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“La Vara”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	Spanish	Brooklyn	Moderate	Great

heir cooking too: the smells, the tastes, the sheer quantity of it all—the rice pots brimming with favas and dill, the potato crusts stained from saffron, the bowls of assorted Khoresh, the platters heavy with golden Samoseh; the way the stale, dry air in her building’s long hallway changed when the door to her apartment opened, letting the sweet, far-away world of her cooking rush in, like some wishing potion from a Genie’s bottle.

So I was intrigued to learn that Alexandra Raij and Eder Montero, who co-own two Spanish restaurants in Manhattan, the tapas bar El Quinto Pino and the Basque-inspired Txikito, had opened La Vara in Cobble Hill. This Spanish restaurant is an ode to her Sephardic Jewish heritage and to the medieval Jewish and Islamic cuisines that shaped the food of southern Spain—a legacy that virtually vanished for centuries. Raij isn’t Spanish; she was raised in Minnesota by Argentine-Jewish immigrant parents and the Sephardic legacies woven through La Vara’s dishes serve as a point of connection between her husband’s Basque roots and her Jewish background.

You’ll find La Vara on Brooklyn’s Clinton Street, just next door to the locavore favorite Ted & Honey and a few steps from lovely Cobble Hill Park, where Emily and I often can be found in the sandbox or running through the oval plot of grass that serves as an al fresco playpen for infants and toddlers. La Vara was most recently the ill-fated Breukelen, and prior to that Café On Clinton, a longtime favorite for the neighborhood and a place I used to frequent back in the days when I was a law student. La Vara seems to have erased all ghosts of restaurants past with its simple design: oversized bay windows let in the street’s light; a big welcoming bar hosts neighbors in for the excellent Sangria which is poured alongside stronger Spanish cocktails. The walls are hung with a kind of wild and beautiful Spanish tile fashioned from hammered copper. It’s exotic and quirky. I loved it.

Craig and I stopped in last week for a dinner on Tuesday night. It was a hot night, it felt more like August than May, but the restaurant was iced down nicely. No HVAC issues here, thankfully. The menu’s only trouble is its sheer size. It is divided into little bites, fried things, breads, cold dishes and salads, and hot plates. This means you’re looking at about 32 choices plus a list of about ... [more, click below]

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Posted: June 3, 2012

Other restaurants in Brooklyn :
+ Chickenbone Cafe-- Closed   + Pier 116-- Closed   + Chestnut   + Lunch at Peter Luger's   + 360   + Palo Santo   + The Good Fork   + Porchetta-- Closed Now   + Bocca Lupo   + Flatbush Farm   + DuMont Burger   + Dressler   + Farm on Adderley   + The Grocery   + Saul   + Black Mountain Wine House   + The General Greene   + Char No. 4   + James   + Chestnut   + No. 7   + Vinegar Hill House   + Motorino   + Buttermilk Channel   + Buttermilk Channel   + Vutera   + Watty & Meg    + Prime Meats   + Aqualis Grill   + Jack the Horse Tavern   + Roman's   + Fatty 'Cue   + Thistle Hill Tavern   + Broken English   + Trix, by Dara Pollak   + An Ode to New Orleans in Williamsburg: Maison Premiere, By Dara Pollak   + Brooklyn Wok Shop by Dara Pollak   + Arthur on Smith   + La Vara   + Gran Electrica   + Pok Pok Ny   + Ganso    + Reynard   

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