Atera

In April of 2013, I had the opportunity to try the relatively new (OK a little over a year old) creative restaurant in TriBeCa. I’d read about this place in both the Times and in an airplane magazine (I don’t remember which airline) and I was eager to see what the buzz was all about.

Upon entering, you feel as though you are in on a secret. Like you knew the password and are about to be rewarded with a creative masterpiece of a dinner. We were led to a little bar with casual low seating where we had a cocktail and then we were led up to the open kitchen/eating bar. I will preface all of this right now to let you know that in my excitement, some of my pictures are quite blurry (I was a foodie/blogging novice back then) but I will share them all because the ever-changing menu means they may never be seen again.

We started off with nine little snacks. I remember the NYTimes article joked about them, suggesting that the chef wouldn’t be a good person to bring snacks to a football game. It’d been a year since that article though so I was hopeful that our tastes would be tried and true. Our first three were beer foam meringue with creme fraiche and sturgeon roe, flax seed cookie with pine nut butter, and lobster roll with dry yeast meringue. I was not disappointed. The lobster roll being my favorite of the three but the “macaron” was a close second.

The next three bites were sunchoke cannoli with strained milk and sour cream powder, beef tendon puff with salt cured egg yolk, and pickled quail egg and pig’s blood wafer with chicken liver pate and huckleberry. So by far, the pickled quail egg and pig’s blood wafer were the best snack and I would gladly eat a bunch of them while watching the Super Bowl. 🙂

The final three snacks of our evening were lichen chip with trumpet mushroom and herb emulsion, hearts of palm with bone marrow ragu, and sturgeon lardo. Each one was tasty and unique.

A palate cleansing salad was next followed by several seafood dishes. The wild green salad with salmon roe and chicken jus was light and refreshing. One of his signature dishes, razor clam with almonds and garlic had not yet reached its floral presentation that I have seen demonstrated in a subsequent video but it was still delectable with the layers blending into a perfect soft crunchy zesty bite. I’m a sea urchin fan and the sea urchin with butternut squash puree and pine nut miso was lovely to both look at and eat.

Next we had the diver scallops with fermented cabbage leaf and cabbage ice, cured wild salmon pretending to be a ham with guanciale (pig’s jowl bacon), and peekytoe crab ravioli with toasted grain dashi. I’m not a salmon fan but I love it when it pretends to be something else and this guy pulled it off.

I can’t forget about the luscious bread and homemade butter that had been served at this point in our meal. We received salted rye bread served with house churned butter with hints of cheese and seeded multigrain bread. (I forgot to take a picture of the amazing sourdough dipped in pork fat which was my favorite).

Our next three seafood courses were sepia (cuttlefish) with smoked pork lardo and whipped potato, another Lightner signature dish: dried beet ember with smoked trout roe and crustacean emulsion, and black cod with sunchoke consume. Yes, yes and yes! All too often experimental restaurants lose sight of the taste in all the invention but these three courses were packed with deliciousness and creativity and yumminess.

Our final two savory courses were melt-in-your-mouth delicious. The roasted squab with fresh peanuts and “peanut” foie gras was perfectly cooked and presented. The wagu beef strip with wheatberry and toasted bechemel got me so excited, I couldn’t even hold my camera still long enough to take a picture of the lovely plate.

Dessert consisted of three little desserts and then three little after dinner bites. The dessert courses were poached pear with almond milk ice cream, “cracked egg” ice cream with egg yolk jam, and white chocolate birch ice cream with chocolate shavings. I loved the presentation of the cracked egg and all three were both tantalizing and innovative.

We finished the evening with three delightful bites. The churro salsify with hazelnut smear had the appearance of a stick and some mud but tasty just as a chewy pastry should taste. The bourbon cask ice cream sandwich with almond vanilla ice cream tasted boozy and sweet. And finally the chocolate truffles: walnut caramel nut and chocolate hazelnut looked straight out of the woods but tasted just as decadently as they should.

The dinner and overall experience at Atera were fabulous. Matthew Lightner has since moved on from Atera and the foodie world anxiously awaits where he will bring his amazing creativity next. Atera continues to pursue its immersive dining experience now under the helm of chef Ronny Emborg. I have not been back but have friends that have and they say it is still a surprising, inventive and delightful experience.

Atera NYC, 77 Worth Street New York, NY 10013; Tel. 212-226-1444; Reservations required; Atera offers reservations for dinner Tuesday-Saturday at 6:00pm and also at 9:30pm. The experience is approximately three hours.