El Quinto Pino.(Restaurant review)

The other night at this tiny tapas bar in Chelsea, diners crowded in at the elegantly curved marble bar, most of them tapping away at iPhones. El Quinto Pino, the sophomore effort of Heather Belz, Mani Dawes, and Alexandra Raij, the owners of the much praised Tia Pol, is the kind of spot that by pedigree and authenticity appeals to those who pride themselves on being in the know. In ethos, El Quinto Pino, like its progenitor, runs counter to the recent tapas growth spurt, which has entailed both a proliferation of the term (now often used to refer to any kind of shared plates) and the expansion of portion size, to the point where four or five dishes between a pair don't merely satiate but stuff.

By contrast, here it seems as though you could order the entire menu--confined to a small blackboard hung above the bar--and feel only moderately gluttonous. A stew of chickpeas was smoky and laced with spinach; four garlicky shrimp arrived still bubbling with heat. A more unconventional option was the pig's-ear salad, served cold and with a vinegary dressing. The ears, carved into bite-sized chunks, were a little gray, ...