We’re on Tapas

Midtown Tap & Tea Room

289 New Scotland Ave., Albany, 435-0202. Serving Tue-Sat 11-11, Sun 11-6. AE, D, MC, V.

Cuisine: continental tapas

Entrée price range: $4.50 (cured olives) to $15 (pâté and cheese board)

Ambiance: airy

By B.A. Nilsson

‘I’m a baby boomer,” says Nancy Kupiec, “and I’m getting older. When I go out, I don’t want to eat too much.”

So she considered the possibilities for a restaurant in a building she owns on New Scotland Avenue, something to succeed the departed Avenue A. “When I was talking about this to (chef) Doug Waldmann, he said, ‘How about tapas?’ That was it!”

Waldmann was last seen in this area as executive chef at Cowan and Lobel; he since has worked his away around the country, with a lengthy stop in New Mexico. He’s back home putting out the excellent plates at Midtown Tap and Tea Room, and you’ll see him framed in the pickup window as you tour the handsome space.

Open for a scant three weeks, Midtown is a bit puzzling to a first-time visitor. Seating options include high and traditional tables in the room that faces New Scotland Avenue, as well as bar seating a little beyond that room. A muted hallway takes you past the kitchen’s pickup window, past a baby grand piano (where Alan Thomson was playing standards in his engaging way) and into another, tavern-like room with large windows opening on Ontario Street.

Sit anywhere. It is pleasing to the eye and ear, as Kupiec fine tunes both the appearance (it required a wall removal to open the space, and the skylights will be unveiled soon) and acoustics. She has owned a construction business for many years, and thus brings an experienced hand to this work.

The service staff is easygoing and knowledgeable and made our visit that much more relaxing.

A list of 22 tapas dishes is priced from $4.50 for a serving of cured olives to $15 for an arrangement of cheese and pâté. Most popular is the pan-seared sea bass with polenta ($9).

My threesome settled at one of the high tables and ordered a plate of hummus with eggplant caponata ($6) while studying the other possibilities. Coupled with a glass of crisp pinot grigio, this defined the moment when the work portion of the day ended and the relaxation hours began.

Hummus, with its garlicky smoothness, benefits from a companion like the vinegary caponata, and the plate made its way around the table quickly. (You’ll also appreciate the handsome servingware.)

Fresh mixed greens tossed in a dressing of lemon and dill give foundation to a few (too few, I thought) slices of smoked salmon in a $9.25 salad that’s also dressed with tomatoes, cucumbers, sprouts and red onion. What with the other plates we simultaneously sampled, we actually couldn’t finish the greens (the fish vanished in a fingersnap).

Other salads include grilled chicken and shrimp on a Caesar or taco salad; a goat cheese salad with carrots and apple slices; a Mediterranean array of feta, artichoke hearts, dolmades, and capers with the greens; and even a plate that adds sliced sirloin and portobello mushrooms, all priced from $8.25 to $11.

Soup is another mainstay, and the $7 portion could be its own meal with the bread served alongside. We opted for the $4 portion, and enjoyed a tomato-rich vegetable array with a bonus of added steak slices.

With a glass of pinot noir to complement the fuller flavors of subsequent choices, I sampled the following: fried Spanish sardines ($7), which reminded me of the spicy richness sardines can have when they’re not crammed into oily tins. Four large filets were lightly breaded and sautéed.

Chickpeas with andouille sausage ($5.25) was a plate of miniatures; small, fried garbanzos arrayed among same-sized sausage portions on a veggie-dressed plate. Clams steamed and stuffed ($8.25) put two clams in each shell, one of them moist and hot, the other hidden in a tasty breading.

We passed up chicken croquettes, lobster ravioli, crab cakes, and greens and beans, all contenders, but I was delighted with what’s menu-described as “goat cheese with honey and caramelized onions” ($7) and turns out to be three large cheese patties, fried to an exterior crispness, gooey within, drizzled with honey, excellently matched with the sweet, dark onions.

Order two of these plates and you’ve got a meal—and you still haven’t spent 20 bucks. Order one and you may well be satisfied. We brought home the remains of many half-finished plates.

While I was exploring wine, my wife and daughter seized the tea list. For two bucks you get a cup and a half of tea in a French press; $3.50 brings a three-and-a-half cup pot. The blends include black tea from China, green tea, decaf tea (including Earl Grey) and a bunch of herbal infusions. I was a bit startled when my child ordered what’s called “Mother-to-Be,” but, of course, it’s raspberry (a midwife-recommended item, we learned back then).

“I’ve lived in this neighborhood for a long time,” says Kupiec, “and this is exactly the kind of place I’d want in my neighborhood. Once we get the regular menu under control, we’re looking at adding Saturday and Sunday brunch. We’re already developing quite a good following.”

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