NEW YORK CORNER
By John Mariani

OBICÀ
928 Broadway (at 21st Street) 
212-777-2754
http://obica.com

    When the first of this chain of mozzarella bars opened a decade ago on Rome’s Piazza Firenze, its name was—and still is—Obikà, with a k. But with the opening of its New York flagship in the Flat Iron district, that k has become a c—Obicà—because most Americans could hardly be expected to know that the word is Neapolitan slang for “Here it is!”  That k made it seem more like a Scandinavian furniture store than a restaurant.
    But, whatever consonant they use, the owners deserve a big round of bravos for the new place (there’s already an Obicà Café in the IBM Building on Madison Avenue), which is big, sleek, sexy and, with 120 seats and a counter, very convivial, whether you’re there to sip a negroni or Campari at the bar or to share a platter of mozzarellas, salami, bresaola, prosciutto, mortadella, and lardo, or just have an early or late-night pizza or indulge in some luscious pastas.
    I almost never write about chain restaurants, but I’ve waited a long while for an Obicà to come to New York; there are already branches in Italian cities, London, L.A., Tokyo and Dubai.  The mozzarella itself, which has a legally Protected Designation of Origin, is flown in twice a week from Campania, where it is made from water buffalo (bufala) milk. American-made mozzarella, which at its best is excellent, is made from cow’s milk, and in a good salumeria like  Di Paolo’s in Little Italy, or   Mike’s Deli and Casa di Mozzarella in the Bronx, is made throughout the day.
          Imported mozzarella di bufala is not unique in NYC or elsewhere, but you really have no way of knowing just how fresh it is, for it can be packed in brine to preserve it for weeks but loses flavor very quickly.  (The other NYC restaurant you can depend on for first-rate product is Mozzarella & Vino across from the Museum of Modern Art.)
    Obicà offers four different kinds of mozzarella: bufala classica, bufala affumicata (smoked with hay), burrata and burrata al tartufo (with black truffle). You can also have it fried in carozza ($10) or spread it on toasted bruschetta ($10) with anchovies or roasted peppers. The “Obicà Experience” ($38 per person) is composed of mozzarella di bufala, a selection of cured meats and grilled vegetables, caponata alla siciliana (eggplant stew) and warm rosemary-scented focaccia, followed by a tomato pizza, then dessert—it’s a great bargain.
    The pizzas are in fact some of the best in Manhattan, ranging from $14 to $26; one, verdure grigliate, comes with smoky grilled eggplant, zucchini and yellow peppers.
    So far, that’s a lot of food, and you can easily nosh to your heart’s content, especially with a table of three or four friends, and the bill can be kept to a moderate level.  But if you want to sample all that Obicà can do and do very well, avail yourself of one of the pastas, like the rustic pappardelle al ragù ($20 for a full portion), the basil pesto-dressed trofie ($18), the lavish schiaffoni macaroni with tomato and mozzarella ($16), or the ravioli with ricotta and spinach glistening with sage butter ($19).
    This is a big menu but the main courses are worth trying, particularly a well-rendered black cod with a chickpea puree and grilled radicchio ($27).  The veal cutlet alla milanese ($39), however, needs work: it is so thinly pounded you taste more crust than veal.
    There are also some worthwhile desserts here, including a good tiramisù, a carpaccio of pineapple marinated in mint syrup with pink peppercorns and lemon sorbetto, and a pudding-like cream of ricotta di bufala with candied orange peel.   
    Obicà’s wine list is formidable and offers good value in many price categories, with plenty of wines by the glass, which is a good way to go if you’re sitting at the bar.    
    You might think that Obicà is another of those brutally loud new places with scatterbrain service—“Who gets what?”—but, although it is far from quiet, with some corners louder than others, the wait staff is friendly and knows every item on the menu, so that the happy sound of people thoroughly enjoying themselves is another of the appealing aspects of this very Italian experience.  Managing partner and CEO Raimondo Boggia is often on the premises of the new restaurant to make everything click and Chef Enzo Beri is in the kitchen making sure everything tastes the same as in the Roman original.     The company has also published a new Obikà Cookbook (right), with many of the dishes served at the restaurant. though it helps if you can fly over your mozzarella di bufala twice a week.

