Bikinis: Catalunyan Tapas On Ave C

I thought it was just a coffee shop or a sandwich bar, so the first few times I just walked by.  But Bikini, just a step from Puerto Rican veteran Casa Adela, is a tapas bar, a real one, with a chef from Catalunya too.

The small room was formerly used an office for Nublu, the club and music label, but Nublu's Petrit Pula partnered with his girlfriend, Karina Correa, a Cafe Gitane manager, to turn it into what Ms Correa rightly describes as a simple Spanish corner café.

In other words, this isn't a New York-style tapas bar, with experimental and expensive small plates "for sharing," serving full-course dinners in the guise of tapas.  This really is a drop-in spot for coffee, snacking, beer and wine.  

Ms Correa, whose family is Spanish, is a New Yorker, and she's witnessed first-hand the gradual changes on Avenue C (she even told me about a new oyster bar, which I haven't even seen yet).  She'll pour you Estrella from the tap -- $3 small, $6 pint -- or offer you a bottle of the Inedit, a beer Estrella developed with Ferran Adrià -- $12.

Given the spot's name, you'd expect toasted sandwiches to feature heavily on the menu, and they do, including a very New York deli-ish "Gordito" -- pastrami, turkey, ham, very metled Swiss cheese, pickles and mayo -- which my daughter has ordered twice.

For a taste of La Barça, though, get a crusty bocadillo, slathered with tomato and olive oil, and stuffed with fuet, the skinny, mildly funky Catalunyan salami -- also available as a tapa.  This is worth a detour.

For the rest, the food is what it sets out to be -- great for the neighborhood.  Chicken croquetas are crisp and creamy.  There are also seafood versions, bombas de mar.

Tortilla is firm, straightforward (curiously served with a dab of herby cream).  I haven't caught up with the albondigas yet.  More Catalunyan produce is hopefully on the way (I am agitating for butifarra).  Meantime, there are American breakfast/brunch dishes too, and a handful of larger dishes I haven't tried.

Along with the higher end Pata Negra, this is another attempt to show New Yorkers what everyday tapas bars are really about.