Colby Update: Wiley Dufresne

If you didn't have the good fortune to sample the fare at 71 Clinton Fresh Food, the Manhattan restaurant opened by acclaimed chef Wylie Dufresne '92 ("A Simple Feast," summer 2001 Colby), don't despair. Dufresne, who left 71 Clinton Fresh Food in 2001, is back, and his second effort promises to be as refreshing as his first.

As this issue of Colby was about to go to press, Dufresne was poised to open WD-50, at 50 Clinton Street on the Lower East Side--and the press already was paying close attention. "A chef's second restaurant is like a writer's second novel or a band's second album," wrote Julia Moskin in The New York Times. "It could be the one that wins him a place in the pantheon--or a spot on the heap of one-hit wonders."

Our money is on the pantheon. Not only does Dufresne have a delectable culinary résumé, he also is working very hard to make WD-50 even more creative and adventurous than his first solo project. Recruiting a team of young cutting-edge chefs, Dufresne has been exploring new ingredients in new combinations. "These chefs didn't set out to reinvent the meal just to feel the buzz or rebellion," Moskin wrote. "But they did try to start over from scratch, dismissing assumptions about what and how to eat."

And about how to describe these choices to diners. The menu will explain dishes only by listing their ingredients, not by revealing how the ingredients will be prepared (one appetizer was listed as "oysters, Chinese sausage, green apple, pistachio"). And according to the Times, that won't be the only flouting of culinary convention. WD-50 will not serve salad.

"I'm not trying to be a jerk," Dufresne is reported to have told the Times. "But there are 20,000 restaurants in New York, and you can get a salad at all of them. I don't have a slot for raw leaves."