Blanca Is the 2nd-Best New Restaurant in America 2012

To enter Blanca, you need to go down the rabbit hole. In this case, that involves trekking out to the Brooklyn artist enclave of Bushwick, entering Roberta's (Blanca's big-sister restaurant, which serves some of the best pizza in New York), winding your way through a crowd of tattooed kids to the patio, where a radio show is in progress, past the tiki bar and into the garden, where a Viking-themed hot tub party may be taking place, and, finally, downstairs to the adjacent building. You'll be seated at the wide counter facing the open kitchen. It may remind you of eating at a sushi bar, an increasingly trendy dining experience that restaurants like fellow Hot 10 pick the Catbird Seat have made their own. What you're in for is dinner theater at its finest. Over the next three hours, self-taught chef Carlo Mirarchi will send out 28 small courses. When I dined at Blanca, shortly after it opened in April, there wasn't a single miss. The meal began with several crudo-style dishes—including glass shrimp with celery flower, celery juice, and poppy seeds—each more beautiful than the last. I got a few pastas (the ravioli stuffed with fiery nduja sausage was particularly memorable), and then some of the best meat dishes I've had, including the funkiest-tasting dry-aged steak of all time. Each plate is just a couple of bites, ensuring that you'll be as excited about the last course as you were about the first. After that, it's back to reality. **