Tailor (Wallpaper)

Published January 2008

Rarely has a first-time restaurateur's first joint been awaited with such a particular mix of media frenzy and outright impatience as Sam Mason's Tailor, which opened on a Soho side street in September. Mason, trained in the Wylie Dufresne (who strolled into the dining room one fall Thursday) school of New York-style molecular gastronomy, offers up a menu of twelve small dishes, nominally divided into Salty and Sweet. As we discover when we dive into our searingly intelligent snapper with avocado-pistachio ice cream or caramel panna cotta with corn sorbet, those are more guidelines than rules, and the cocktails – including a cheerleader-pink bubblegum martini and the curiously-titled Blood & Sand -- only further this grand experiment. Mason's got some real hits, like an un-missable pork belly with miso butterscotch, but some plates, like a "we're still not sure if we love it or hate it but boy are we glad we tried it" foie gras and peanut butter terrine, will only get better with age. Which, we're sure, they'll get to.