Alder Your Perception

After running his Lower East Side atelier on Clinton Street for ten years, Wylie Dufresne took his talents west to Second Avenue, where he opened Alder at the end of March. You might say the restaurant is to WD-50 what The Nomad is to Eleven Madison Park, or Parm is to Torrisi. In each instance, exceptional tasting menus brought notoriety to the chef's names. Riding the success of these early prix-fixe efforts is what afforded them the opportunity to expand. Alder was a long time in the making, but Dufresne's learned, whimsical approach to cooking is no less avant garde or extraordinary in the East Village. In today's Times review, Pete Wells awards the restaurant a gracious two stars.

The critic writes, "He [Wylie Dufresne] and his colleagues at Alder (Jon Bignelli is the executive chef, leading an intensely collaborative kitchen with heavy input from Mr. Dufresne) get into your brain and rewire its pathways until you find yourself looking at one thing and tasting something else." "At Alder," Wells continues, "You will probably not mistake your spouse for a hat, but you may mistake your rye pasta for a sandwich. This is a nice, normal plate of fettuccine, except that it tastes exactly like a Katz’s pastrami on rye with mustard."

The pasta dish exemplifies what Dufresne does best – take something ordinary and serve it in an extraordinary way. At WD-50, Dufresne's eggs benedict, with suveed egg yolks and deep fried hollandaise, became an emblem of the chef's progressive cooking.

Dufresne's cooking may come off as complex, and in many ways is, but the chef has an uncanny ability to incorporate simple, everyday ingredients into his cooking. That deep fried hollandaise was coated in Thomas' English Muffin crumbs before its trip to the frier. At Alder, foie gras and watermelon are served on a Ritz cracker. "Did that bite of foie gras terrine, topped with a shiso leaf and a semicircle of yuzu-infused watermelon, really sit on a Ritz?" Wells asks. "Yes. Yes it did, and it was delightful beyond all reason."

Wells refers to the menu print as "pill bottle tiny," but advises you to "Buy reading glasses if you need to, because Alder, even with a few misfires, is an exciting restaurant." [NYTimes]

Uno Estrella para Manzanilla

[sasha maslov for the nytimes] garciaDani Garcia earned his first Michelin star in 2000 while cooking at Tragabuches in Ronda, Spain. In 2005, he opened Calima in his native city of Marbella and won Best Chef of the Year in Spain that year. Two months ago, two years shy of his 40th birthday, Garcia introduced New Yorkers to his modern Spanish fare at Manzanilla (also a variety of sherry) on East 26th Street.

Wylie Dufresne, New York's godfather of modern cuisine, was sitting at Manzanilla's bar on a night Pete Wells visited. "Apart from some terrific, how-did-he-do-it desserts," Wells writes in his review of the restaurant today, "[Manzanilla] does not show off the kinds of techniques that might intrigue Mr. Dufresne," who has dazzled New York for ten years with WD-50, and now does so at his newly opened Second Avenue atelier Alder.

"At its best, which is about half the time, Manzanilla offers some very welcome takes on Spanish tradition," writes Wells. The critic cites six reasons for "taking a seat at the bar, or a table." They are: tortillita gaditana, cuttlefish croquettes, tomato tartare, black rice and wild mushroom and vegetable rice (both bomba rice-based entrees), and the Iberico pork, which Wells explains is "given a Japanese marinade of sake, mirin and miso."

"All of these are exceptional additions to the growing catalog of great Spanish tastes in New York," the critic says. "But Manzanilla had nearly as many dishes that were not in the same league." Wells gives the newcomer one star. [NYTimes]

Show Me a Sign: Alder

Signage is up at Alder, Wylie Dufresne's second restaurant, and it's set to open this Thursday, March 28th. WD-50, Dufresne's Lower East Side atelier, will turn ten on April 9th. Though unlike that restaurant, which serves two dining options (both prix-fixes), Alder will offer an a la carte menu with items like pub cheese, clam chowder, pigs in a blanket, calamari, and ox tail stew. Nothing on it will exceed $25.

John Bignelli will be the executive chef and Kevin Denton is heading up the cocktail program. Both Bignelli and Denton are WD-50 alum. Geoffrey Fischer is in charge of the wine list, and a rep informed us "the goal of the wine program is to be ever changing, and supportive of the menu. The by-the-glass selection will showcase wines either usually offered by the bottle or from less traditional regions."

