Txikito.(Restaurant review)

First, the obligatory name exegesis: it's pronounced "chee-kee-toe," meaning "little" in Euskara, the Basque language. People make a big deal over the tic-tac-toe phonetics--"All I ask is that you name the restaurant something that's a little easier to pronounce and spell," Ed Levine wrote, on the Web site Serious Eats--but is Txikito really any trickier to say than La Grenouille, or 'Cesca? And isn't it more exciting to order a txiki txanpi than a mini shrimp-and-mushroom grilled cheese? New Yorkers, at least, seem to think so. "It's no surprise that its long front bar and cozy seating area fills up fast," according to Zagat, however you say that.

Txikito serves small plates, divided into three categories. There are beroak, which are hot items; hotzak, which are cold items (O.K., that's confusing); and pintxoak, which are Basque finger foods--little spreads and sandwiches that are traditionally, though not here, held together with toothpicks. (Pincho means "thorn" in Spanish.) They're just bites, and almost all of them are, along with a glass of cinnamony zurra, a tantalizing way to start a meal. The best is arraultza, a round of baguette topped ...