Blanca

Blanca is the brainchild of the formerly anonymous Bushwick chef Carlo Mirarchi, who, along with two partners, turned Roberta’s from a ramshackle neighborhood pizza hall on the fringes of Bushwick into a poster child for the great Brooklyn culinary miracle. Mirarchi’s tasting menu started out as a kind of improvised event for local gourmets, but has morphed, with the opening of this swank little tasting room, into an international dining destination, where you’re more likely to find sophisticates straight off the plane from London or Beijing than anyone from the surrounding neighborhood. The little kitchen is still worth a visit (Mirarchi cooks four times a week), but like many things in Kings County, it’s not quite as improvised as in the old days, and at close to $350 for dinner and drinks, it’s way more expensive.