil opened in Fullerton, CA. Five Lizarran locations are planned for New York City.
This is not my first time of having tapas or pintxos. Numerous trips to Madrid and Barcelona have made me a “tapas and fino” aficionado. In Spain, all the offerings are shown on platters and bowls on the restaurant’s bar. You select what you want and the person behind the bar makes a plate for you, or you just pick individual pieces while the bar-person keeps your tab. Here in New York, the Health Department requires that all dishes be covered or in a refrigerated glass case, which of course dries out the baguette slice the food lays on, and chills the cooked, colorful finger foods. So, everything has to come freshly made from the kitchen, which is a definite plus. They bring fresh pintxos around to the tables throughout the evening much like a Chinese Dim Sum tea lunch. On the cold side, very good Serrano ham, chorizo, sliced eggs, variety of cheeses, white pickled anchovies (boquerones), roasted peppers, and bacon-wrapped dates lanced by a toothpick are offered. On the warm side, fried meatballs, shrimps in garlic, pork skewers, and duck, along with other traditional little plates are served. There are paellas and fish dishes on the menu, but we were there for the tapas so we did not sample a main entree; perhaps another time. The pintxos we had were washed down with a 2007 L’ Agnet Tinto from Priorat. The one fault that I found at Lizarran is that considering the number of excellent fino sherries now available in the NYC market, having only Tio Pepe (a dry sherry from Jerez at the bottom of the quality scale), is a shame and should be reassessed.
It's a nice big space, roomier than a lot of other tapas/wine bars. The main dining room is illuminated by a vast skylight. Service was friendly and helpful. The owner, a very friendly young man, told us to eat the pinxtos and leave the toothpicks in a small jar on the table to be tallied at the end of the meal, again similar to the Chinese tea lunch except there, small plates are tallied. It's really refreshing that a New York City restaurant can be so trusting of its customer's honesty.
© May 2010 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.
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