La Tache

Photo: Jill Paider

For years, La Tache has been the baby pit bull of restaurants: adorably lovable, until it bit you in the ass. It wasn’t always this way. When Dale Levitski and Stephanie Izard were there, the place was tops. But things slipped. There wasn’t enough turnover. The kitchen got bored and lazy; ditto the servers, who could barely be expected to have tasted the wines by the glass. Still the people came to dine—you know how persistent spurned lovers can be. Eventually they must have wised up and stopped coming around, because a few months ago La Tache shuttered and put up the kiss of death: a sign saying it was closed for renovations.

The renovation line was no joke, though, and La Tache reopened in early May with new life. Now the walls are draped in a deep blue wallpaper so slick they appear cool to the touch. And though some of these servers have been around awhile, now they walk around like peacocks, proud, territorial and knowing quite a lot about their spot. It could be the new look of the place they’re so proud of. It could just as equally be the food. New chef Andrew Alcid and his sous Jordan Rose are knocking out bistro staples as if they just got off the boat from Normandy: French onion soup with an acidic punch of cider. Roasted chicken with fava beans and a skin that crackles like Pop Rocks. Steak frites with a deliriously rich blue-cheese sauce. The profiteroles—a La Tache staple—still end meals here on a note of disappointment. But who knows how long that will be the case—the way things are changing around here, they might be gone by the time you finish this sentence.

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