With its tile-edge brick oven, primary color scheme, open kitchen, and polished wood bar, Bolo's design fuses Manhattan and some fictional version of Barcelona. Bobby Flay's loosely Spanish-inspired food takes aim at New York palates. Green onion gazpacho is refreshing and spicy. If you're not in the mood for sangria, select from the well-priced wine list.

It's been said that Luis Sollo, chef of this new Spanish restaurant, will do for Spanish cooking in America what chefs like Daniel Boulud and Jean-Georges Vongerichten have done for French. It's a pity he has to do it in such an uninspired setting. Bollo's food is highly conceptualized but grounded in Spanish tradition: a better squid in black ink sauce would be difficult to find. Suckling pig is super, braised oxtail croquettes are heady and satisfying. A chilled octopus terrine forms a beautiful mosaic on the plate. But some dishes, particularly desserts, fall flat on their abstract face. (Beware of the herb foam.) And don't expect a lively scene - a kitsch mural of a sorcerer (meigas in Spanish) painted without any irony and an energy-zapping atmosphere gives the restaurant an inexplicably sedate feeling, even when it's packed.