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“Aldea”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	Mediterranean	Flatiron	Moderate	Great

A few weeks ago I decided it was time for me to have dinner out with the girls. It had been six weeks since I’d actually ventured out into the city from my baby-cocoon in Brooklyn and I missed my girlfriends. Quite frankly, I missed the life I led before I became a mom. I don’t know if moms are supposed to admit this or not, but I’m going to be straight with you. Adjusting to full time motherhood from full time me-hood has been a challenge. While Emily has been learning to live outside the comforts of the womb, I too have learning how to live outside the comforts of a self-driven life, trying to navigate the overwhelming new mom tsunami of sleep deprivation, hormones, anxiety, and insecurity, in addition to the deprivation of my old life. It’s not like I didn’t know what to expect, but I guess somehow, I didn’t know the extent or gravity of what to expect. And I’ve been having a rougher time than I’d expected, and I longed for a night off. I wanted to be selfish again. I dreamed of dressing up (read: wearing anything not covered in spit up), of lounging over cocktails, lingering over dinner, and just plain old relaxing in the company of some of my closest girlfriends. And so I made a date with Jamie, Susie and Adrienne for dinner at Aldea, a new place from chef George Mendes that I’d been hearing good things about. And at dinner, part of my dream came true, and part of it didn’t.

I did end up having a great meal. Not only is the food good (more on that later), but the space, a duplex which is slim and rectangular with more height than width, is lovely. Designed by Stephanie Goto (Morimoto, Corton), it is modern and spare, and quite elegant, dressed in a luxurious swath of cool airy ocean tones—white, blue, aqua, and sky. Prisms of light reflect off bamboo shaped tubes of glass that descend from the ceiling like a waterfall. The effect is serene and calming, not cold and stark. The compact L-shaped bar, seen through the glass façade, welcomes you with white stools pressed against smooth slab of marble. Pass through a narrow lane behind the bar stools and you’ll find a collection of roomy banquettes facing a sparkling new open kitchen with a comfortable food bar that resembles one you might find at a sushi restaurant.
On the counter lining the pass through to the kitchen were bowls of brown farm eggs looking so fresh I thought they must have been warm and just fetc ... [more, click below]

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Posted: July 12, 2009

Other restaurants in Flatiron :
+ Suenos   + Amuse-- Closed   + Dos Caminos   + Lucy-- Closed   + Gramercy Taver   + Veritas   + Fleur De Sel   + Bolo -- CLosed   + City Bakery   + Shake Shack   + Kalustyan's Cafe   + Devi   + BLT Fish   + Sugarcane   + BLT Prime   + Barca 18-- CLOSED   + Beppe   + Barbounia   + Boqueria   + Eleven Madison   + Lonesome Dove-- CLOSED   + Hill Country   + Olana   + Wildwood   + Primehouse   + Allegretti   + Bar Breton   + Aldea   + SD26 by Bao Ong   + ABC Kitchen   + Ciano   + The NoMad   

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