New York: Where to Eat: Global Cuisine: Boqueria

Boqueria

French-born Yann de Rochefort figured out pretty quickly how to break through the cacophony of trendy new restaurants: be good and be there. It’s startling that this place got it so right so fast. His chef-partner, Seamus Mullen, whose background includes stints in fine Basque and Catalonian restaurants, combines a mastery of Spanish ingredients with an American ease of presentation. Boqueria, named for Barcelona’s splendid central market, delivers a succession of succulent plates—tapas and beyond—to a hip and humming crowd happily perched around deliberately high tables. In creating the polished interior with its Europ-of-the-moment feel, de Rochefort showed he knows the difference between sleek and slick.

Start with such succulent tapas as berberechos y alcachofas, grilled cockles with bits of artichoke and serrano ham, and croquettes of salt cod or suckling pig, and move on to the slightly larger plates: like one beautiful egg, carefully poached in olive oil atop a nest of vegetables, or txiperones —baby squid with spicy arugula. Then lamb shanks or langoustine; there’s even paella Valenciana to share. Boqueria serves constantly from noon to midnight, till 2 a.m. on weekends and accepts no reservations.