Don’t show up at this trendy, high-ceilinged, wine-centric restaurant—with its rows upon rows of bottles, glassy modern lights, and open kitchen—expecting to experience the cuisine of Catalunya. Spain is more of a nouvelle inspiration than a real genre here, yet it successfuly ties together what is really a menu of chefs’ favorites—pig fat, duck fat, eggs, and innards—with delicious wines at bargain prices. The pro-cholesterol lobby would do well to choose Catalan for its annual meeting. But so would anyone else.

The much-talked-about “foie gras bon bons” are fried balls of the stuff, unbelievably rich and certainly fun...yet perhaps also wasteful, melting the duck liver into pure fat without the delicacy or body of a terrine or torchon. But we unconditionally love the cubes of pork belly sweetly crusted with cane syrup, impaled by sugar cane spears (we’ve once had them come out tough and overcooked, but this was the exception to the delicious rule). Great, too, are piquillo peppers deliciously stuffed with braised lamb; and morcilla (rich, black blood sausage), here tricked out with fennel kraut, a brilliant pairing of fat with acid. And then there are the superlative marrow bones, whose fatty, gelatinous goodness you scoop out, spread on toast, sprinkle with salt, swallow, and roll your eyes back into your head.

What’s lost in the shuffle, sometimes, is a periodic inability to execute on the basics, like a paltry portion of marinated Spanish white anchovies and olives; a charcuterie plate that comes too cold; an unexciting Spanish tortilla (omelette); or a simple “pressed, brined, and pulled chicken”-and-slaw sandwich of little interest. We’ve had garlic soup, a smooth, balanced version that might be the dark horse of this menu. But stick with the upmarket small plates, drink lots of wine, don’t expect too much, and for the most part, you’ll wind up very, very happy.

Two keys to happiness here: First, try to get a good seat; we hate the unromantic, noisy rows of tables in the middle of the space. Second, lose yourself in the spectacular wine list, which reads like a work of creative literature, not only demonstrating a welcome focus on lesser-known regions but also claiming little more than retail markups (around 1.6x wholesale, which beats most other restaurants two to one). This alone makes the restaurant eminently worthwhile. And don’t worry about all the fatty food; you’re in the best city for hospitals.

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