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IBrasserie Le Steak
Larchmont / brasserielesteak.com
t’s a delicate art form to perfect the ideal combination of seasoning, cooking, and presentation of a good steak. It’s even more the marker of a superior dining experience if
your guests return in hoards for the salad dressing. Manhattan’s Bistro Le Steak has now been reinvented as Brasserie Le Steak, taking Larchmont’s Palmer Avenue restaurant scene by the horns. “The community, and very much the French community, has been welcoming of us here,” says Yonkers resident and owner Nicki Jakupi.
“I wanted it to feel like you could close your eyes and think you’re in France,” Jakupi says. Each bite is a transportive experience. Even the garlic bread is a decadent pirouette of crisp French bread and savory garlic, tied together with Gorgonzola fondue for dipping. For starters worthy of a Seine view, Le Steak offers frog’s legs Provençale, escargot served in the traditional French style (shells and all), and
a goat cheese tartlet with a house-made crust. Defnitely indulge in the perfectly seasoned steak frites, the crisp, pan-seared brook trout, or the tender mussels marinière to round out the experience.
Buleria Tapas
& Wine Bar
LTuckahoe / buleriatapas.com
oyster
Westchester. Lucido-Balestrieri was a
horseback rider while growing up on the volcanic island of Ischia, in the Gulf of Naples, but was drawn to the south of Spain by the allure of the majestic Andalusian horses. “I explored the epicurean delights of Spain and the beauty of the countryside. And with the wisdom I got from riding there, I fell in love with it all.”
Back home, his family owned pizzerias and bakeries, but Lucido- Balestrieri developed an insatiable appetite for the cuisine and “gypsy rhythms” of Seville, the capital of tapas and flamenco. But as life goes, he found himself bussing tables
in NYC at age 20. He rose through the restaurant ranks and became known as “the singing waiter” at the former Angelo’s on Mulberry Street.
With a world of food and industry know-how, Lucido-Balestrieri launched Latin-themed restaurants in the Bronx, New Rochelle, and then Salsa Bembe in Yonkers. “I love the musical component of a restaurant, and it’s fun to have a Latin one,” he says. “It’s the closest thing to being a rock star.” Singing, dancing, and falling in love to the
ed by restaurateur Luca Lucido-Balestrieri, Buleria Tapas & Wine Bar celebrates the flavors of Spain in
Royal,
deluxe,
and select
towers.
frenzied beat of the Spanish pop song “Buleria,” Lucido-Balestrieri told the woman he’d later marry: “If I ever do a tapas restaurant, I’ll call it Buleria.”
Nestled among the fve Italian restaurants and two Italian delis that dominate Tuckahoe’s tiny downtown—Buleria Tapas & Wine Bar is a modern riff on an old-world Spanish tavern, where authentic hot and cold tapas, salads, sangria, and mainly Spanish wines pave
the way for entrées of churrasco, branzino, and, of course, paella.
Lucido-Balestrieri imports virtually all ingredients from Spain, including volcanic water, and designs every dish (and cocktail) himself, to be fnely executed by
Chef Reyes Hernandez, formerly of Irvington’s Red Hat on the River. “I’m a purist,” he says. “I stick to tradition; I’m obsessed by it.” The tapas of chorizo and chickpeas and the rosemary half-chicken main elicit an earthy taste and farm-fresh texture seldom enjoyed outside of the European countryside.
As in the dens of Seville, “The focus is on the food and the
people you’re with,” says Lucido- Balestrieri, which translates to
no TV. In its place, portraits of bullfghting and a flamenco dancer who, when paired with exquisite Spanish food and gently audible gypsy rhythms, dazzles like no flat screen ever could.
LIVING IN WESTCHESTER AND THE HUDSON VALLEY | RELOCATION & MOVING GUIDE 35
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PHOTO COURTESY OF BULERIA TAPAS & WINE
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