BUSSACO IS CLOSED

Promising start. Promising concept. But ... the negatives outweighed the positives. so we are not that surprised that Bussaco folded.

We wanted to like Bussaco. While we always found the space cold and soulless (the lovely paintings on the walls were not enough), we liked the rest of the (initial thought of a) concept:
1) Comfortable seating. We give a huge plus to restaurateurs who care about their customer’s enough to provide comfortable, padded seating.
2) Reservations. We especially give a huge plus to restaurateurs who care about their customer’s enough to take reservations, instead of wasting the patron's time by subjecting them to a frustrating “will we be able to get a table or not … and how endlessly long will the wait for that table be?” –game.
3) The food was quite good - on our first visit.
Unfortunately, future dinners at Bussaco unveiled a frustrating trend of total inconsistency. In our opinion, it had nothing to do with Katy Sparks, although she seemed like a good scapegoat. The food was inconsistent before her short stint there, it was inconsistent during her watch and it was inconsistent after she left.
We could have an absolutely delightful dinner one weekend, and a terribly disappointing one the next.
4) Master sommelier - promise of a great wine list, right?
Wrong: While there naturally were some good wines on the list, it was a poorly thought out one - and the owner/sommelier seemed to be of the mind that the customer was always wrong and essentially further created an uninviting, soulless environment.

The last straw for me came when I (possessing a very keen sense of smell) noticed the typical signs of a corked wine. Now, usually, in a good restaurant (nothing to do with price level), the sommelier (or waiter, owner, etc.) would have immediately offered to take the bottle back and to bring another bottle … or another wine instead. Even if he/she secretly felt the customer was wrong. Here, the sommelier started to "lecture" me about the difference of a wine being corked and being in a "dumb" phase. [Sigh. The fact is that not everyone is equally sensitive in detecting the smell of TCA (2,4,6-trichloroanisole), that causes wine to get "corked", i.e., to get contaminated. It is especially hard for many people to detect it when the level of contamination is low.]

I decided then and there that it will be a very, very long time, before we visit this establishment again.
As it turned out, Bussaco closed before I had stopped fuming about the corked bottle –incident.
- More about trichloroanisole.
- More TCA information from a wine critic.
- A sommelier's thoughts about TCA.

MOUTARDE
link to menu pages
239 5th Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11215
Phone:(718) 623-3600
Dinner - Lunch -Brunch.

Moutarde has renovated it's space and exterior and, more importantly, has a new chef and much better, tasty & fresh food. We now come here even for lunch as much as our busy days allow.

One of our favorites: The new version of their salad Niçoise. Oh-la-la! Mais, oui! It is fresh, it is tasty: a perfect salad. This fish is very fresh.

What is also notable, is that the service is now more efficient -faster- and very friendly and enthusiastic.

Especially during a workday lunch, those of us, who not have time for a leisurely lunch, highly appreciate the efficiency of the service.