By Ava Stryker-Robbins
Paella is a rice-based dish that holds undeniable importance in Spanish cuisine. It typically contains meat, vegetables, and/or seafood, and is shared by several people.
Buceo 95 offers two types of paella—carne (meat) and mariscos (seafood)—as an addition to their tapas-oriented menu. In a phone interview with West Side Rag, co-owner Courtney Barroll described paella as “the classic dish of Spain.” She is proud that their Spanish customers find their paella to be authentic. She added that the paella carne and mariscos are equally popular at Buceo 95.
The paella carne contains saffron rice, tomatoes, peas, onion, garlic, chicken, and ground chorizo picante (spicy sausage). It is a very comforting and filling dish with a delicious flavor palette. It is individually made and cooks for 20-30 minutes in a special dish on the grill.
Barroll spent several years studying in Spain and loved the food. “I felt a personal connection to Spanish food,” she said. When she moved to Greenwich Village, she went to many Spanish restaurants, eventually opening Buceo 95 with her partner Jim Petersen, who owned several UWS bars. She wanted to bring Spanish cuisine, as well as a Greenwich Village-style restaurant to the UWS. “I thought it would be a good marriage.”
Barroll loves the restaurant scene. “I’ve always loved the nightlife of New York. I love socializing and I always thought that any restaurant I worked in would be like my own dinner party.”
The Paella carne costs $31.
The Dish: Paella Carne
The Restaurant: Buceo 95 (201 West 95th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam).
Read all our Here’s the Dish columns here.
The BEST Paella. Love Courtney and Busceo. An UWS gem!
They have a great happy hour also! Love this place!
I could eat this right now! Looks delicious.
Great food and great vibe. Courtney has adopted a foreign cuisine and done a very respectable job internalizing the culture and translating the food without dumbing it down for timid Upper West Side palates. She’s actually done it better than many other restaurants that are owned by Hispanics. Plus, her wine list is more than a mere afterthought, but conceived with care and intelligence. Kudos to Buceo for actually being the neighborhood gem other restaurants pretend to be.
This place rules. Courtney is extremely cool, the service is excellent, and the food is always top notch. I’ve been to several buzzy tapas places downtown that were not even close to as good as Buceo. We’re so lucky to have this place in the neighborhood.
I can’t rave about this restaurant enough. The tapas are excellent, service friendly and everything you want a hyper local establishment to be. Do yourself a favor and check this place out.
Chorizo in Spanish Paella??? Jaja in Spain homeland of paella you probably will to jail
Only in Valencia. Everywhere else, nobody really cares. You should see what they put in paella in Girona. Anything goes!
Awesome article I love paella 🥘 sabroso/delicious food from Spain. My parents are from Puerto Rico and they made this dish Caribbean style mmm making me hungry lol