A Basque Night on East Broadway

On Tuesday, Abrams published Essentially Basque, the first cookbook from Caper’s Chef in Residence Ryan Bartlow, written with Laurie Woolever. (Ryan told the story of how the book came together in his latest Caper column.) That same night, Caper, in partnership with FreshDirect, threw him a party at Ernesto’s, his restaurant on East Broadway. It was a warm fall evening, the restaurant’s floor-to-ceiling windows were open to the street, and the party spilled out onto the sidewalk and went late into the night.

Those windows are part of the book’s story, too. Ryan shot all 150 of its recipes in that dining room, in natural light. On Tuesday, the same room was packed shoulder to shoulder.

It was a family affair. Ryan’s wife, Davitta Niakani-Bartlow, was there, along with his sister-in-law and business partner, Alexandra Niakani (and of course Zeus, her Brussels Griffon); and his parents, who flew in from Chicago. That’s the city where a teenage Ryan once waited three hours in the January cold to get a cookbook signed by Eric Ripert, whose blurb now sits on the back of Essentially Basque.

The rest of the room was a who’s who of New York hospitality. Gabrielle Hamilton, Andrew Carmellini, Ned Baldwin, Mark Murphy, and Ochi and Cedric Vongerichten came out, as did Eddie and Natashia Huang. So did Emmett Burke of Emmett’s NYC and Emmett’s on Grove, Jess Shadbolt and Annie Shi of Dean’s, Elyssa Heller of Edith’s, and Max Wittawat of Bangkok Supper Club.

Chefs Bilena Settepani, Tejas Ke’alohi Jhaveri, Golden Age Hospitality’s Beverage Director Sarah Morrisey, and photographer Evan Sung mingled with Phoebe Ng, Aïsha Farida, Delia Cai, Gigi Gaoyang, former New York Magazine restaurant critic Adam Platt, and Friend of Chef’s Keith Durst and Talia Berman. And of course, co-author Laurie Woolever was there.

The press turned out as well, including media reporters Max Tani and Mark Stenberg, Emma Goldberg of The New York Times, and Eater’s Nadia Chaudhury and Patty Diez.

The menu read like the book’s table of contents. There were Gildas, the original pintxo: An olive, an anchovy, and a guindilla pepper on a skewer. There was the pintxo Matrimonio, which pairs cured and white anchovies, and the Bikini Hemingway, one of the chef’s signatures. The photogenic Paleta and Chips came with Cinco Jotas ibérico ham, and Golden Goat caviar was piled onto tortilla españolas.

From the kitchen came Morcilla con piquillos, and Hongos a la Plancha, the griddled mushrooms Ernesto’s regulars know well, and more, some of it courtesy of Taste of Spain Foods.

Behind the bar, Estrella Galicia was poured by the bottle, and the cocktails were built on Ford’s Gin, Altamura vodka, Diplomático rum, and Del Maguey mezcal. De Maison Selections poured wines for the occasion, and OpenTable helped make the night possible.

For Ryan, the party was only the start. Next, he takes Essentially Basque on the road, cooking with restaurant friends in San Francisco, Chicago, and Philadelphia. The kid who once stood in line for an autograph is now the one holding the Sharpie.