Barca 18

It was Carebear's birthday at the end of January and a big group of us planned a dinner to celebrate. I love birthday celebrations! They're just excuses to break out of the doldrums of routine, meet up with friends you don't see that often, and go nuts, which is what we did. I guess I should give up on the notion that we'll ever grow out of this "going nuts" tendency, seeing that our Wahoo five year reunion is coming up in May...

MerrillMuse made reservations for all of us at Barca 18. Sounded good to me, I'd never been.
I got to Barca about twenty minutes after the rest of the crew had been seated and already sipping on their cosmos and martinis. Everyone was neatly divided into two groups: girls on one side and boys on the other, kind of like my fifth grade ballroom dancing class, minus the white gloves.

Barca 18 is a great place for a party. Everyone has their own space, the next table is miles away from you; the service is extremely catering, so much you feel like your server is your personal server and only waiting on you that evening; and the buzzing space is larger than life with an industrial warehouse feel, only it's broken up into smaller sections by giant curtains dangling from the high ceilings to the floors. I was sitting at one end of the table and my shoulder kissed one of these "curtains", only it was made out of cold chainmail.

Carebear informed us the last time she ate at Barca she tried some of the tapas and hadn't been so impressed (odd, isn't that what the restaurant's foundation is?). So we stuck with some of the simple appetizers off the menu: crispy calamari with a spicy romesco sauce and marinated shrimp with crispy corn masa and an orange cream. There was nothing remarkable about either of the appetizers. The calamari didn't stand out and the shrimp, while glazed in a nice citrus coating, was forgettable. For my entree I tried the paella de langosta y camaron, which the menu should have noted was good enough for four people. It was enormous and had lobster, shrimp, clams, mussels, chorizo, saffron rice, peas and peppers. Did you get all that? If Ben and Jerry were in the seafood business, this would be their version of the Cherry Garcia-so much stuff too little time. But proudly (or sadly however you look at it), I was raised to leave nothing on my plate for the dishwasher, so I ate it all finito! The paella came served in a big wok resting on a wiry stand (a good space-saver). They were very generous with the tender grilled lobster tails, and all the other seafood sprinkled among the rice and sausage. If you like paella, give this a try. I am not familiar with traditional Spanish paella, and would be curious to know how this compares, if there is someone out there who is.

And last but not least, I have to give their pastry chef team Elizabeth Katz and Michael Laskionis kudos. We were debating bringing in cupcakes or eating dessert there, and when the manager said we'd be charged for bringing in dessert when they have desserts on the premises (completely understandable) we ordered a birthday cake. It was a beautiful white tres leches cake with a strawberry filling, and they even put a cute birthday wish on top. It was just as good as it looked, but I was so stuffed from my GRANDE-tree I could barely appreciate it.

Mona's notes:
I'm choosing to leave out the apple rating on Barca 18. I can't really rate it because I didn't try enough of their dishes.
Barca 18 is a member of the B.R. Guest Restaurant Group (of Dos Caminos, Ruby Foo's, and Vento fame). And more notably, it is a partnership between B.R. Guest and Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin

225 Park Avenue South, at 18th Street
212.533.2500