Cherry on top
Wild Cherry (West Village)
RESTAURANTS • First Person
Restaurants used to be fun.
Now, meals at big-deal restaurants are often over-orchestrated affairs edited within an inch of their lives, calibrated to elicit feelings of satisfaction and even wonder, but probably not fun.
Wild Cherry, the new restaurant from the team behind Frenchette and Le Veau d’Or, is very fun. Tucked behind a curtain inside the Cherry Lane Theatre on Commerce St. in the West Village, everything about the place points toward a good time. There are too many patterns running up against each other on the walls and floors, the music is a half-notch too loud, the logo is an A+, the fonts are perfect.
Bulbs inside lighting fixtures in an array of shapes and sizes are dimmed to an ideal level, revealing supple green banquettes, a gorgeous horseshoe bar, and a slatted ceiling. A tilted mirror running the back wall showcases the whole melange from another angle. The design is so good, and so much, that it’s hard to focus on the food.
But let’s stop looking in that mirror and take in what’s on the plate. Does the cheeseburger live up to the hype? Yes. Its juices soak into the bun just shy of too much. Its onions are softened just the right amount. What’s that Bernaisesque sauce? It’s sauce charon, but don’t get too caught up in the details: It’s spectacular. Are the fries crisp, and do they somehow retain their heat until you’ve picked the last nub out of the dish? They are and they do.
Other highlights: a martini dirtied by celery brine and a tincture made by steeping oyster shells in grain alcohol; the scallop crudo, thinly sliced with alternating slivers of butternut squash atop brown butter and squash puree; and beets, sunchokes, and a pile of apples and endives with another dazzling puree, this one pine nut. We didn’t have the alfredo or the frog legs, but follow Wild Cherry on Instagram and you can lust after them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
The literal cherry on top comes riding a black forest sundae, with chunks of brownie and candied cherries, all swirling down the side of a classic low-slung silver coupe.
The only problem with all this fun: how hard it is to come by. Wild Cherry houses just 12 tables and 12 more bar seats. Some of the bar seats are set aside for walk-ins, but if you try to reserve a table (released at midnight, 14 days in advance), you’ll likely fail.
When we were leaving, the Cherry Lane lobby outside had filled with people waiting for the 9p show (Weer, also fun!). Two of the theatergoers ducked their heads behind the curtain that separates the restaurant and asked if they could come in for a drink and a bite. There isn’t time, the host explained, and besides, we’re fully committed. How about after? No, sorry, it’ll be late (and again, we’re fully committed). It went on like this for longer than it should’ve, and will likely be the in-house microtragedy playing in perpetuity at the Cherry Lane every night.
After all, their desire to get in was understandable. Something good was definitely happening behind that curtain. But the host was charged with keeping it that way, and he was doing quite an admirable job of maintaining order inside the buzziest restaurant in town.
Wild? Not on his watch. Fun? You bet. –Josh Albertson
→ Wild Cherry (West Village) • 38 Commerce St • Tue-Sun 5-11p • Reserve.