While I haven't been to WD-50 before, I was curious to try out Wylie Dufresne's latest restaurant because it seemed a bit more accessible. Wylie is big on the celebrity chef scene, so I was surprised when I actually saw him at Alder last night overseeing the operations from the back of the room. I wasn't starstruck but I was impressed that he was there in person. Similar to the style of WD-50, the food at Alder has a funky and eclectic slant to it. It's very far from anything traditional. Anuja and I decided to share the pub cheese ($9) and the fried cauliflower ($15), and for her main dish she got the salmon tartare ($14) and I got the chicken liver toast ($17). The waiter gave us this look that told us we hadn't ordered enough food but we had seen a 16 Handles next door to Alder and had our mind set on getting a big frozen yogurt with tons of toppings afterwards.
The pub cheese and salmon tartare came out first and they were on the smaller size so we were a bit afraid that the waiter was right. The pub cheese was served with pistachio-fig brittle and Martin’s “potato chips”. The cheese (pictured above) was purple and had a cream cheese like consistency. It was good and definitely filling but wasn't something I would necessarily run back for. The salmon tartare was served inside slices of avocado that was made into a half sphere. When you cut inside of the avocado, the chopped salmon was inside. It was served with a side of horseradish cream which most definitely had a strong kick to it. It was served with a risotto based cracker that was so fragile that it just didn't have the strength to hold anything to it. Again, the dish was fine and there was nothing wrong with it but there wasn't a wow factor to it. Next they served the chicken liver and fried cauliflower. The cauliflower was HUGE, it was almost half a head of cauliflower served with lemon-almond puree, a thin layer of lardo on top of it, and cocoa nips in the puree. Yes, that's right, cocoa nips. Pretty different right? The cauliflower was roasted nicely and the puree and cocoa was actually a nice combination with the cauliflower. This was probably my favorite dish of the night because it was so different and unexpected. My chicken liver dish was also good but since I had to eat it on my own, it was a bit too much for one person. It was served on top of a bed of cornbread and a side of grapefruit marmalade and topped with 3-4 pieces of fried chicken skin. It was a classic formula of chicken liver (loved that it wasn't grainy) and I loved the acidic tang of the grapefruit with the chicken liver. Even though the portions seemed pretty small, eating an entire log of chicken liver myself really pushed me over the edge and by the time we got to 16 Handles I was pretty full. I smartly I mostly avoided the chicken skin but I took a couple of nibbles of it. Since it wasn't actually attached to the chicken, it was a bit dry and didn't have that that crunch that you'd get from a fried chicken skin.
I did like the decor which was a quaint farmer house feel and the waitstaff was very sweet and nice. While I was glad to have gone and the Wylie sighting was also a nice surprise, there wasn't anything that truly wow'd me and made me want to run back here. But I wouldn't necessarily run away from here either if someone wanted to try it out. Despite this, I still am interested in trying WD-50 and hope to be wow'd there. Total bill: $52/pp with tax and tip.
Photo Credit: Yelp
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