The restaurant business is a tough one. Making it a year is a big deal. Celebrating a decade? Even less common. This month, At The Table marks 10 years in business with an inventive throwback anniversary menu running September 22 through October 3. The Wayne-based eatery started on Louella Court before moving to more expansive digs on Lancaster Avenue, where it opened on September 23, 2023.
Recipe for Success
At the helm of this success are a married couple and chefs, Tara and Alex Hardy. Her cooking is rooted in comfort food, his in fine dining. The combination has become the restaurant’s signature, defining trait: a kitchen that gives a plate of pasta and a langoustine toast the same seriousness.
Photo credit Lexy Pierce; courtesy Punch Media LLC
To mark the anniversary, the Hardys poured over 10 years of menus and pulled one special dish from each year. The result is a special three-course menu. Guests choose a first course, an entrée and a dessert from ten dishes spanning from 2016 to 2025. Options include the wild mushroom toast with truffle cream cheese and Gruyère (that has been on the menu since the restaurant’s first week in operation), the langoustine toast with royal osetra caviar from its most recent tasting menu, and a coffee-rubbed venison, a Hudson Valley duck breast and a butternut and chanterelle tortellini among the entrées. The anniversary menu runs for nine nights only and will not return; the à la carte menu runs alongside it throughout.
Photo courtesy of At The Table
The special limited-time menu is $100 per guest, with a $30 supplement for the Maine lobster tail and dry aged steak. The restaurant’s full à la carte menu is offered on the same nights, so a table can order from either—or from both. The bar is also pouring a short list of cocktails and wines by the glass chosen by the chef duo. This menu is available every night except September 29, when the restaurant hosts a private event.
Photo courtesy of At The Table
A Decade of Dining
“I went back through ten years of menus to build this,” says Chef Alex. “There are dishes on here I haven’t cooked in six years. A couple of them are better now than they were then.” Ten years of mastering the art of his craft has come with plenty of bumps along the way, specifically a big one in 2020 with COVID-19 restrictions. Like every independent restaurant in the country, At The Table spent that year fighting to stay open. Fortunately, it did.
Chef Hardy in his old kitchen at 11 Louella Court. Photo by Steve Legato
“Ten years ago we had a BYOB, a short menu and a lot of nerve, and then 2020 came, and we fought through it like everybody else,” Hardy says. “What kept this place open wasn’t a plan. It was a staff who kept showing up and guests who kept coming back. Every year on this menu has their fingerprints on it. Ten years is their number as much as it is ours.” Cheers, At The Table, and here’s to the next decade!
About At The Table
At The Table is a chef-owned restaurant in Wayne, serving seasonal modern American cooking with French technique, offering an à la carte menu and a monthly tasting menu. Reservations are available through Resy and by phone at (610) 964-9700. At The Table serves dinner from 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.
At The Table
118 W. Lancaster Ave., Wayne
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Dining and Cooking