Wells Gives Two Enthusiastic Stars to Dufresne's Alder

In this week's New York Times restaurant review, Pete Wells awards a very enthusiastic two stars to Wylie Dufresne's new restaurant Alder. Wells embraces the idea of adapting avant-garde cooking to a casual, lively small plates setting — especially now that wd-50 only serves tasting menus. Despite encountering just a few missteps on the menu, the critic enjoys Dufresne's Adrià-like ways of making people see food, and the world, a little differently. He writes:

Alder, even with a few misfires, is an exciting restaurant... Alder feels the way WD-50 used to. Some customers are there to write blog posts on the food, and some are just there to talk or flirt or drink one mai tai too many or look around and once in a while say, 'Wow, that was cool.'

· A Wizard Dares to Relax [NYT]
· All Coverage of Wylie Dufresne on Eater [~ENY~]