Getting ready for opening
Nov. 12, By Christian Murray
M. Wells, the acclaimed Long Island City restaurant that closed in the summer of 2011, will be opening its steakhouse this evening.
Sarah Obraitis, who owns the restaurant with her husband Hugue Dufour, said that the restaurant will be open to friends and associates tonight and Wednesday. It will be open to the general public from Thursday and beyond.
The restaurant, called M. Wells Steakhouse, is located out of a former auto body repair shop at 43-15 Crescent Street. It is directly across the street from Rockrose’s Linc LIC residential building.
Dufour told LICPOST recently that the restaurant would be a “meat temple” that would serve steaks and “European-style” cuts of meat.
The restaurant seats 70 people—excluding a workshop area where Dufour is building a catamaran. However, the catamaran is a work in progress and will not be completed by the time the restaurant opens.
The focus, nevertheless, will be on meat and poultry. “It won’t be pretentious,” Dufour, the Canadian native, said.
M. Wells has been operating a dinette out of a MoMA PS1 (22-25 Jackson Ave.) since the fall of 2012. The dinette pays homage to the building’s former identity as a schoolhouse with communal tables.
However, the dinette’s hours are limited—open Thursday-Monday from 12- 6 pm.
“It’s a small operation and we need to make a living,” Dufour said. “It’s hard to live when all you can provide is lunch (given the limited hours).”
Dufour has no plans to close the dinette when he opens the restaurant.
M. Wells built a huge following in Long Island City when it operated a tin-can diner at 21-17 49th Avenue.
Last minute fixes before opening
