The New York Times is out with its list of the ten Best New Restaurants of 2013 and Blouin ARTINFO was ahead of the curve in featuring the cream of the crop during the year.
In July, we featured a video tour (VIDEO ABOVE) of Chef Wylie Dufresne's next venture following the success of WD-50, Alder, which features a more casual approach.
Located in the East Village, Alder is Dufresne’s take on a traditional tavern with a modern American twist. While WD-50 has only tasting menus, Alder’s extensive food and cocktail menu reinterprets New York City’s diverse food culture using cutting-edge culinary techniques. Among the highlights are Pigs in a Blanket made with Chinese sausage, Japanese mustard, and sweet chili sauce, and Chicken Liver Toast with cornbread, grapefruit marmalade, and cracklings.
And in October, we heralded the arrival in Brooklyn of chef Paul Liebrandt’s provocative French cuisine at The Elm, in Williamsburg.
Lauded as one of the most influential chefs in New York, Liebrandt left his five-year gig at the now closed TriBeCa fine dining hotspot, Corton, to focus on his latest venture. Unlike the refined and quietly elegant setting of Corton, The Elm (like Wylie Dufresne’s second venture) takes on a more casual approach. The 70-seat restaurant, devised by Parts and Labor Design, adopts an industrial aesthetic with exposed beams, modern light fixtures, and a 30-foot wood framed vine installation, inspired by McCarren Park across the street.
Even the forward-thinking menu, concocted by Liebrandt and Executive Chef, Mazen Mustafa, pays homage to the simplicity of dining with four distinct categories: Raw, Sea, Land, and Shared. However, the French fare offers a touch of eclectic flavors, inspired by the chef’s global travels. Their creation, Early Autumn Beets with Tomato Aïoli and Bacon XO Sauce, is taken from a recent trip to Hong Kong. (VIDEO BELOW)
