Jason Wang bringing Xi'an Famous Foods offshoot Biang! to the former Alder space on 2nd Avenue

In the past few years, Jason Wang has helped his father expand Xi'an Famous Foods from a small food stall in Flushing to a mini empire in the city with several locations, including 81 St. Mark's Place, that serve their popular hand-pulled noodles.

Now Biang!, his family-style Chinese restaurant, is moving from Main Street in Flushing to 157 Second Ave. between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street.

Biang! is on this month's CB3 SLA committee docket for a beer-wine license. According to the questionnaire (PDF!) on file at the CB3 website, the restaurant will have hours of 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, until 11:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The configuration shows 16 tables good for 32 seats, as well as one standing bar without any seats.

After two-and-a-half years in business, Chef Wylie Dufresne closed Alder, his well-regarded bistro here, at the end of August. The address had been on the market with an asking rent of $17,389 plus key money.

The December CB3-SLA committee meeting is next Monday night at 6:30 in the CB3 office, 59 E. Fourth St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery.

Updated 7:46 a.m.

Several readers have noted that Wang opened this Xi'an offshoot several years ago in Flushing. I edited the headline and post to reflect this.

Meanwhile, here's the message on the Biang! website (you can find the menu there too):

As of November 18, 2015, Biang! is closed until re-opening at a different location which is to be announced within the month. The current Flushing location will be converted to a Xi'an Famous Foods for fast-casual dining needs! Please stay tuned to this website for updates.

Here's The New Yorker on Biang!:

Unlike its sibling restaurants, with their lines and numbered food pictures on the wall, Biang! is a sleek, sit-down affair. (Biang, the name of the restaurant’s signature noodle, mimics the sound the noodles make when they are being snapped into shape.) Biang!’s menu has all the staples, including those cold-skin noodles, but with an even more traditional bent.

Image via CB3

Chef Wylie Dufresne's former Alder space for rent on 2nd Avenue

[Photo by Vinny & O from Sept. 14]

After two-and-a-half years in business, Chef Wylie Dufresne closed Alder, his well-regarded bistro at 157 Second Ave., at the end of August.

As far as we understand, Dufresne never provided a reason for the closure, which took some fine-food watchers by surprise. (Eater, who first reported the news on Aug. 3, theorized that "it sounds like a rent hike might have something to do with it.")

Now the space between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street is on the market. Here are details via the listing at Sinvin:

Description:
• Gorgeous, brand new, custom, million dollar renovation built for a Michelin chef
• Fully built and equipped restaurant
• Full 2 am liquor license to be transferred
• Vibrant late night neighborhood in the heart of the East Village on the best block of Second Avenue
• 56 seats plus 15 at the bar and outdoor seating for 16
• Formerly Alder

Term:
8.5 years (possible extension to 10 years)

Price:
$17,389/month

Key Money:
$395,000

Commission is co-broke of 16% of the key money

Well, there will likely be plenty of commenters to take exception to the listing saying that this stretch here is "the best block of Second Avenue."

No. 157 was previously the address for several restaurants before Alder opened in the spring of 2013, including Plum … and Cafe Brama.

Wylie Dufresne is closing Alder on 2nd Avenue

[EVG photo from August 2013]

News made the rounds yesterday that chef Wylie Dufresne will close Alder at the end of this month.

Dufresne, who noted the closure on Twitter this past Friday evening, hasn't said why he's shutting down his well-regarded bistro at 157 Second Ave. near East 10th Street.

Eater, who first reported the news yesterday, theorized that "it sounds like a rent hike might have something to do with it."

Here are some thoughts from the Times on all this:

Like WD-50, Alder was a showcase for the chef’s inventiveness. He reconfigured ingredients with the help of a toolbox that included meat glue, and devised surprises like rye pasta with pastrami that tasted like a sandwich from Katz’s delicatessen nearby.

Mr. Dufresne is one of the few truly experimental chefs in New York, a city that has not been particularly generous in embracing molecular gastronomy and other avant-garde trends in food. He worked for Jean-Georges Vongerichten before opening 71 Clinton Fresh Food in a tiny space in 1999; in 2003 he opened WD-50 in somewhat grander premises across the street.

In his tweet, Dufresne did write that "The search for a new home begins…"

No. 157 was previously the address for several restaurants before Alder opened in the spring of 2013, including Plum … and Cafe Brama.

Alder debuts its sidewalk cafe

CB3 signed off on a sidewalk cafe for Alder on Second Avenue back in June... and we just noticed that it's now up (well, sort of — the restaurant wasn't open for the day when this photo was taken...)

The eight-table, 16-seat patio made its debut on Friday...

