The Brooklyn Papers / Greg Mango

Meson Flamenco Chef Paco Mateo takes a break from the kitchen to heat up the guitar strings.

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When Pepe Canto was born at Long Island College Hospital on Atlantic Avenue 30 years ago, the street had a different feel.

Although its famous Middle Eastern restaurants began to open there in the 1930s, the rest of the block suffered from the dwindling shipping industry that drained the life from the docks at the end of the avenue. A small Spanish community resided nearby, and there was one Spanish restaurant, La Mancha, where everyone congregated.

"La Mancha was there, on the corner, for 50 years," says Canto. "On the avenue, on the piers and ports, all these sailors would come in from Spain and dock here. [Atlantic Avenue] was nothing but Spanish places, a little Spanish colonial area, but when they closed down the piers, people moved to Queens or Jersey, or even back to Spain."

A decade ago, when La Mancha closed, Pepe Canto snatched up the chef, Paco Mateo, and opened his own place, Meson Flamenco, as an ode to his family, his heritage and the neighborhood that no longer was. He not only serves pan-Spanish food - from the more southern tapas (appetizers you eat at the bar) to traditional Castilian delicacies like cabrales, a kind of blue cheese - he also serves Spanish culture, in the form of flamenco dance and guitar, unlike anywhere else in New York.

Canto inherited a love of flamenco from his parents, who emigrated from the southern Spanish city of Seville in the 1960s, but have since returned.

"I’m the only one that stayed," says Canto. Even if he is American, Canto maintains some old-fashioned Spanish values. Married at 22, and now the proud father of five children, Canto has spent the last eight years building up his business as Atlantic Avenue has shifted and changed all around him.

"When I opened up there was really no flamenco around in New York," says Canto. "And there wasn’t much going on on the avenue."

Just as Brooklyn has grown, so has the New York City flamenco community. There’s even an annual flamenco festival at the end of January at City Center in Manhattan, but Meson Flamenco is still the leading venue for this art form, says Canto.

"There [are] a lot of aficionados in New York. It’s a family," says Canto. "But after the festival everybody comes down here and we have a party all night - singing and dancing, just like in Spain."

Flamenco was first danced and sung by gypsies in 15th-century Andalucia, in southern Spain, and claims Moorish, Jewish and Persian influences. Traditionally the artistic outlet of the poor and oppressed, flamenco is a tripartite art, mixing song (cante) with dance (baile) and guitar. Dancers sometimes use a cajón, a type of hand drum, but mostly they use their feet, hands and fingers to add beat.

The music and dance are beautiful: serious and passionate, with much articulation in the ankles and wrists. It combines the percussive beat of tap dance and the expressiveness of modern dance, all set to the lyrical thrumming guitar. Watching flamenco here is like stepping into another time, in another country.

When you walk into Meson Flamenco, you can feel both old-world Spain and old-world Brooklyn. The cozy space - the dining area can squeeze about 45 people - has a modern oak bar and is painted in vibrant yellows, yet the music, the tapas and the crowd all hark back to an earlier time.

"It’s a family place," says Canto. "You have young people and old people both." On a typical weekend night at Meson Flamenco, you’ll see a mixture of neo-Brooklyn yuppies and old-school Brooklynites.

Meson Flamenco regularly hosts favorites like La Conja, the premier New York City flamenco performer, according to Canto, and guitarist Christian Puij. There are two shows, at 9:30 pm and 11:30 pm, every Friday and Saturday night.

"When it warms up, I add Thursdays," says Canto. "It all depends on how business is here on the avenue."

Atlantic Avenue is undergoing another transformation, as luxury lofts spring up in buildings that were beginning to sag, and small storefronts house local artists and craftspeople selling their wares. Business has been tough in past months, with buildings boarded and then renovated and part of the street closed for improvements. And residents are still waiting to see what the avenue will look like when the changes are completed. The Brooklyn House of Detention, just a block away, closed after a $30 million renovation, and no one knows what fate awaits it.

But while Atlantic Avenue anticipates its destiny, Canto is moving forward. He’s added Cubano salsa on Sunday nights, and come spring, he’ll test the waters in a new neighborhood, opening another Spanish restaurant near Grimaldi’s pizzeria on Old Fulton Street in DUMBO.

In the meantime, Meson Flamenco remains unchanged, a testament to the past - and the future - of Spanish culture in Brooklyn.

Meson Flamenco is located at 135 Atlantic Ave. between Clinton and Henry streets in Brooklyn Heights. For more information, call (718) 625-7177.

©2004 The Brooklyn Paper