Ever since Secretes opened back in May, I’ve been chewing my pencil, excited to write about this East Village restaurant. But I’ve been waiting for it to get a wine license. The elusive document has been coming “any day now” for months and months. Meanwhile, enticing rumors about the grand mysteries of the restaurant’s locked cellar have blossomed in the circles that whisper about such things.

I wish I could say that my patience has paid off, but as of today BYO is still the rule. The legal hobble has kept this new-wave tapas joint, which should be one of the city’s most eligible new restaurants, from fully hitting its stride. Poised for a grand entrance, the restaurant has so far limped along instead, with a blow to its income, and without the attention or crowds it deserves.

The simple interior of the restaurant is set off by subtle design touches, like lights embedded in the dark wood benches, and handsome (if empty) chrome wine racks on the colorful walls. Mexican-Italian chef Jordy Lavanderos has worked with Spanish avant-gardists Ferran Adria and Juan Mari Arzak as well as with Jean-Georges Vongerichten. He’s closest to Mr. Arzak in spirit, commanding the inventive techniques popularized by Mr. Adria not for their own sake, like some disciples, but rather in the service of the food. Flavors and textures from all over – fruits, nuts, foams – are deployed in unusual but felicitous harmonies. The menu, with lengthy descriptions of each dish written in Spanish and English, consists of about 15 different small plates; it will evolve over time.

The closest thing to a salad involves cucumber cut into “spaghetti” – long, lightly crunchy strands that twine in a square on top of pickled mango and papaya chunks ($7). The effect of the fruits’ sweet-tartness offset by the cucumber is striking; a dressing of bright green basil oil and crunchy little ham “nibs” gives additional interest to the plate. A small sculptured glass holds lobster gazpacho ($7), a cool, thickly creamy pink soup that’s sweet with intense shellfish flavor and topped with a foamy, fiery green chile “nuage” that provides vivid contrast in color and taste. Garlic soup croquettes ($5) are another clever genre bending snack: crusty, fried-dough pockets that contain a dose of creamy, warm soup.

Salmon is given new life in a clever treatment ($12): Long strips of the fish are rolled into flat spiral discs and steamed, with the interior left rare. A sweetly complex ginger and lemongrass broth bathes the spiral, along with a dotting of soybeans. A serving of sauteed ostrich ($15) is a symphony in purples: An intense pomegranate-juice reduction surrounds the dark red slices of beefy land-fowl. Purple potatoes, in moist chunks and crisp chips, round out the dish.

Mr. Lavanderos has a pronounced way with birds, which comprise a fair amount of the menu: not only the ostrich dish but also two preparations of duck and two of chicken. Duck confit ($7), supple and intense, comes cached under a pile of dainty watercress. The menu mentions “orange dust” but it is undetectable. Seared duck breast ($14) doesn’t stray far from its siblings around the city. Reddish, fat-rimmed slices of juicy meat, here in a prune reduction are similar to the pomegranate one. It shares the plate with excellent vegetables: miniature carrots, miniature zucchinis, and french-fried taro root.

The chef debones a lightly fried chicken drum stick ($9) and fills the resulting cavity with a black risotto; the familiar pomegranate reduction gives tart contrast to the rich meat. Pale, delicate chicken breast is rolled around spinach and manchego cheese, then poached, so the meat and cheese fuse into a delicious cylinder. It is served with a pappy cauliflower puree sprinkled with crunchy bits of chicken skin that give earthiness to an otherwise rarefied dish. Lobster “morceaux” ($15) fall a bit flat. The heart of the dish, three little corn cakes in a sweet curry sauce, has excellent flavor, but the mound of dryish lobster meat topping each one adds very little. But a surprise winner is the vegetarian plate ($8), neatly striped with five different vegetable preparations, including purple potatoes, miniature carrots, and faintly vinegary onions, that bring out the best in the fresh vegetables.

Dessert is a little more experimental than it is satisfying. A trio of “tartaletas” ($8) includes a wedge of sweet goat cheese with a crust of pressed Oreo crumbs, a chewy white-chocolate truffle rolled in crushed pistachios, and a wedge of rubbery “dulce de leche” in a salty crumbled-popcorn crust topped with a single whole popped corn kernel. A frozen nugget of nougat ($5) with a chile-infused chocolate sauce and a splash of mint oil is also refreshing and novel, but doesn’t scratch the deepest dessert itch.

While the no-wine situation persists, bottles can be picked up en route to the restaurant at Is-Wine (225 E. 5th St.), whose committed staff and careful selection of smaller producers always yields an interesting buy; or at stylish Discovery Wines (10 Avenue A), where computer kiosks help with food pairings. Secretes charges no corkage fee; in this case, the restaurant’s loss is the customer’s gain, as it’s possible to have a dinner with wine at minimal expense.

With its vividly flavored inventions, Secretes is poised to become a sensation when it gets in full gear. At present, it is a juicy and affordable find. One hopes its future is bright.

Secretes, 513 E. 6th St., between avenues A and B, 212-228-2775.