Our patio opens tonight! Come by and enjoy the weather! pic.twitter.com/7KjEHkTHHH

— Alder (@aldernyc) August 16, 2013

The restaurant from noted LES chef Wylie Dufresne opened on Second Avenue near East 10th Street in late March.

Alder applies for a sidewalk cafe on Second Avenue

[Late March via @davidsokol]

Also on the June CB3/SLA docket: a sidewalk cafe license for Alder, the popular new restaurant from noted LES chef Wylie Dufresne. The restaurant opened on Second Avenue near East 10th Street in late March. CB3 approved the liquor license for Alder last August.

We'll have more on the rest of the CB3/SLA docket later.

Branding Alder

An EV Grieve Alder Watcher Reader was curious why there wasn't s sign up at noted LES chef Wylie Dufresne's new restaurant on Second Avenue near East 10th Street.

Don't when this happened, but there is a sign of sorts, according to the Alder Watcher Reader...





Branded into the woodwork...



No word if this is available in peel-and-stick tattoos as well.

This is the line to get into Wylie Dufresne's new restaurant Alder on Saturday

As you may have heard, noted LES chef Wylie Dufresne opened a new restaurant last Thursday called Alder on Second Avenue near East 10th Street.

Apparently it is popular.

@davidsokol passed along the above photo late Saturday afternoon... showing a line forming before the doors opened at 6. (Per the Alder website, the 56-seat restaurant does not accept reservations.)

In an opening preview last week in the Times, Florence Fabricant noted that Alder, "a complement to WD-50," serves "inventive twists on classics."

Such as!

The rye pasta includes pastrami, so with mustard sauce and pickles you have a homage to the pastrami on rye at the Second Avenue Deli, which used to be across the street.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Wylie Dufresne bringing fancy cocktails for foodies

Here's more about Alder, the new pub opening on Second Avenue from Wylie Dufresne

As you may know, noted LES chef Wylie Dufresne is opening a 50-seat pub that will serve "modern casual food and well-crafted cocktails," as Grub Street first noted last fall ... it will be at the former Plum Pizzeria at 157 Second Avenue near East 10th Street.

The New York Times today has more details on the menu and stuff.

[Mr. Dufresne] will specialize in what some might think of as a cubist spin on pub grub. There will be “stuff you can kind of graze and nibble,” as Mr. Dufresne put it: pigs in a blanket, clam chowder, Caesar salad, chicken liver toast, oxtail stew, calamari, pub cheese.

But in keeping with the chef’s style, each dish will be twisted into a surprising manifestation. That Caesar salad won’t come in a bowl; it will arrive as finger food, transformed into bite-size pieces of nigiri, with a sliver of charred, Parmesan-dusted Spanish mackerel resting on a rib of romaine lettuce and a dab of eggy sauce.

And, the Times notes, "no dish at Alder will cost more than $25."

Also!

Mr. Dufresne, 42, has family roots in Rhode Island, but he spent his adolescent years near where Alder will open. “The East Village is where I cut my teeth as a kid,” he said. “I ran around here on a skateboard.”

Previously on EV Grieve:
Wylie Dufresne bringing fancy cocktails for foodies (29 comments)

Prepping Adler for Wylie Dufresne

As you might have heard, noted LES chef Wylie Dufresne (of wd~50 on Clinton Street) is opening a place at the former Plum Pizzeria at 157 Second Avenue. As Grub Street first noted, the place will be called Adler, and serve "modern casual food and well-crafted cocktails."

Today, as you can see in the photo, workers continue to de-Plum Pizzeria the exterior...

Wylie Dufresne's rent on Second Avenue

As you may recall, chef Wylie Dufresne will open a pub concept early next year on Second Avenue, as Grub Street first reported last Thursday. Given all the interest in the new project, we thought we'd pass along the listing that we found for the space...

As you can see, the asking rent was $15,450/month ... with a term of 11 years. Plus an undisclosed amount for key money.

Previously.

A welcome for Wylie?

A reader sent along this photo from last night ... just some random urban art (or, if you prefer, vandalism) outside the former Plum Pizzeria on Second Avenue ... where Grub Street reported yesterday that noted chef Wylie Dufresne will open a pub concept early next year. Reaction to this news has been mixed.

Wylie Dufresne bringing fancy cocktails for foodies to former Plum Pizzeria on Second Avenue

Here's some foodie action for this stretch of Avenue Woo. Grub Street is reporting that noted LES chef Wylie Dufresne (of wd~50 on Clinton Street) is opening a place at the former Plum Pizzeria at 157 Second Avenue.

Per Grub Street:

Alder will be a 50-seat pub. It will open in the former Plum Pizzeria space ... The kitchen will serve "modern casual food and well-crafted cocktails," according to a rep for the restaurant. The name Alder is the Old English analog for Ellery, the name of Dufresne's second daughter.