La Vara

La Vara specializes in food inspired by the Jewish and Moorish cuisines of Southern Spain, and we love their mash-up dishes, like Cantabrian anchovies served in dukkah butter, and morros prensados, a beef jowl terrine with mustard-grape española and an herby pistachio salad. Come with someone who doesn't mind your anchovy breath: With lots of stuff to share and a long list of cocktails and Spanish and Portuguese wine, it’s a good de facto date night spot in Cobble Hill.

Husband-and-wife chefs Eder Montero and Alex Raij have built a small restaurant empire in New York City with the Basque tapas temples Txikito and El Quinto Pino and the seafood-forward Saint Julivert Fisherie. At La Vara, located in quaint Cobble Hill, they focus on the flavours of Spain's Muslim and Jewish culinary heritage. Ironic, then, that one of the best dishes on the menu is the roast suckling pig.

Billing itself as “cocina casera” or “home cooking,” this restaurant—from Chef Alex Raij and her husband, Eder Montero—elevates humble cuisine to impressive levels. Product quality is excellent, and the playful spirit behind dishes is the definition of creative cooking. Menu highlights include salmorejo, a delicate and flavorful salt cod carpaccio, and crispy suckling pig, with confit-tender meat.

The accent at this diminutive restaurant with exposed-brick walls and ample bar space is on Spanish tapas with Moorish and Jewish influences. Choose among many tasty small plates, including eggplant with cheese, fried artichokes, and a daily selection of savory croquettes. The suckling pig is excellent, especially when accompanied with a glass of sangria in the pretty garden area.

APPEARANCES count in food, but great cooking is sometimes hard to spot at first glance. When they arrive at the table, there is nothing prepossessing about the fried artichokes served at La Vara, a four-month-old Spanish restaurant in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. I took one look and thought, O.K., fried artichokes.

Run by husband and wife team Eder Montero and Alex Raij, this charming Cobble Hill tapas joint celebrates the Jewish and Moorish influences on Spanish cuisine. Its menu is equal parts unique, crowd pleasing, and easy to share.

Honored with a spot on the Michelin Guide’s Bib Gourmand list, La Vara is the result of a team effort from the chefs who put the now-departed El Quinto Pino on the map. Raij and Montero are cleverly using La Vara in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn to delve into the Jewish and Muslim flavors found in numerous Spanish dishes. Surefire delights include small plates like eggplant with honey and melted cheese, grilled chicken hearts with lime-date vinaigrette, salt cod carpaccio on za’atar bread and suckling pig with rose petal quince sauce and chimichurri.

La Vara, located in Cobble Hill, is a highly regarded restaurant known for its charming atmosphere and delicious fusion of Spanish and Middle Eastern cuisine. The menu features standout dishes such as Cantabrian anchovies with salted dukkah butter and salchichón with fried artichoke hearts, ibérico de bellota sausage, anchovy aioli, and grana padano. The Front section of the restaurant offers comfortable seating, and the knowledgeable staff provides excellent wine recommendations to accompany your meal.

A lively, cozy tapas restaurant with a focus on the culinary contributions of Jews and Muslims on the Iberian Peninsula. You'll notice footnotes to history in plates of delicate artichokes, Arabic noodles, and skewered chicken hearts. But mostly, you'll just order one of everything on the menu and think to the future: Torta de Santiago for dessert.

In today's New York Times, restaurant critic Pete Wells reviews La Vara, a tapas spot in Brooklyn just down the street from my apartment. First off, I've always been a fan of chefs Alex Raij and Eder Montero and their other spots, Txikito and El Quinto Pino in Manhattan. After two great meals at La Vara I'd say they have a third hit on their hands.

268 Clinton St., Brooklyn, NY, 11201Phone: 718-422-0065 Visit Website. Perched next to Cobble Hill Park in Brooklyn, NYC, La Vara is a beautiful Spanish restaurant with Jewish and Moorish influence in many small dishes. If you have some time before or after your visit to La Vara, you can visit the Cobble Hill Cinemas just a few blocks away.

Run by a team of husband and wife, La Vara is a restaurant that specializes in serving Basque cuisine. Basque cuisine involves a lot of coal-grilled meats and fish, stews, pintxos (or tapas) and bean dishes. They have taken great care to create a unique menu featuring dishes that most New Yorkers are not accustomed to.

Husband-and-wife chefs Eder Montero and Alexandra Raij have a loyal following at their Manhattan tapas spots Txikito and El Quinto Pino. At their Brooklyn offshoot they celebrate the Jewish and Moorish influences in Spanish cookery, with dishes like cumin roasted lamb breast and Gibraltar-style grilled chicken hearts.

La Vara is a top restaurant in Cobble Hill and probably the best Spanish restaurant in all of New York in my humble opinion. Influenced by Moorish and Jewish flavors, La Vara creates some of the best Spanish-style tapas around. Not to mention, they have my favorite gin and tonic in the city.

NYC has no dearth of terrific tapas joints, but this one has an unusual focus: the recipes left in the Spanish canon from the days when Moors and Jews inhabited the Iberian peninsula. It’s an intriguing concept, one that results in appetizing dishes, like juicy lamb meatballs atop…

Set right on the brownstone and the trees, you will notice that this restaurant blends out nicely. You will enjoy the Cobble Hill restaurant. It does have a modest exterior, but you can be sure you will enjoy every bite of the meals they make.

Enjoy the savory flavor of La Vara’s salmorejo or a helping of its morros prensados. While you’re at it, combine your meal with one of their specialty drinks, such as the kampai martini or sancho panza.

For tapas, La Vara. For those on a budget, you can’t go wrong with Shake Shack – New York’s closest attempt at imitating the perfection that is In-N-Out Burger (what, I’m a California girl at heart!).

Jewish and Moorish influences add depth to each dish, while fried bites and seafood favorites round out the menu. It’s the kind of food that holds your attention without needing much introduction.

I love the crispy eggplant dish served with honey, migas, which is made with torn bread, chorizo, seared grapes, and an egg, and cumin-roasted lamb breast — delicious.