Elettra Wiedemann’s Gracious Goodness
By
September 13, 2011
ELETTRA WIEDEMANN. PHOTO COURTESY OF MATTHEW CARASELLA
This time of week, Lincoln Center can feel like a Fashion Week war zone—long hours, longer waits, and barely any breaks between shows (if you’re doing it right). One may ask: where’s the buffet? Well, there is none. But daughter of Isabella Rossellini and face of Lancôme Elettra Wiedemann provides something even better than an all-you-can-eat salad bar: a delicious pop-up restaurant called Goodness, located at 44 W. 63rd Street.
“Food has always been a way for me to understand larger issues that I’m interested in,” says Wiedemann, who recently wrapped up a dissertation at the London School Of Economics on the future of feeding urban populations in light of climate change (try saying that three times fast). “After I finished my master’s, I gave myself a break for a year. In that time, my mind sort of crunched all the information that I ingested, and I literally woke up one day and had the idea for Goodness.”
The restaurant, which Wiedemann put together in a short five-week window, features a new chef at its helm every day; she’s already called on the likes of Whitehall’s Christopher Rendell and the folks at The Fat Radish for mouth-watering three-course menus.
And although the elegant eatery is sure to keep its food locally sourced, Wiedemann rightly shies away from making eco-conscious cuisine its selling point. “I just think so many things are greenwashed nowadays, and I didn’t want that to be the focus of Goodness,” the model-turned-restaurateur tells us. “The focus should be that it’s fun, delicious, and convenient. The fact that it’s green is an added bonus.”
Goodness boasts a healthy and not-so-healthy menu (“Goodness” and “Goodness with a bit of Badness,” respectively), and will feature foods by Seersucker’s Rob Newton and Ed Brown before it closes up shop. Get it while it’s hot!
GOODNESS IS OPEN THROUGH SEPTEMBER 14 AT 44 W. 63RD STREET.
