*Review as written for BrooklynExposed.com
Where can you get a shrimp ceviche and pork taco along with your black linguini pasta and brick oven pizza? Cu 29 Copper in Williamsburg mixes and matches Mexican, Italian and American cuisine, and a few other things in between. While the large brick walled space with intimate lighting suggests a rustic Italian wine bar, closer examination exposes Margaritas and Mojitos alike. This seemingly offbeat combination of two disparate ethnic food styles is not so strange to owners Kathy and Johnny who pride themselves in their love of "eating out." But the problem can lie in satisfying the distinct cravings of an entire dining party, thus their concept was born. Opened in July 2011, the restaurant, they say, “provides an eating experience where the choices make everyone happy, instead of committing to one cuisine.”
And the name? The owners point to chemistry for inspiration: Cu 29 represents the symbol and atomic number of copper on the periodic table of elements - a metal they find to exude perfection in chemical combination which they try to emulate in their decor with copper accents and in their cuisine with a multi-elemental menu.
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| Strawberry Crepe |
While not a fusion, but rather an a la carte offering of Mexican, Italian, American, other influences like French and Brazilian manage to slip in. The deliciously sweet strawberry crepe (photo right) oozing with Nutella ($6.50), for example, is a fine French finish to the expertly executed Latin-style arepa ($10.50), a fluffy corn cake mounted with chipotle butter shrimp and creamy sliced avocado with small puddles of savory black beans. By the same token, the "moqueca" ($21.50) is not Mexican, but a Brazilian stew of seafood swimming in a cilantro-green coconut milk-lobster broth - a welcome calm after a flavor-packed pork taco boasting a tomatillo salsa carefully coddled in three layers of soft tortilla....
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| Churrasco |
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| Shrimp Arepa |
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| Quinoa Salad |
All photos by Rebecca Kritzer
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