With its well-executed small plates and dim and cozy ambiance, Barbuzzo, 110 S. 13th St., makes for a pleasant and memorable dining experience. It doesn’t make for easy menu-reading but, if our experience was typical, you could blindly point at any item on the menu and come away happy.
The newest offering from Marcie Turney and Valerie Safran — who also own BYOB restaurants Lolita and Bindi, market Grocery and décor shops Open House and Verde on 13th — is their first establishment to have a liquor license.
The meal started off in fine fashion with the sheep’s-milk ricotta ($8), a tasty and creamy dish served with grilled bread and drizzled with figs, olive oil, herbs and sea salt. The slight sweetness of the figs was the perfect balance for the sea salt. And the grilled bread was good enough to make us swear off the Atkins diet for life.
We’ve been served enough beets with goat cheese in our time to be especially jaded by the sight of it on anyone’s menu, but Barbuzzo’s roasted beet salad ($7) made us reconsider our stance on the combination. The presence of orange and black kale balanced the richness of the cheese and added a memorable texture and flavor to the dish.
The popular uovo pizza ($14) was rich — almost too rich — topped with truffles, Brussels-sprout leaves and egg. But the chili oil served on the side cut through the nearly excessive flavors and livened things up.
The small plates we sampled were outstanding. The caciocavallo-stuffed meatballs ($10), made with ground short ribs and pork, were tender and flavorful with a spicy kick. Much like the meatballs, we could not stop eating the grilled Mediterranean octopus ($12), which was cooked to perfection and served with fingerling potatoes and onions.
The fideua ($18), a Mediterranean/Spanish take on paella, was another pleasant surprise. The noodles were a nice change from the rice most associate with a dish like this, and the calamari, shrimp and mussels would have shined on their own: Together, they were delectable.
When it came to dessert, there were some interesting selections, including a chocolate tasting ($8), lemon tiramisu ($8) and concord grape sorbet ($6). But with all due respect, they pale in comparison to the salted caramel budino, by far the most decadently delicious offering. Sure, you can play it safe and go with something less threatening, but if anyone at your table gets the budino and you have to watch them eat it, you will be kicking yourself all the way home. The salted caramel pudding is amazing enough on its own, but once you break into the chocolate crumble at the bottom of the dish, it’s all over. You’ll be trying to consume every last morsel and debating whether you’ll look like a complete freak ordering another one.
Barbuzzo definitely has more than enough style and substance to stand out in the Gayborhood.
Larry Nichols can be reached at [email protected].