Tribeca Terroir

In theory, staying in New York City on a summer weekend when everyone else is away should mean you have access to plenty of restaurants, free concerts and barbecue real estate in the park while everyone else fights for a parking space in the Hamptons. In reality, the city is just as crowded as ever. Why? So many New Yorkers had the same idea.

So don’t head to Brooklyn on a summer weekend expecting to get a table at a popular place in Red Hook, Carroll Gardens or Williamsburg – they’ll be taken by locals. The best strategy on summer Saturdays is to target the areas where titans of industry live, where it would be horribly unfashionable to be seen in town, missing charity events galore in the Hamptons. In short, head to Tribeca.

Tribeca Terroir, which is usually slammed on weekday nights, full of bankers from the nearby Financial District and glamorous couples from the neighborhood, can be delightfully unoccupied on summer weekends, as it was on a recent Saturday night. A few glamorous Tribeca couples remained – doubtless their Land Rovers had broken down – but it was easy to get a table at this western branch of Terroir in the East Village. You’ll still find the same great tapas menu and extensive list of wines by the glass, this time in a much roomier, industrial chic setting filled with bar-height tables, metal stools, globe lighting and a wine bar framed by unfinished wood beams.

The menu here is odd. Not because the food is strange – it’s creative small plates fare – but because Terroir’s owner Paul Grieco uses it as a platform to issue dining injunctions, history lessons and even a tirade against Robert Sietsema, the Village Voice critic who was banned from the restaurant after giving it a negative review (fingers crossed for this one). A sample of Grieco’s prose: “God loves us…he really does, despite the antics of his soldiers in Rome. And he shows his love everyday in the form of this fortified masterpiece from the south of Spain.” Though it’s sometimes hard to find the food and wine you want in the 40-plus-page menu, chances are it’s there somewhere, lodged between a bio of Jane Jacobs and a scrapbook page for a World Cup soccer star. Ask your server for guidance.

Tribeca Terroir’s fare is perfect for sharing – so expect to see tables of women, a few date night couples, and a cocktailing crowd. On the night we visited, the light, flaky white anchovies with caramelized shallots ($5) really awakened palette for the wines to come. Intensely fishy and dressed in citrus, they got snapped up right away at our table.

Only two of five salads focused on leafy greens, and one of those seemed too boring – just arugula and parmesan. We went with the dandelion greens piled with a hard boiled egg and garlicky toasted bread crumbs ($9). While these toppings got scooped up immediately, the greens were so bitter that we left them behind on the plate. A lesson to locavores: just because it’s seasonal and local doesn’t necessarily mean it’s palatable.

Though the narrow-mouthed container for the chicken liver pate made it hard to get at with a knife, it rivaled some of the best chicken liver bruschetta in the city (most notably the chicken liver bruschetta at Locanda Verde just a couple blocks away) and had an unabashed layer of congealed schmaltz on top.

Red wine and oxtail risotto balls were some of the more filling snacks, falling open to reveal a deep red interior. But the most impressive meat snack was the dense, garlicky ground lamb wrapped in sage leaves ($8), deep fried and sliced into rounds, served with a yogurt dip. Sage and lamb are a natural pairing, but we’d never seen it presented this way before, wrapped up like Greek grape leaves and fried – inventive and delicious.

Salt cod baccala balls ($8) hit all the right notes texture-wise but tasted bland compared to the rest of the aggressive flavors on the table.

The cheese, sourced by our friend and fromagier Martin Johnson of the Joy of Cheese, was predictably fabulous. The Beeler gruyere made of raw milk ($8), peppered throughout with tiny crystals distinctive to Swiss cheeses, blew away even Marie Fromage. An excellent goats milk Kunik ($5) and washed-rind Winnemere rounded out the cheese plate nicely ($7).

Terroir’s chocolate budino ($6) is a clever spin on the classic. As chocolate pudding topped with toasted, whole hazelnuts, it’s like deconstructed Nutella.

Winos will have a field day here. There are so many varietals to choose from, especially by the glass. Our knowledgeable server recommended a couple to wine columnist Lori G. that she’d never tasted before – including an unusual unfiltered wine and another oxidized type, two techniques that are specific to Spain. Our favorite red was a 2001 Domaine de Bonserine “La Garde” Côte-Rôtie ($16 a glass).

One problem with the experience at many tapas restaurants in New York, including Tribeca Terroir, is that they ignore the slow pacing of dishes that characterizes a tapas meal in Spain and instead throw a dozen small plates on the table at once. This is not drive thru: it’s up to the kitchen to pace the dishes appropriately. We also felt rushed when the staff brought our check without being asked, presumably trying to get everyone out of the place so they could close up – but at 11:30pm on a Saturday? Also take note: diners shouldn’t come here looking for a bargain. All those tempting small plates and glasses of wine can really add up.

But by the end of the night we were already drinking the Terroir Kool Aid, and provided our email addresses for the newsletter. Afterwards we received this missive from owner Paul Grieco: “Welcome to the ranks, O initiate. You are now sworn to honor the sacred cause, to drink only that which is authentic, which speaks of the earth from which it came.”

Grandiose, to be sure. But when the end result approaches Terroir’s lofty ambitions, you have to applaud them for their chutzpah.

Tribeca Terroir
24 Harrison Street between Hudson and Greenwich Streets
New York, NY
212-625-9463
wineisterroir.com