Long weekend!

Columbus day is a bank and city holiday, but not everyone has it off. Wonderful opportunity to go check out M. Wells Dinette in MoMA PS1. K and I went to M. Wells when it was a Long Island City diner, and found ourselves puzzled at the hype - the food was not spectacular. It was, in all honesty, not very good. (Except for the metal bucket of perfectly spiced and spicy crawfish). But New Yorkers lamented the loss, food mags and blogs wrote glowing reviews, and everyone it seemed looked back on the summer of M. Wells before it shuttered its doors.

So maybe we had missed something?

We're going today to have another crack at it. For all we know having dined at the original only once, maybe we were just complete newbies and didn't know what the hell to order.

photo from MoMAPS1 website

Update 11:50pm

What a fun experience. The building, a former elementary school, was so evocative of my childhood, from the windows on the doors to the design of the staircases. M. Wells Dinette was very very good. Very rich, which meant that I couldn't finish the few dishes we ordered, and that I took a nap shortly after coming home from Long Island City. The tomato tart came on a crust so buttery it was almost TOO flaky, and the mushroom soup was fantastic. The foie gras and oatmeal dish was interesting, and worked well, but it was one of the ones I had to leave unfinished. K would have liked more contrasting texture, but he doesn't like oatmeal to begin with.

The experience of eating in a former classroom is enough to bring me back there. The white washed walls and bright fall sunlight made me dream of spending many mornings there atop the wide concrete steps. M. Wells, you have made me a believer.

foie gras & oatmeal

rabbit pasta

mushroom soup

tomato tart