Craig LaBan has the week off from the Inquirer and Rich Nichols is taking advantage in order to slide into the review chair. Nichols visited Tinto and found that a tapas bar that requires reservations is worth it:
Tinto manages, in most dishes, a tough balancing act, working up flavors (the marcona almonds, $4, are roasted and then smoked and finished in olive oil and sea salt) with regional personality, but with restraint, even delicacy. Basque country dishes are refined and updated. Still, it’s northern Spain’s blue cheeses that inform the spreads; and a given stock or sweet may employ the aforementioned txakolina, a wine better suited as an ingredient than for consumption by the glass.
For a primer on Basque cuisine, there are worse places to go than Wikipedia.
Basque, a pretty new passion [Inquirer]
Tinto [MenuPages]
Tinto [Official Site]
Basque Cuisine [Wikipedia]
