Volume 74, Number 19 | September 02 – 09 , 2004
FOOD
The Tasting Room
72 E. First St.
212-358-7831
Mon-Thurs, 6 pm – 1 am
Fri, Sat – 6 pm to 2 am
Restaunrateurs do everything together
Young couple encourage leisurely diningBy Aileen Torres
Colin and Renee Alveras in front of their restaurant “The Tasting Room” on E. First St. Guests can choose from 300 wines on the list — all from American wineries — to complement a three-course dinner. Each item on the menu comes in “tasting” and “sharing” sizes.
Colin and Renee Alevras are the husband-and-wife team that own “The Tasting Room,” a cozy restaurant located at 72 E. First St. that serves “spontaneous American” cuisine, as Colin puts it. He changes the menu nightly, depending on what he finds at the local farmer’s market.
The couple first met in 1993, in cooking school where they washed dishes together. They were married seven years ago and have been working as a team ever since.
“We have a really good time,” said Renee. “We’re really lucky because everything we have is intertwined. We have a child (their son, Lincoln, is almost two-years-old) we have a business, and we have an apartment [on Third St.].”
Living and working together means that Renee and Colin see each other constantly every day.
“It’s pretty intense,” said Renee. “For us, work is our life, and that is what we talk about, and it is our pleasure as well as our passion as well as our income.”
Colin, 33, is the chef. He is in charge of the menu and shops for ingredients daily. Renee, 34, handles the business end, booking reservations and interacting with guests.
This division of labor is what makes the restaurant run, and it’s also what makes the couple’s relationship continue to work.
“I don’t get involved with the making up of the menu,” said Renee. “It’s what he does. And I know that he’s not going to get involved with the running of the dining room. That’s my area.”
“It can be challenging,” admitted Colin about working with his wife. “But after this much time, it just makes sense. It’s what we do, and it’s always been what we sort of planned to do.”
For years Renee and Colin talked extensively about starting their own restaurant. While traveling together in the summer of 1996, they stopped off in Paris to work as apprentices at a local restaurant.
“We started talking about marriage and future and having our own restaurant,” said Renee.
When they returned to New York City, they realized they needed to gain more expertise to be able to start and run a successful business. Renee decided to learn the managerial side. She worked at the New York Palace Hotel as a restaurant manager for about two years. Colin focused on food and wine, getting a job as a private chef to develop his cooking style and then taking a break to be an assistant sommelier to learn more about wine. He also worked as a banquet waiter to gain experience in the dining room.
The couple created a business plan in 1998, then began to look for a space in 1999. In June of that year, they found the spot at 72 E. First St., which is close to where the couple was living at the time, on 7th St. They had originally wanted a larger space that would seat about 60 people — their current dining room only seats about 25 — but what sealed the deal was the tree in front of the building.
“We fell in love with the tree out front,” said Renee. “We figured we could spend our days here, sweeping the sidewalk under that tree. It just welcomed us, and we felt good.”
So, they signed the lease and spent the next six months renovating the space, installing the necessary amenities to build a kitchen in the basement. They also, with the help of a friend, designed the place, which is inviting and minimalist.
The Tasting Room officially opened on the Monday after Thanksgiving in 1999. New York magazine had called the Alevrases and said they needed to come by in order to complete an article with a Wednesday deadline about the restaurants along First St.
“So, we opened on that day, and it was great. It worked out really nicely,” said Renee.
Business has been consistently good from the start, even though the Alevrases do not advertise. Their customers usually come by word of mouth. Many are people from the neighborhood, and some are tourists.
Guests can choose from 300 wines on the list — all from American wineries — to complement a three-course dinner. Each item on the menu comes in “tasting” and “sharing” sizes.
“Generally, for two people, we recommend five or six tasting items on the menu,” said Renee. Dinner for two, with wine, costs about $55 to $65 per person. The wines by the bottle generally range from $20 to $400, with most in the $50 to $80 range. Wines by the glass are generally $6 to $14.
Dinners at The Tasting Room are typically leisurely, with groups lingering for two or more hours. That’s the type of intimate, relaxed behavior that the Alevrases encourage.
“We just want people to enjoy the food and enjoy the service, but also to enjoy the fact that they’re actually having dinner together,” said Colin. As for their own eating habits, Renee and Colin schedule daily family meals with their son.
“You know, at a certain level, I think what we’ve been able to accomplish, we’ve done only because we’re together and we do it together,” said Renee about herself and Colin. “Neither one of us would be organized or ambitious enough to do it on our own. Our skills and our abilities and our desires sort of complement each other, and that’s why it works out.”
“It’s really neat,” said Colin. “I sort of can’t imagine doing it any other way.” With a successful business and everything they need nearby — the farmer’s market, their apartment and the playground and school for their son — the Alevrases never have to do it differently.
