‘Que Buen Idea
 A New Restaurant in an Old House Delights With Spanish Cuisine

There are four meat dishes on the menu, including a confited suckling pig and veal cheeks.

Ideas has been open for about a month. Photos by Oriane Lluch.

By Mark Goldberg

A former bastion of numerous Italian restaurants has welcomed a new owner and a new nationality to its walls. And the change is for the better. Ideas Restaurant — open just a month — doesn’t have a Spanish name, but its menu, its fish and flavors are all from Castilla & Leon, Spain. All dishes are prepared with Spanish products and the fish and seafood are flown in fresh from Spain.

This old Coconut Grove house on Bird Road has been totally redone, looking larger within. Sconces provide indirect lighting against the marble tile floors, dark woods, white cloths and gauzy drapes. The spotless kitchen is open and separated by a sliding glass door; it hosts a chef’s table in a small alcove where one can dine and watch the kitchen activities.

The Arroz Negro ($26 per person/minimum two-person order) was a fabulous entrée, blending of Valencian rice, blackened with squid ink, and small cuttlefish bits. When prepared properly — as this was — cuttlefish can be sweeter and much more tender than calamari, tasting no more al dente than the rice. Atop the rice, perhaps as contrast, was a fried baby calamari. A garlic aioli garnished the plate. Speaking of proper cooking techniques, octopus can be chewier that a stick of old Dentyne if not handled just so. Ideas’ Octopus Salad ($10) had a handle on the handling, with the wide slices — still purple on the outside — almost as soft and sweet as the cuttlefish had been. Joining the octopus amid a sea of slightly oily mixed greens was a collection of tiny lentils and a red and green bell pepper picada. The flavors of cumin and a bit of sherry and balsamic shone through, as well.

Executive Chef Alvaro Beade arrived in the United States just one month before Ideas opened, from Valladolid, Spain. He speaks no English and lets his menu do the talking. His modern culinary techniques are the flair that makes many of his traditional Spanish dishes work.

Take one of the evening’s six specials: a flaky spring roll stuffed with chorizo, moistened with chorizo oil and mixed with pea shoots in a light sherry vinaigrette. The rolls were sliced in half and stood vertically in a splendid broccoli emulsion that slightly muted the spice. A table favorite was the Dorada A La Sal ($28), or Mediterranean Sea Bream baked in sea salt. Many of us have seen the salt-caked whole fish brought to table. At Ideas, this was done differently. The dorada was filleted “off stage,” each piece caked in salt and individually baked. The result was a white fish as tender and tasty as a butterfish; moist with no salt or fishy taste. Interesting was the diced tomato and onion accompaniment that magically brought more flavor to each bite of fish. Peruvian purple potato puree played its part perfectly.

There are four meat dishes on the menu, including confit of suckling pig and veal cheeks. We went for the Roasted Baby Lamb Chops ($34). That baby must have been Baby Huey, because the chops were good-sized Colorado chops, grilled with a garlic demi and a confit of garlic cloves. A tasty plate-mate was a salad featuring orange and red grapefruit sections whose citric appeal muted the lamb’s gaminess nicely.

If you have the time to dine, you have the time for a Chocolate Soufflé ($10) dessert, flavored with pistachio and filled with a light chocolate center. An answer to French toast was the Torrija ($8), a slice of bread soaked in milk and egg and sweetened with honey. Our favorite way to end the evening was with the Creamy Rice Soup ($8). This was an arroz con leche styled dessert, but was smooth, thick and creamy. The flute of milk was dotted with pieces of pecans that had been marinated in rum and honey.

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Ideas

• ADDRESS: 2833 Bird Road, Coconut Grove

• PHONE: 305-567-9074

• HOURS: Lunch weekdays noon – 3 p.m.; dinner Monday to Thursday 7 – 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 7 – 11 p.m.; closed Sunday

• FOOD: Traditional Spanish with contemporary flair

• SERVICE: Personable and extremely knowledgeable

• PRICES: Appetizers $8 to $15, entrées $24 to $68 (for 2)

• WINES: From the various regions of Spain

• ATMOSPHERE: Warmth of a private home, the design of a classic restaurant

• RESERVATIONS: Preferred

• CREDIT CARDS: MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Discover