A New Top Chef at Mission Bar + Tapas

Having earned its title as the unequivocal North Street hot spot for light fare, Spanish wines, and live music, Mission Bar + Tapas is shaking things up with heartier fall flavors created by chef James Burden, who took the helm of the kitchen in September, enabling former commander Jazu Stine to focus his attention on refurbishing and launching The Market, an upscale bodega and café, just down the block.

 

For now, Burden is expanding Mission’s menu with an array of nightly specials—dishes more substantial than the traditional tapas portion, “so people might order one or two dishes instead of three to four smaller plates.”

 

 And these are foods ready, willing, and able to carry us into winter: roasted and curried sweet potato-apple bisque; cubed patatas bravas (traditional Spanish potatoes) spiced up with crumbled chorizo beneath thick ribbons of creamy, garlicky aioli; and tender, peppercorn-crusted lamb chops laced with balsamic cream.

 

“It’s comfort food I’d make for my mom,” quips the boyish twenty-nine-year-old Vermont native, who sharpened his skills during stints in the US Coast Guard and at Ye Old Forge in Lanesborough, Mass. "What it's like outside, and what's fresh in the area," are culinary guiding lights as well.

 

Definitive of Burden’s offerings might be his slow-simmered mushroom stew, a ragout made thick and creamy with red-wine-drunk shallots and garlic and sprinkled generously with crunchy, smoked croutons.

 

(Those croutons, by the way, are a product of some special spices plus a super-hot sauté pan—which leaves little room for error. Burden’s sheepish explanation betrays not only that he’s in tune with the details able to elevate a dish from alright to exceptional, but that he’s got the gumption to go for such bold moves during a busy dinner service.)

 

Eventually, as certain specials catch on—like extra crispy cumin-and-cayenne rubbed chicken wings sweetened with just enough honey to soothe their lip-tingling spiciness and an arugula and goat cheese salad topped with a tangle of crispy Serrano ham matchsticks—Burden will add fan favorites to Mission's revamped standard menu.

 

Not to fear, however: he knows his limits. Mission’s sex-on-a-stick bacon-wrapped dates, Burden declares, “those aren’t going anywhere.”