Located across two tidy stone and red brick buildings on Main Street in Tuckahoe is BulerÃa, with handy parking at the rear. Arriving without a reservation on a Monday night, we are lucky to snag one of the restaurant”™s last available tables. Who knew this tapas and wine bar, barely two months old, would be quite so jumping?
Coats barely off, our server Roberto approaches with a wide smile, a menu and a wine and cocktail list. “I recommend you try a Spanish Old Fashioned,” he says, by way of introduction. That would be nice, I”™ve no doubt, but let”™s take a moment here. It”™s a great cocktail list, that”™s for sure. Boy, could I do with a “Stress Reliever” ”“ bourbon, cherry liqueur, absinthe and dark walnut bitters ”“ or better yet, “A Day in Ibiza” ”“ mezcal, aperol and pineapple syrup. But we settle on a “Lost in Seville,” a sort of Spanish Negroni made with Quinta Jerez vermouth and a dash of elderflower. It is excellent.
As for Seville and Jerez, we”™re going to be hearing a lot about these places as the evening unfolds. Owner Luca Balestrieri, an Italian by birth, fell in love with Andalusia, the southernmost autonomous region in peninsular Spain, when he moved to Jerez ”“ home of the Spanish Riding School ”“ to further his love of the equestrian arts. It”™s where he also developed a passion for flamenco, from which the restaurant takes its name ”“ bulerÃa being the most classic flamenco style of Jerez. A beautiful painting of a flamenco dancer in a dramatic twirl and flurry of skirts actually dominates the main dining room, while stylish retro posters, original paintings and collages of Spanish guitarists grace other walls.
Back at the table, meanwhile, a basket of bread has been placed along with an unmarked bottle of olive oil. Both the bread and the oil ”“ grassy notes, low acidity ”“ are superb. On another occasion I could sip my cocktail, pour a generous saucer of the oil, trawl a few slices of the sourdough through it and go home a happy man, but tonight there are many dishes we have to try.
The menu divides into sections ”“ charcuterie and cheese boards, paellas, salads and hot and cold tapas. To start, we enjoy jamón Ibérico, that particular delicacy from the acorn-fed, black-hoofed pig, which comes in a generous portion, wafer-thin with its own extraordinary sweetness. It finds a natural accompaniment with warm Marcona almonds prinked with paprika and assorted Spanish olives. We”™re wild, too, about wild Gulf shrimp with white wine and chili and mejillones ”“ sautéed PEI (Prince Edward Island) mussels with guindilla peppers and chorizo from Spain”™s Basque country.
Little cubes of chorizo appear, too, this time with beans, in a wonderful dish of Little Neck clams, a Spanish version of moules marinières, where the spoon to drink the broth is as important as the fork to spear the mollusks.
Our cocktails are long finished by this point, and we move on to glasses of Bodega Lagar de Besada Albari̱o, a white wine, and Castillo de Monseran, a Grenache from Aragon, which weӪve extracted from the long, international list. ItӪs a small gripe, but I would have appreciated a greater selection of Spanish wine in this authentically Spanish environment.
Neither appetites nor time allow for a paella ”“ the dish serves two and takes 45 minutes to prepare. But the “marinera” paella, a classic combo with clams, mussels, scallops and squid cooked with beguiling heady saffron rice, wins plaudits from the next table and is a good reason alone to return.
Instead, we share a generous churrasco skirt steak, cooked over white-hot coals, a relatively inexpensive cut but a lovely piece of meat rendered and made tender by the flash cooking. Rosemary potatoes, cut into little obelisks, which come with it, have a crisp outside and soft interior, the whole dish under a wreath of rosemary sprigs.
Looking at the dessert menu, IӪm intrigued by the first item, called NoahӪs Cookie Stash, a double chocolate chip cookie with strawberry ice cream. ItӪs not going to be my choice or my guestӪs, but I want to know who Noah is. He of the ark? Turns out, heӪs the ownerӪs son. Well, young Noah knows what he likes, and what fun to be immortalized on a menu. For us, though, itӪs cr̬me caramel, or flan, that most typical of Spanish desserts, a dense, eggy version here, served with a dollop of cream on top that purists might balk at but which we rather love, along with the most exquisitely-sliced strawberry you ever did see.
In addition to comfortable chairs and some banquette seating, the restaurant boasts a beautiful L-shaped bar with a wonderful backdrop, spirits on one side and wine bottles, lined up like soldiers, on the other, the two walls dramatically separated by a benign-looking bull ”“ an image of a bull, that is to say.
Although BulerÃa is not currently open for lunch, or even brunch, I can”™t help thinking that if it were to open at lunchtime, as is the Spanish style ”“ offering an inexpensive menu del dÃa, say, with food of this glorious standard ”“ I”™m certain people would beat a pathway to its door. Then again, I”™m no restaurateur and owner Luca certainly isn”™t asking me. As things stand, at least for now you”™ll have to beat a pathway to Tuckahoe for dinner. “Make reservations” is my advice.
For more, visit buleriatapas.com.
