Barbuto

It's hard not to fall in love with Barbuto, which has a rustic sophistication to it.  The restaurant is basically a converted garage located on the ground floor of Industria Superstudios.  In the warm months, the garage doors are opened, creating an incredible airy and open restaurant, and the 24-seat patio seating starts to engulf the sidewalk of Washington Street and 12th Ave.

The decor is very simple.  Patio chairs and cheap tables, a wobbly iron divider partitioning the patio from the sidewalk, not a single piece of artwork, but yet...it all works together.  As cheap as it all is, the restaurant is warm and inviting, and once you taste the food, nothing else matters anyway.

The chef here is Jonathan Waxman, who arguably is one of the best chefs in America today.  He can sometimes be seen sweating over the stoves in Barbuto's open kitchen, or skillfully cooking in the wood-burning oven.

Born in 1950, Chef Waxman was one of the first pioneer's of California cuisine, and is credited with being the first chef to bring its style, fusing French technique with the freshest of ingredients, to New York City.  Heard of the "farm-to-table" craze that has been going on for decades?  Jonathan Waxman was the one who started it all here.