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Bilbao native Eder Montero and Argentinean-American Alex Raij opened the Basque restaurant Txikito, in the Big City, seven years ago. Ever since its inception, they’ve tried to attract new clientele, not only by offering great food and wines in a nice atmosphere, but also by organizing social events that would take the restaurant experience to another level. That was the case nine days ago, when 60 people, mostly Americans, gathered at the 240 in 9th Ave,, in the West side, to enjoy with a ‘sagardotegi’ or Basque Cider House style dinner. “It was an authentic immersion in Basque culture, with food, music, pictures, and videos,” said Montero to EuskalKultura.com.

New York, NY. The organizers of the event, Montero, Raij, and American filmmaker Emily Lobsenz, had been working hard to put the plan together, announcing all the news in their website, and the very next day Montero admitted it was “absolutely successful.” “Everything went perfect, we sold the fifty tickets we put on sale and we invited around ten people that worked with us.” All in all, 60 people showed up, in a restaurant that usually has 70-75 diners.

As the chef explained, most attendees were Americans, with no Basque conexion, “but willing to have a new experience.” Among them, there were also a group of chefs that helped the organizing trio prepare some pintxos –as a welcome cocktail a la Basque− and the owners of the cider cellars that brought the different style apple drinks to the restaurant, Shacksbury Cider, Aaron Burr Cider, Farnum Hill Ciders, and Basque Petritegi.

The Pintxo Time began at 5:30 p.m. The bar of the restaurant was covered with these mouth-watering Basque kind of tapas, "like in Bilbao and Donostia": Marinade mussel with Piquillo peppers and seaweed; Puff pastry covered txistorra; Casseroled beef with coli-flower puree, chili oil, and parsley; Fried oyster mini-sandwiches… The recipes were specifically created for this dinner by Amador Acosta and Alina Martell, of the Alta Marea Group; Katie Button, of Cúrate; Matthew Kelly, of Bar Mateo; Fany Gerson, of Dough and La Newyorkina; Kevin Patricio, of Basqueland Brew Project; and Ivan Siles, of Gure Toki, a pintxo bar in Bilbao. “All of them created an unbelievable variety of flavors.”

Up to five screens were set around the dining room, with images from the Basque Country being shown, plus a couple of short videos, by Lobsenz. The film maker explained how this highly popular beverage amongst the Basques is created, and the atmosphere in one of these casual-dinners of the region. “There is a guy from Pasaia (Gipuzkoa), Aitor, that works for us and started crying looking at some of the pictures,” recognized Montero.

First ‘txotx’ of the 2014 vintage

By 6:30 p.m. food started running around the tables and the barrel poured its first drops of the 2014 cider. Diners didn’t stick to one seat, but rather moved around the restaurant, getting up to refill their glasses, and sitting down somewhere else, meeting new people and chatting. “The Basque way,” pointed out Montero.

The menu was also very similar to a typical sagardotegi homemade: Omelette, Gernika and Piquillo peppers, cod croquettes, rib eye steak with fries, and Idiazabal cheese with walnuts and quince paste. But to recreate a pure smoked steak flavor, Montero and Raij used their imaginations to add to the meat a charcoal ember touch, after having cooked it over glass plates. “We had to invent something, since charcoal is forbidden in New York restaurants,” stated Montero, who preferred keeping the secret for himself.

All through the evening, music by Mikel Laboa, Benito Lertxundi and other Basque classics embraced the joyful conversations of the attendees. They even had a txalaparta –a popular Basque percussion instrument− ready to be played, but they could not find a player available.

The last diners left the restaurant short before midnight. Raij, Montero, and Lobsenz were very happy with the experience and are already looking forward to organizing a new special event soon: “We don’t know what, how, and when, but we will keep doing things like this; it’s fun for us and people really enjoy them,” finished the chef.