Alder will be open Wednesday to Sunday from 6:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. Seating is on a walk-in basis only; no reservations at Mr. Dufresne's 56-seat East Village eatery.

Alder | 157 Second Avenue | 212-539-1900 | www | map

Update on Thursday, March 28, 2013 at 11:41AM by Craig Cavallo

Menus are up online!

Eat the Week; Dec 31st - Jan 4th

Our list of every Donde Dinner from 2012 | We look back on 2012 and ahead to 2013 | Pete Wells gives two stars to Thirty Acres in Jersey City | Donde Dinner? - 456 Hudson Street

Ivan Orkin Eyes 25 Clinton Street for Ramen Spot

On the other side of that Taurus, and behind the tree, is the storefront of 25 Clinton Street. It's the former address of Ed's Lobster Bar Annex and the possible future home of Ivan Orkin's first stateside ramen spot. Orkin, a Long Island native, moved to Japan with his wife in 2003. He opened Ivan Ramen in Tokyo in 2007 and, in 2010, Ivan Ramen Plus. At both ramen counters, Orkin strays from tradition and serves his own take on the dish. Homemade noodles (some whole-grain) and adding the protein to his ramen hot are among the signatures Orkin brought to Tokyo. His efforts won high praise from a top ramen blogger in the city and both Ramen and Plus have remain packed ever since.

Orkin recently moved back to the states and started giving New Yorkers a sneak peak, showing up here and there to serve his ramen. Should Ivan Ramen (Japanese food) open at 25 Clinton Street, it'll be a block north of wd-50 (other worldly) and Pig & Khao (Filipino), and two blocks north of Yunnan Kitchen (Chinese), turning the stretch of Clinton Street between East Houston and Delancey into a legit version of Epcot Center's World Showcase, minus the frozen food and humidity.

The decision to open at 25 Clinton is pending a meeting with the Community Board next month in which Orkin will hopefully attain a liquor license. If he does, it's all things go and the 60-seat space will open in the spring. [DinersJournal]

First Bite: The $39 Five-Course Tasting at Pig and Khao

Pig & Khao opened a few months ago on the same stretch of Clinton Street that's home to Yunnan Kitchen and wd-50. The immediate neighborhood, like many in New York, is a concentrated nucleus of popular restaurants and good eats, ie Pok Pok Phat Thai, 'inoteca, and Mission Chinese Food a few blocks away on Orchard Street. One way Pig and Khao stands out is by offering $1 beers and a five-course tasting menu for $39. Pig and Khao introduced both deals last night. The $1 beers are available for happy hour seven days a week, from 5 - 7pm. The prix fixe is available at the bar (six seats) Monday through Wednesday with a menu Leah Cohen put together exclusively for the tasting. We stopped in last night to check it out.

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Wylie Dufresne to Open Alder in the Spring

Wylie Dufresne has been serving the world from his culinary cubicle on the Lower East Side for nearly 10 years. As wd-50 approaches its ten year anniversary, Dufresne readies to open his second restaurant.  Alder wil open next spring in the former Plum Pizzeria space at 157 Second Avenue. GrubStreet revealed yesterday that the "50-seat pub" is going to serve "modern casual food and well-crafted cocktails."  Alex Stupak, the former pastry chef at Dufresne's LES atelier, and whose Empellon Cocina has been packed since it opened on First Avenue back in February, predicted Dufresne domination yesterday via Twitter: "Alder! Wylie is going to dominate the East Village!" [GrubStreet]

The New WD-50 Tasting Menu

It was announced earlier in the week that culinary wizard Wylie Dufresne was overhauling his tasting menu.  He has created an entirely new menu at his 50 Clinton Street restaurant WD-50 and it will become available to the public starting next Thursday, May 10th.

At $155, the tasting runs thirteen courses.  An optional wine pairing is available for $85 and includes booze from France, Germany, Japan, Greece, Italy, and Spain.

The Times has a slideshow featuring some of the new dishes, which include sole with black licorice-pil-pil, lobster roe with charred lemon, root beer ribs, and an amaro soaked egg yolk that comes with peas 'n carrots, kind of.  The 'peas' are tiny balls of carrots that have been rolled in pea powder, obviously.