Hangover helper.
That's the menu heading for caldo de huevo entero ($7), a light scallion soup that offers gentle replenishment from two medium-hard eggs, wafer-thin potatoes, and on the side, a buttery arepa already snipped in quarters. Do note: This soup is standard only on the weekend brunch menu, when you're most likely to appreciate its particular gentle charms.
This "arepa and wine bar" distinguishes itself with more than a dozen varieties of arepas montadas, a Colombian variation on the arepas rellenas of neighboring Venezuela. In New York, the latter are simply called arepas; order one, and you'll be handed a palm-sized corn-flour patty that's filled (rellena) with some combination of meat, beans, or cheese. (Many are delicious; some are legendary.) Cafecito Bogota's patties are flatter and wider, and given the room, mounted atop them (montada) you'll find a greater variety and volume of ingredients on any given arepa. Below, the Caleña ($9.95) marries cilantro-marinated shrimp and crispy green plantain under a tomato-garlic sauce.
Also shown below: a duo from the small baked-goods display, a fluffy, moist almojábana atop a chewier pan de bono ($1.25 each); and a tetero (large; $3.50), which tops the traditional Colombian aguapanela, or packed molasses stirred into hot water, with steamed milk.
Cafecito Bogota
1015 Manhattan Ave. (Green-Huron Sts.), Greenpoint, Brooklyn
718-569-0077
www.CafecitoBogota.com
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