Obicà is located at 928 Broadway at 21^st Street; 212- 777-2754. Open for lunch Mon.-Fri.; Brunch Sat. & Sun.; dinner nightly.;  obica.com

 

NOTES FROM THE SPIRITS LOCKER
By John Mariani

PACIFIC OVERTURES IN THE WHISKEY MARKET      

 

             When Suntory Holdings Limited bought America’s Beam Inc. last April for about $16 billion, the Japanese corporation became the third largest premium spirits company on earth and adapted the slogan “Suntory is Crafting the Spirits that Stir the World.”
    With the Beam acquisition, Suntory, with about $4.6 billion in worldwide sales, added to its own Yamazaki Japanese whiskey brand some of America’s best known bourbons, including Maker’s Mark and Knob Creek, along with Japanese competitors Hakashu and Hibiki, Teacher’s, Laphroaig, and Bowmare Scotch whiskey, and several other spirits brands. The new company is called Beam Suntory, Inc., headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois.
    Still, even with such new clout in the marketplace, Suntory, which started making whiskey back in 1923, has stiff, growing competition, not least from rival Nikka Whiskey Distilling Co., which makes a Yoichi 15-year-old ($130) single malt, Taketsuru 12-Year Old pure malt ($70), 17 Year-old ($150), 21-Year-old ($180), and Miyagikyo 12-Year-old ($120).  Chichibu is another Japanese spirits producer, known for its Ichiro’s Malt ($240).
    Notice that none is labeled “Scotch Whiskey,” which is forbidden by law, but the prices are up there with some of the most expensive Scotches made, like Macallan 18 Year-old ($200) and Talisker 18-year-old ($109).  Yet these Japanese whiskeys are in short supply outside of Japan, with only about 8,000 cases total entering the U.S. market. For the time being, they are connoisseurs’ whiskeys, with sales largely in New York, Chicago, California and Hawaii.
    Almost all the Japanese whiskeys are blends of several years’ production. In Japan they are usually drunk fairly young and with three parts soda, called a “highball” that is even sold in cans at convenience stores.  Only recently have the distillers begun to lay away their spirits for aging.              

    Suntory—whose corporate mantra is “Yatte Minahare!” (Go for it!)—received a huge boost in visibility when its product appeared in the movie “Lost in Translation”  as the whiskey Bill Murray does a TV ad for—“It’s Suntory time!”--and drinks at Tokyo’s Park Hyatt Hotel’s New York Bar, where visitors ask to sit at the stool Murray perched on in the film.
    I have had occasion to taste many of the Japanese whiskeys and come away impressed.  And when I visited Taiwan last year, I found that the Chinese are coming apace fast in the spirits market, not least Kavalan, opened by the King Car Whiskey Distillery, in 2008 in a state-of-the-art distillery amidst some of the island’s most beautiful scenery in Yilan County.  Less than three years later, Kavalan won the International Wine and Spirits Competition’s trophy as Asia Pacific Spirit Producer of the Year.  (Suntory took a gold medal in the same competition for its Yamazaki 12-Year-old.)
         Though there a few of smoky, peaty Asian whiskeys, overall they tend to run on the sweeter side of the genre, with a good deal of caramelization from the charred barrels used for Sherry or bourbon, in the case of Hibiki, plum liqueur casks. 
    Suntory's Hakushu 12-Year-Old, has both fruit and citrus notes, with just a light smoky scent and flourishes when you add a dash of water (which is the way professional tasters drink whiskey).  It has a definite sweetness, so those interested in a premium Japanese whiskey will want to taste some lighter entries before going to the Hakushu.  Hibiki 12-Year-Old won top prize in its category at the 2010 World Whisky Awards and a Gold Medal in 2012 from Whisky Worldwide.
    Taiwan's Kavlan spirits also establish their identities through various barrel aging (below).  They are very cleanly made, most with that fruited sweet component. The Concertmaster label is first matured in American oak then aged in Portuguese Port barriques "as the main flavour."  A variation called ex-Bourbon Oak is diluted to 46 percent strength that softens the edge of the Solist whiskey; Solist Sherry is matured in Spanish Sherry oloroso casks, with no additional coloring, and results in the company's most complex whiskey.  The top of the line is its Solist Single Cask Strength, which comes in at 55-60 percent, matured in Fino Sherry butts.
    Not unlike premium Scotch single malts and small batch bourbon, these Asian whiskeys are aiming at a rarefied world market for first impressions.  But with the Asian market for such spirits expanding rapidly, production goals might well turn inward in the years to come, and sooner than later.