The Spanish cafe serves breakfast and lunch.
In Spain, tapas aren’t just small plates of food. They’re an entire activity that deserves their own verb: tapear. Estaño, the new Basque-style tapas bar on St. Claude Avenue, gets that.
Starting at mid-day, a half dozen plates of pintxos, the Basque name for tapas, goes out on the counter. For either $4 or $6, tax included, you can order a pair of pintxos, which might be croquettes, skewers of anchovies, olives and pickles, rounds of toast topped with tuna, salsa verde and a fried quail egg or slices of potato and egg tortilla.
For its seafood, Estaño uses “conservas,” the highly prized canned seafood from Spain. Meats are sourced from local vendors. All the bread is baked in house. And once Estaño receives its liquor license, it will serve Spanish wines and dry ciders.
In the morning, a small menu offers light breakfast items like truffled egg toast or pan con tomate (“bread with tomatoes”).
For now, Estaño is only open for breakfast and lunch, but in the fall (or sooner) it will add nighttime hours and open a courtyard in the back.
Mowgli Pierlas, who owns Arabella Casa di Pasta on the same block, created Estaño with local musician Bruce McDaniel. Pierlas learned some lessons at Arabella, his first restaurant, that he is applying at Estaño.
“If I learned anything,” he said, “it’s that if you’re generally nice it comes back.”
Opened: Aug. 24 (grand opening planned for early September)
On the menu: A rotating list of tapas.
Need to know: The furniture at Estaño, including the bar, was custom-built from a single, 30-foot piece of sinker cypress.
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (evening hours will be added soon)
Estaño: 2266 St. Claude Ave., New Orleans
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