THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Brosia

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Brosia Restaurant Review:

The setting alone goes a long way towards selling this casually stylish Mediterranean-inspired restaurant, the first project of Bridge House, the hospitality division of Design District developer Craig Robbins’ company Dacra. The eatery’s bistro-like indoor space is small, but there are plenty of choices, like well-spaced tables in a wide-open 4,000-square-foot outdoor courtyard, sheltered by the canopy of two huge 150-year-old oak trees. Fortunately, the food’s as distinctive as the décor. While the full-flavored dishes turned out by chef Arthur Artiles (a veteran of Norman’s and Chispa) are his own contemporary creations, not classics from the five locales that inspired the menu (Spain, Italy, France, Greece and North Africa), most do have a strong regional identity, with only a few fusion touches: sauce boldly spiced with chorizo, garlic and sherry signals that a casserole of clams and shrimp could only be from Spain; mussels swim in a sensuously creamy coconut-curry broth that evokes Morocco. And charmingly chewy pappardelle, packed with tender chunks of Maine lobster but tasting like Sicily (thanks to a sauce mixing fennel and mint), is a must not miss. Service can be spotty, but flaws seem merely amateurish, not due to attitude.