A Michelin Starred Chef & a Reimagined NYC Icon Revitalize Paella
Two exciting new destinations for one of Spain's most beloved dishes.
Cornish Hen Paella at Casa Dani | Photo: Casa Dani
A well-executed paella is an epiphanic experience created by the perfect alignment of peak-seasonal ingredients, enrapturing flavors, and precise skill only derived from years sweating over the paellera. A flawless paella is a rare encounter unless you frequent Spain, particularly Valencia, which staunchly defends its claim to the dish’s origins. Luckily for New Yorkers, two newcomers to our city’s restaurant scene, Casa Dani (448 W 33rd St) and El Quijote (226 W 23rd St), have set out on the alluring task of simultaneously honoring and challenging preconceptions of traditional Spanish fare. As a result, they've breathed new life into NYC’s paella scene with two very different approaches to the beloved dish.
Casa Dani opened in December 2021 under the direction of acclaimed 3 Michelin-starred Chef Dani Garcia and Sam Nazarian’s Disruptive Restaurant Group. Founded on Andalusia-born Chef Garcia’s culinary ethos of “cocinacontradición,” a play on the Spanish words for cooking with tradition and contradiction, diners should expect their idea of typical Spanish cuisine to be challenged by every dish. The paper-thin, plate-spanning tuna porterhouse served with a fragrant house olive oil is breathtaking in its minimalistic presentation and luxurious quality. It's a dish that begs one to question how they’ve never been served tuna this way. The oxtail and chorizo brioches similarly delight and surpass guests’ expectations. More akin to sandwiches, these appetizers consist of pulled oxtail and rich, spicy chorizo piled between pillowy-soft butter brioche buns topped with a smoky, spicy aioli.
Dining Room at Casa Dani | Photo: Casa Dani
Casa Dani offers a robust selection of paellas, including Arroz de Verduras (seasonal vegetables), Arroz de Pollo (Cornish hen), Marisco (prawns, mussels, salmoretta), Arroz Con Costilla (pork spare rib), Black Rice (grilled octopus), and Txuleta (28 day dry-aged ribeye). The hypnotizing aesthetics, pristine ingredients, and thoroughly flavored rice threaten to alter your opinion of great paella moving forward. Elegant in presentation, the rice is spread thin with ingredients delicately positioned atop – how you’d expect an artist to paint their subject within a canvas. Chef Francisco Troncoso, who oversees day-to-day culinary operations at Casa Dani, explains this technique ensures the rice breathes as it cooks and forms the coveted and quintessential crispy, caramelized base referred to as socarrat. Casa Dani’s paellas are some of the most sophisticated in NYC – a true feast for the eyes and belly – thanks to the precision and innovative prowess manifested by Chef Garcia and his culinary team.
Dining Room at El Quijote | Photo: Eric Medsker
Last February, the fabled NYC dining institution El Quijote reopened under new owner Sunday Hospitality, the same restaurant group behind widely popular Brooklyn restaurants Sunday in Brooklyn and Rule of Thirds. Along with a revived interior, El Quijote also features a refreshed menu focusing on dishes influenced by Catalunya, Basque Country, and Valencia.
Paella de Temporada at El Quijote | Photo: Eric Medsker
El Quijote’s Paella de Temporada is a thing of beauty, consisting of squid, cockles, mussels, blue prawns, and rabbit served with an accompanying aioli. The intricate stock – made from roasted lobster and shrimp shells, cod and chicken bones, Armagnac, and saffron – adds complexity, subtle sweetness, and richness to the Calasparra rice. The dish is magnificently decadent, and the flavor-concentrated socarrat is not to be wasted. Speaking with El Quijote’s culinary director Jaime Young and chef de cuisine Byron Hogan, who spent the past 13 years living and cooking in Madrid, they shared one of the most challenging parts of properly cooking paella is managing the “burn rate,” or the rate at which the stock evaporates and absorbs into the rice. Too fast of a burn rate, and the rice will be undercooked and scorched. Too slow, the rice will be overcooked and lose its structural integrity. El Quijote has mastered this balancing act, orchestrating rice that is both tender and absorbed with as much flavorful stock as possible. For now, El Quijote’s culinary team is sticking with their one iteration of paella, but don’t be surprised if you see another version added soon.
