Natural Selection - Matthew Lightner’s Atera
The Daily - Saturday, April 28, 2012
The well-groomed man who met us at the door of the new restaurant projected an aura of unflappable confidence, but something was amiss. He ushered us into an elevator that brought us to a tiny downstairs room lined with cookbooks, and explained that the health inspector had arrived for a surprise visit. He asked if we wouldn’t mind waiting a few moments to go upstairs, and poured a glass of bubbly for our trouble.
Routine health inspections are a headache for any restaurant, but the greater scrutiny of New York City’s ultra-hyped Atera will come from the public. Chef Matthew Lightner, 31, is making a big bid with his move from Castagna in Portland, Ore., where he wooed the local crowd with a philosophical, artistic style of cooking previously unseen in those parts. Manhattan, however, marks Lightner’s entry onto the world stage.
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