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“Mercat”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	Spanish	East Village	Moderate	Good

ing, or snatched up by a vacationing group of aliens. But I made it in one piece, ready for a glass of wine and some good friends. And that's just what I got. We started off with a few glasses of sparkling rose cava and a general bitching session about anything and everything. As I stared at the empty fluted glass where pink cava once bubbled, I realized I was feeling much better. Nothing like some venting and some bubbles to make everything fade away.

There are many other things about Mercat that also help relieve your daily stress. The restaurant itself is a playground for dining fun. The space is hip, in an industrial-chic sort of way. Its façade is a sheet of windows etched in wrought iron. Behind the wall of glass is a long marble bar serving beer and Spanish wines and cava, and a well-stocked cheese and jamon carving station (I want one of these in my house). Toward the back is a lively dining room with triple height ceilings stocked with hefty raw wood tables facing a partially open kitchen. A spiral staircase leads to an upper deck catwalk of wine storage. The spry young wine director sprints up and down the stairs with such agility I was almost expecting him to peel off his clothes and reveal a Spiderman suit underneath. This never happened. Bummer, man.

Mercat is the vision of Jamie Reixach, a native of Barcelona and who based his New York restaurant on his passion for Catalan cuisine and Barcelona-style dining. To tackle the region's vibrant flavors and indigenous ingredients, he hired a pair of talented young chefs, Ryan Lowder (Casa Mono, Jean Georges), and David Seigal (Martin Berasategui in San Sebastian, and Jean Georges). They have created a menu that starts with jamon, cheese and bar snacks (pardons, bravas, baby squid) and moves onto two categories of larger plates-traditional cooking and more modern, seasonal chef-driven dishes.

Their efforts are mostly quite successful, but sometimes curiously, and disappointingly, off the mark. For instance, snails skewered with chorizo ($11) were flabby and flavorless. They actually taste almost watered down and washed free of seasoning and taste. A dish of fried artichokes was also a dreadful mess-a whole artichoke is quartered and fried so that the leaves are not crispy and tender, but sharp and spindly and almost shard-like. This vegetable bordered on food weaponry. A plate of sautéed mushrooms with crisped shoestring potatoes topped with a fried egg ($12) sounde ... [more, click below]

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Posted: May 21, 2007

Other restaurants in East Village :
+ Yujin-- Closed   + Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar   + Mermaid Inn   + Five Points   + Lavagna   + Five Points   + Bond Street   + Jewel Bako   + Alphabet Kitchen   + In Vino   + Bao 111   + Chikalicious   + Il Buco   + Hearth   + Lima's Taste   + Mercadito   + Hedeh   + Momofuku   + Una Pizza Napoletana   + Winebar   + Uovo-- CLOSED   + Mo Pitkin's House of Satisfaction   + Gotham Bar & Grill   + Colors   + Chinatown Brasserie   + Knife and Fork   + European Union-- NEW CHEF; SEE APRIL 2007 Review   + Aroma Kitchen and Winebar   + Stand   + European Union   + Mercat   + Gemma   + Back Forty   + The Smith   + Seymour Burton   + Belcourt   + Graffiti   + The Redhead   + Double Crown    + Apiary   + Joe Doe   + Apiary by guest reviewer Kiri Tannenbaum   + DBGB   + Northern Spy   + Goat Town   + Saxon + Parole   + Il Buco Alimentari & Vineria   + Acme   + Calliope   + Nicoletta   + JEPPNEY by Claire Jaffe   + Feast   

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