Alder: Wylie Dufresne is a crazy chef. Anyone who has had the pleasure of eating at
wd-50 can attest to this. The menu at Alder his new, more casual place in the East Village is well, awesome.
I mean who knew meat glue could taste so good. Evan and I were lucky enough to
score a table on a Friday night with our friends at Bon Appetit.
At Alder, most of the cooking has a refreshingly seamless quality to it. The menu is casual, modern, clean and economical (no dish costs over $24).
The understated, minimalist façade bears a
striking resemblance to the popular Momofuku franchises in the neighborhood,
and the décor (brick walls, slats of reclaimed wood, a bar built for eating as well as drinking) looks as if it had
been designed by David Chang himself.
Did that bite of foie gras terrine, topped with a shiso leaf and yuzu-infused watermelon, really sit on a Ritz? Yes. Yes it did, and it was delightful beyond all reason.
The food, a combination of comfort and high technique where you can enjoy an interesting interpretation of pigs in a
blanket, made with Chinese sausages instead of hot dogs and served with dabs of
esoteric Japanese mustard. The crostini are made with thin slips of
pumpernickel and topped with kale and spoonfuls of trout and ponzu. If you
order the classic foie gras terrine, it arrives at the table carved in the
shape of a fried egg over a small toasted English muffin. You won’t mistake the clam chowder for anything but clam chowder. The
oyster crackers, though, may cause some cognitive dissonance. After the first
crunch, they dissolve, leaving nothing but a flicker of oyster flavor
in your mouth..
It’s an exciting
restaurant and now that WD-50 serves only tasting menus, it belongs as much to
the global foodie circuit as it does to the Lower East Side. Basically, alder
feels the way WD-50 used to.
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