Taste Tube

Science, you magnificent bastard.

You’ve done it again.

First, it was penicillin, spaceships, cloned sheep, personal computers, Flintstones Vitamins, ChapStick and iPods.

Now, it’s dinner. Let us explain…

Unveiling Atera, an obsessively seasonal Tribeca restaurant that’s concocting high-concept/fully foraged tasting menus in a state-of-the-art underground lab, taking reservations now.

Right now, you’re probably making several calculated/absurd assumptions about this place. Thinking it’s the kind of establishment that would have a living wall full of harvest-ready herbs. Or a professional forager on retainer. Or birchwood for dessert…

Okay, clearly this isn’t your first rodeo.

So yes, weird dinners. That’s the play here. Ten to 14 avant-garde tasting plates that are developed daily in a chemistry lab and served nightly in an open kitchen. For two seatings. Of 17 people. That’s it.

You’ll need to be quick with a reservation (or stealthy with a bribe), because the very limited stools around this slate-and-stainless-steel chef’s table will fill up fast. Also, you’ll want to stay abreast of incoming ingredients, because they’ve got a guy (the same one David Chang trusts to source his sacred pork bun components) constantly scouring the country looking for strange/sumptuous foods to add to the ever-evolving menu. Things like sea rocket, sassafras, spruce and shad roe.

It’s impossible to get good shad these days.