Week in Reviews: Bar Pintxo

Jonathan Gold finds the seats unbearable after an hour, the tapas and paella pretty mediocre, and questions the lack of sherry or vermouth at Bar Pintxo. But it's pure poetry when he gets to the Ibérico ham: "You may be familiar with the sensations provided by good prosciutto or Kentucky ham, but Ibérico is something else. Slightly chewy, the rude red of a Francis Bacon painting, it dissolves slowly into a rondelay of flavors — hazelnuts, sweat, caramel, smoke, amber, Parmesan cheese — that dance around each other like sunlight reflected off a rippled pond...You could have the merely amazing jamón serrano, aged 18 months and also hewn to order, for half the price of the Ibérico here, but there is something about seeing a long knife flash into an $800 ham and knowing that those slices are for you." [LAW]