La Boca at the new, High Line-neighboring Faena Hotel brings the Manhattan restaurant scene what it needed — adult-friendly live music without a cover charge in a sophisticated, supper club-like setting. A sextet, Orquesta La Boca, performs tango, bolero and “classic Sinatra” seven nights a week from 8 to11 p.m. It’s one of the most welcome surprises far-west 18th Street ever saw.
The romantic strains by tuxedoed instrumentalists and a sweet-throated vocalist directed by Emiliano Messiez are far removed from the background noise of “jazz” brunches. The band renders “La Cumprasita” and “Besame Mucho” at a reasonable decibel level. (No dancing!) The moody, jazz-and-blues soundtrack that plays while they’re on a break is loud enough to enjoy but not intrusive. The music is perfectly attuned to La Boca’s colorful, sexy design and its culinary pedigree.
One section of the 163-seat dining room is dominated by a 20-foot long mural of a sexy black cat lounging on a bed of pink roses, the other by a mural of happy monkeys clad in those same roses — a motif that adorns the rims of plates. Both areas boast floral-patterned rugs, shell-shaped red velvet booths and banquettes, burled wood tables, fanciful contemporary chandeliers and Deco-style table lamps. The lighting makes everyone in the overwhelmingly stylish crowd look their best, even guys in untucked shirts who clearly missed the “smart, elegant attire” advisory.
Celebrated Buenos Aires chef Francis Mallmann is behind La Boca, but NYC fire laws prevent the restaurant from cooking with the open fires he’s known for. No matter. It achieves similar flavors and textures with powerful gas-powered planchas. Almost everything I had on my three visits was worth the trek on bitter winter nights.
The kitchen has moved past an early-days blooper stage and now turns out Mallmann’s crowd-pleasing lineup with confidence and consistency. It’s served by a crack floor team recruited from top places from Daniel Boulud, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Danny Meyer. They know the menu inside-out but don’t use their smarts to oversell customers.
Mallmann’s dishes, which borrow judiciously from the Italian and South American playbooks, would be at home in many other Big Apple places that mix-and-match sauces and garnishes from all compass points.
Among starters, cheese empanada ($12) elevated the typically mediocre, mushy food truck staple to heaven. The turnovers are oven-roasted to a mouth-pleasing tactility, concealing a hearty filling of salut, mozzarella and gouda.
Granny Smith and Honeycrisp apple slices and sparkling apple cider vinaigrette brightened an austere, wintry tossed salad of bitter chicory and radicchio ($25).
The only first-course clunker was “Francis’ Minestrone” ($18), an ill-advised, creamy take on the classic soup as thick as chicken pot pie.
The menu soars with the main courses. High prices can be misleading. Most dishes are substantial enough to share, not that they suggest it. “Thick Milanesa” ($95) was an 8-ounce veal filet breaded with egg, garlic, breadcrumbs and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Finished in clarified butter and garnished with Dijon mustard, it was more tender and deeper-flavored than many iterations around town.
Although I found meat disappointingly dry at Mallman’s famous Miami Beach Faena restaurant, there was no such issue at La Boca. The white meat was as supple as the dark in a brined and pan-roasted chicken ($46), a deboned half-bird unashamedly oozing natural jus and attended by chanterelle mushrooms, roasted potatoes and baby carrots.
Snake River Farms Wagyu strip steak delivered most of the blood-and-mineral pleasure of a 32-oz. ribeye at a fraction of the cost ($105 vs. $275).
Pasta was excellent, especially al dente tagliolini in Provencale sauce with a generous complement of luscious Montauk Royal Red Shrimp ($39). Firm-and-flaky, plancha-seared branzino ($55) wore crisp skin like a hat atop mushroom escabeche and crispy sunchokes — a delight for palate and eye.
But a quartet of Colorado lamb chops landed with a thud. They arrived way past the requested medium-rare, sinewy and resistant to a serrated knife. Overcooking drained them of whatever flavor they once had. And they were $105!
Splendid desserts highlighted by dolce de leche profiteroles with a touch of cinnamon helped get us over it. I look forward to going back for more of them — and to tango strains deep into the night.
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