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[title]RECOMMENDED: Food & Drink Awards 2013
Kings County, scrappy capital of diamond-in-the-rough restaurants, got a taste of epicurean bling when this chef’s counter seemed to appear out of nowhere. Chef Carlo Mirarchi’s swaggering showcase—the spare, lofty space hidden, like a Bond villain’s lair, in the concrete yard behind Roberta’s—served some of New York’s priciest high-concept cooking to just 12 flush diners a night. The cost of admission—$180 just to walk through the door—had a certain self-selecting effect. But the few food-mad young Bushwick homesteaders who saved up their nickels for the full three-hour meal got real bang for their Benjamins, in 20-odd courses of tweezer-plated perfection (a plump raviolo bursting with molten nduja, wisps of sweet potato set off with buttermilk and watercress tendrils), prepared, in a banker’s dream kitchen, by one of the city’s most naturally talented chefs. Blanca, 261 Moore St at Bogart St, Bushwick, Brooklyn (347-799-2807, blancanyc.com)