Small Bites

Café Barcel will open tomorrow in the space where Change used to be on Main Street in Nyack. The restaurant has been completely redone. There is a wall of windows that open to the street, floors made of dark wood, walnut tables and a Jacobean wood bar.

If you remember Change (and before it, Hunter’s), you won’t recognize the place. The tiled bar is gone, and a new bar has been installed to the right when you walk in. The fireplace is gone as well. And those new windows will really open the restaurant up to the outside in summer.

The menu is New American with Spanish and Latin influences — and entrees cost $20 or less. For example, the pepper-crusted rare tuna is $20 and comes with a sweet pepper piperade and salt cod potato puree. The CB Burger is $12 and comes on brioche with Comte cheese with roasted sweet onion and adobo fries.

Kevin Reilly, the chef, was most recently the executive chef at The Water Club in Manhattan. Before that he was the tournant chef at Union Square Café and sous chef and executive chef at Zoe in SoHo. Reilly also was chef de cuisine at The China Grill and executive chef at The Silver Leaf Tavern.

Nidia Alexander, the owner, lives in Grand View. She is of Puerto Rican and Spanish descent and left the corporate world to open the restaurant. There will be a rotating series of exhibits by local artists and photographers on Café Barcel’s walls. (Stewart Lewis, a photographer from Upper Grand View, will be the first to display his art.) Alexander also intends to donate a portion of the restaurant’s art proceeds to the Rockland Family Shelter and other local charities.

The name comes from the Spanish city of Barcelona and the Puerto Rican town of Barceloneta, where Alexander’s family once lived.

The 411 on Cafe Barcel.
It’s open for dinner except on Tuesdays. (Good for those Monday nights when many restaurants in Nyack are closed.)

After the jump, the menu:

CAFÉ BARCEL

APPETIZERS

Spicy Peeky Toe Crab Soup $10
Little Neck Clam Pan Roast with Chorizo, Hominy and Chili Pepper $14
Crispy Pork Cakes, Vinegar Slaw, Preserved Lemon Sauce $9
Pan Seared Mozzarella Speidini with White Anchovy and Caper Sauce $10
Diver Scallops a la Plancha, Bagna Cauda Broth and Shaved Raw Vegetables $15
Yellow Fin Tuna Tartar, Taro Chips and Seasonal Accompaniments $14

GREENS AND PASTAS
Young Market Greens, Toasted Pumpkin Seeds, vinaigrette with Nunez de Prado Olive Oil $9
Frisee Salad, Cabrales Blue Cheese, Pork Cracklings and Creamy Mustard Dressing $12
Caesar Salad, Shaved Parmesan and Polenta Croutons $10
Garganelli Pasta, Pork Bolognese, Lime, Cilantro and Sweet Onion $12/ Main $18
Hand Made Gnocchi, Crispy Garlic and Wild Mushrooms in Parmesan Broth $10/ Main $15

ENTREES
CB Burger- Custom Blend, Brioche Roll, Comte Cheese with Roasted Sweet Onion and Adobo Fries $12
Panko Crusted Veal Cutlet, Arugula, Fried Egg and Roasted Garlic Crème Fraiche $16
Chilean Sea Bass a la Plancha, Oven Dried Tomatoes and Chick Peas in a Citrus Broth $19
Roasted Chicken with Preserved Lemon, Yukon Gold Potato Cake and Maple Glazed Carrots $17
Char Grilled Hanger Steak Frites, with Chimichurri Sauce and Watercress $19
Pepper Crusted Rare Tuna, Sweet Pepper Piperade, Salt Cod Potato Puree $20

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