While the Bond Street tapas restaurant Mercat is basking in the luminescence of Frank Bruni's recent glowing star, there's part of it that still is relatively kept in the dark. Supposedly there's a secret room in the back and down some stairs, called Mercat Negra. Suckers for anything with the patina of exclusivity, we checked it out last night. (Click image for the full comic.)

Though Mercat, the new tapas bar at 45 Bond St., is good, maybe super, it seems destined to inhabit the vestibule of its full potential without ever reaching its peak. (Hash that metaphor!) Dwell, for a moment, on how much better and how much more excited one might be for a place called Meerkat, but as a topless bar. Cuddly mammals, boobs—it would get a Michelin star in months. Instead the Bond street restaurant which opened this week after a prolonged gestation serves Catalonian tapas to affluent bohemians. Which isn't a bad thing, especially if you're an affluent bohemian yourself. Well? Aren't you?