I had heard about What Happens When as part of the pop-up restaurant trend. On this particular night, it seemed like it would be a great night because it was part of the Women Take Over concept featuring women chefs from Pearl Oyster Bar (one of my faves) and Peels (pretty decent place). But unfortunately after we sat down for dinner, we found out that they had just lost their liquor license and they could only offer us mocktails (juice mixture). We couldn't even bring in our own liquor or wine, so that was kind of a bust, especially since it was a friend's birthday and they didn't bother letting us know in advance of this problem.
On to the food, the menu is a fixed menu for all the pop-up concepts (you usually get to pick 1 of 2 options per course) at $58. We started with an amuse bouche of chicken liver on a small piece of bread. I personally don't love chicken liver but thought it was fine. It was fairly smooth which made it much more palatable since there's nothing more gross than grainy pate. Next came the appetizer (choice of their greens or spaetzle). I chose the spaetzle which came with peas, smoked salmon and salmon roe. It was pretty salty, most likely due to the roe, but it was really creamy and rich in butter. Next we waited and waited for our main course. The service was very slow and you'd think since they didn't offer wine, they could have at least re-filled our water glasses frequently. Given that the restaurant was not very full, I'd expect much more attentive service in such a small place. They weren't rude at all, just slow. For our main course (choice of duck breast or crispy skate) I got the crispy skate and it was indeed crispy and not overly battered. It was actually perfectly crispy, I just wished that it came with a bit more accompaniments. There was a small side of asparagus and oyster and shiitake mushrooms, but there just wasn't enough of it. I tried the duck breast and it was very nicely done, but came with some weird thing called "scrumpy sauce". For dessert (choice of chocolate and lemon trifle or pot de creme), I got the trifle which came in a pretty large jam jar and you could definitely taste the sourness of the lemon. It came topped with smooth chocolate mouse and crunchy chocolate bits...it took a couple of bites, but I started to get into it after each bit. The other dessert was a green tea flavored creme de pot, but the green tea flavor was very strong and overpowering and I don't think many of us liked it.
The restaurant has potential and we might have gone on an off day, but I definitely did think it was overpriced based on other amazing fixed menu meals that I've had (I'm looking at you Torrisi - I love you!!). Not sure if wine would have really helped with the over all service issue and value prop, but it probably wouldn't have hurt.
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