Barcelona off of Broadway (tapas & wine... YUM!!)

As you know if you've been following our Undies for a while, Susan and I spent a week in Barcelona last year.  We loved the crazy architecture, the museums, but the thing we talk about the most?  THE FOOD!  So on our never-ending quest to find great tapas in Manhattan, we visited Buceo 95 last Friday.

The self-proclaimed "Barcelona off of Broadway" is a cozy little wine and tapas bar on 95th street between Broadway and Amsterdam.  The menu isn't overwhelming, the wine list is excellent and it was reasonably priced.  We sat at the bar and ordered from our very nice and helpful bartender Sean.

The view from the bar... and of Sean's back

The wine is available by the quartino and the bottle, I got there early so I was already into a quartino of a Spanish wine when Susan arrived, which we loved so much we ended up buying a bottle (yes, in addition the quartino!)  The wine, (which I would recommend) was a 2004 Monastrell Raspay Reserva from the Alicante region.  In my opinion, a deal at $48/ bottle.  I mean you just don't see '04s for that price very often in this city.  I wasn't familiar with Monastrells, but I am hooked now, a lot of old world character: spice, tar.  Apparently it's ‘The Barolo of Spain’ (who doesn't love Barolos?).  Whatever, it was delicious.  The Raspay bottle looked something like this.

Every time Susan & I go to a new restaurant, we always make a point to ask the bartender/ server/ owner what he or she recommends.  You should always do this.  Ask what the specialties are, ask what the favorites of the staff are.  And this is why: Sean, the bartender recommended four dishes, only ONE of which was on the menu. So had we not asked we never would have known about the filet mignon with blue cheese sauce over spicy butternut squash, which was the highlight for me.  Also following Sean's suggestions, we got green beans w/crispy bacon and white truffle crème fraiche,  baby octopus with warm potato salad, and garlic shrimp.  I wasn't over the moon about the shrimp but everything else was definitely first rate.  Two other dishes I wanted to try, and would order next time is the fois gras (also not on the menu, so you would need to request it from your server) and the duck.
 

duck breast w/ cranberry, pic courtesy Ed Yourdon

So if you find yourself on the upper west side, cozy up to Buceo 95.  You may get lucky and have the lovely Sean as your bartender.  Do get there early, it's not very big and it does fill up fast (at least on a Friday night).  Txin txin!