• El Quinto Pino + Punch at Chopt’s Red Hook Outpost
  • El Quinto Pino + Punch at Chopt’s Red Hook Outpost
  • El Quinto Pino + Punch at Chopt’s Red Hook Outpost
  • El Quinto Pino + Punch at Chopt’s Red Hook Outpost
  • El Quinto Pino + Punch at Chopt’s Red Hook Outpost
  • El Quinto Pino + Punch at Chopt’s Red Hook Outpost
  • El Quinto Pino + Punch at Chopt’s Red Hook Outpost
  • El Quinto Pino + Punch at Chopt’s Red Hook Outpost

El Quinto Pino + Punch at Chopt’s Red Hook Outpost

Last week, I hosted an event with Chopt honoring chef Alex Raij, a dear friend and the figurehead of New York’s Spanish culinary scene. Raij is the chef and co-owner of Manhattan’s El Quinto Pino and Txikito, and Brooklyn’s Tekoá and Michelin-starred restaurant, La Vara, some of the only restaurants where I can be considered a regular. In addition to her role as chef and restaurateur, Raij recently published her first cookbook, The Basque Book: A Love Letter in Recipes from the Kitchen of Txikito. I love Alex’s food because each small bite is an expression of flavors that are at once familiar and strange. In Raij’s words, “Take an otherworldly ingredient that you don’t know how to use, use it incorrectly without realizing it, and you end up with this thing that’s fresh and unique. To me, that’s so Spanish.” This food is playful, it is a sincere tribute to another culture, and it is an artful personal expression all at the same time. Like that soup she served in tiny glasses, topped with fried matzoh and little bits of jamon.

But no tapas party would be complete with vermouth, served up by Talia Baoicchi, the author of Spritz: Italy’s Most Iconic Aperitivo Cocktail, with Recipes, and Editor in Chief of PUNCH, the online magazine and definitive resource for everything and anything wine and spirits. Generously sponsored by our favorite vermouth brand, Casa Mariol, Talia presented Spain’s favorite aperitivo in its purest form, on the rocks with a twist and olive as garnish, essence and in expertly crafted cocktails.