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When Carlos Suarez was describing the vibe of his impending West Village restaurant to a friend, he used the word bobo—an abbreviation of “bourgeois bohemian,” coined by David Brooks, and the putative successor to the yuppie as an equally affluent but more socially conscious cultural type. The name stuck, and Bobo has opened in a brownstone divided into a subterranean bar and a second-floor dining room and garden, equipped with fireplaces, a copper chef’s table, and antiques that Suarez sourced from the Hudson Valley. The Pan-European menu is designed to be served in an intimate setting that conjures an old-world dinner party in what Suarez calls “a fantasy apartment in Paris or Rome.” Why the emphasis on European food, wine, and décor? According to Suarez, who perfected the art of the dinner party as a business major at Wharton, the Continent is “less commercial, more personal and artisanal. Soulfulness is very much what drives me.” — Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld

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• Restaurant Openings: Bobo, Tokyo Bar, and Fiamma (9/24/07)