Monday, April 1, 2013

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

6 comments:

Gojira said...

That rye pasta dish sounds utterly vile. And you know if it had not been Easter/Passover that line would have been three times as long.

Anonymous said...

All these so called inventive twists make me think people are burning out their pleasure receptors with too much precious food causing this constant grasping and searching for the unexpected. People who have become bored with regular good old food. People who feel the need to be separated from some of their disposable income. A pasta dish that pays homage to a pastrami sandwich? Uhh ok, but why? Time to maybe take a step back and take a look at what's really going on.

EV Grieve said...

@ anon

Well said.

eric w said...

The pasta dish was actually quite tasty. The way it's used, the pastrami isn't that different from pancetta or bacon. And what's wrong with some rye flour in your pasta dough? The NYT does a disservice to the dish playing up the 2nd ave deli angle - it doesn't taste like a pastrami sandwich at all. It just tastes great.

12:41 pm said...

What 11:12 am said.

And this sounds like from Willy Wonka. Three meals -- tomato soup, roast beef and baked potato, and blueberry pie and ice cream, in a single stick of chewing gum, anyone?

Why not just get a pastrami on rye, instead of 'paying an homage' or pretending to be having pastrami on rye. Pretense for the pretentious.

Anonymous said...

Humans are one of the few animals that eat food for pleasure. Hence the reason you don't have a feed bag strapped to your face..... Yet. So if dining for you does not involve new experiences and you only view food as sustenance then that's why you can't grasp the concept. Food as art is restricted by the customer so what's going on at WD 50 and Alder is an attempt to push your boundaries while providing a pleasurable experience. Much like the first time you had a good old pastrami on rye sand which.