Cuerno finally opens
January 21st, 2008 by Cliff Bostock in Restaurants 
Cuerno (905 Juniper St.), Riccardo Ullio’s long-awaited Spanish restaurant, is finally open. We dropped by for a first look Sunday and found the food mainly quite good — especially the Valencia-style paella (above) with multiple ingredients, including rabbit, clams, shrimp, squid and chicken.
A few years ago, Wayne and I spent a week in Monte Frio, a mountain town north of Granada. It was winter and every evening, we walked down the hill from our apartment to a restaurant for the evening’s paella, usually one made with saffron rice. Cuerno’s is the nearest to that I’ve ever tasted in our city.
We also tried a bunch of tapas, including mussels, grilled shrimp, fried potatoes, onion soup (with raisin chutney) and squid stuffed with sofrito (above, right) The restaurant has a grill that reaches astronomical temperatures and leaves seafood juicy and unusually flavorful.
The restaurant itself is quite a looker, featuring a gigantic bull sculpture (with large testicles you may rub for good luck), Alhambra-like mosaic tile, glittering chandeliers and lots of red. Like Spain itself, the restaurant’s decor is a blend of the pagan and the Christian, including an image of the Virgin (above, left) opposite the bull.
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