Le Restaurant at All Good Things
Monday, April 22, 2013 at 06:20PM 
Le Restaurant at All Good Things is a mashup of trendy ideas:
1) It’s a restaurant inside of a market (Brooklyn Fare, Il Buco Alimentari).
2) It serves only a tasting menu (Brooklyn Fare, Atera, Blanca).
3) It’s open only on certain days (Frej).
4) It has a French name (Le Philosophe, Le Midi, Lafayette), even if the connection to French cuisine is, at times, tenuous.
5) It serves austere Nordic-style plates, many of which consist of vegetables arranged like abstract art (Frej, Aska, Acme).
Despite the feeling you’ve been here before, Le Restaurant manages to seem new, and not quite derivative. Even if some of the trends are recycled, no one could say they played it safe. Not when the only menu is a $100 tasting, served just three days a week (Thursdays to Saturdays).
The good news is: the Great Recession is officially over, if places like this can open and thrive. And thrive, I hope it will. New York needs more restaurants willing to take chances, even if this one misses the mark.
The chef is Ryan Tate, formerly of Cookshop and Savoy, where he was chef de cuisine. He told Grub Street that his approach “is really just meant to get people to relax,” a peculiar aim. I never before thought that people needed $100 tasting menus to accomplish that.
I wish I could endorse it. They’re such nice people here, clearly trying hard, clearly eager to please.
And they’ve done such a lovely job decking out the post-industrial basement, in the bowels of Tribeca’s new upscale grocery, All Good Things. It’s a comfortable, minimalist, quiet space, admitting plenty of natural light from an outdoor garden.
But ultimately, the chef must be held accountable for his $100-per-head 7-course tasting menu (over $200 after drinks, tax, and tip). There was only one outright dud, but most of the remaining courses were more “interesting” than good.
