New Brooklyn restaurant is on fire

HEAVILY publicized new restaurants often burn out quickly. But the flame won’t likely die early at Metta, on a leafy corner in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. It’s the must-go spot for the Argentine-style, open-fire cooking that’s never had much cred in New York.

Metta chef Norberto Piattoni is a protégé of Argentine master Francis Mallmann, who runs acclaimed, Patago- nian-inspired, fire-driven restaurants in Garzón, Uruguay; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Miami’s South Beach.

At Metta, familiar-seeming cuts of beef, lamb and pork carry a whiff of the wild Pampas. Wintry produce such as turnips and kohlrabi hint at spring’s coming bounty. Everything’s affordable: starters and small plates from $6 to $15, mains from $19 to $25.

On any given night, it seems like half of Fort Greene is snugly packed into 60 seats at burled-marble-top tables, a buzzing bar and a counter where you can watch Piattoni’s glowing, sparking pyro- technics up close.

There’s no gas in the house. The center of the action is a “vertical fire box” Piattoni designed himself. It lends embers from cherry wood, oak and hardwood charcoal to an adjacent parrilla (grill) mostly for meat and a plancha ( griddle) for vegetables. Everything takes on a sharp blistering from the leaping, sparking flame a few inches away.

“The idea is to use all the heat surrounding the fire,” Piattoni says. One heat component is smoke. Its woodsy essence permeates “slowroasted” lamb, a $10 starter that’s thin-sliced from a leg hung next to the flame and plated with lettuce leaves and crackling chili.

Short rib steak, an enticing deep red under the crust, packs a memorable punch. Chicken breast and pork steak are similarly hung near the vertical fire for slow-roasting, then portioned and finished on the grill. A woodfire stove top is used to cook freekeh risotto and to braise and finish lamb necks.

The menu’s heft is lightened by Piattoni’s way with fermentation, pickling, curing and dehydration to “lengthen the season” of local produce. Corn salad with chili oil and mild tomme cheese from Pennsylvania would be at home on a Hamptons deck in deep August.

Funky but not-too-weird desserts include a chocolate custard with granita of coal-smoked maple sap — a sweet ending to a feast made from fire.