Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times
DINER ACOLYTES From left: Elise Minter, Dovie F. Wingard, Eric Mueller, Ramona Ponce and Paul Soulellis.
There is no chocolate pudding at this museum cafeteria. But there is blood pudding, beef cheek stroganoff and maple pie at M. Wells Dinette. The Montreal chef Hugue Dufour and his wife, Sarah Obraitis, earned foodie fame for their short-lived M. Wells Diner in Long Island City, Queens. Their new venture opened three weeks ago inside nearby MoMA P.S. 1, blending a schoolroom motif (desks and chalkboards) with diner accents (chrome and stools). Early this month, they doused controversy by striking a planned dish of horse meat tartare from the menu, but they still offer plenty of adventure to the loyalists, neighborhood workers and unsuspecting museumgoers who stream inside for lunch.
IN THE SEATS Elise Minter, 27, and her aunt, Dovie F. Wingard, 61, sharing a communal table, and dessert, on Thursday with Ramona Ponce, 53, her husband, Eric Mueller, 50, and Paul Soulellis, 44.
WHY THEY CAME Ms. Wingard, a retired lawyer, was treating her niece before she starts in the profession on Monday. They were Diner acolytes, as were their tablemates, artists having a monthly reunion.
ON THE PLATES To start, Ms. Wingard and Ms. Minter shared the smoked herring Caesar salad ($8) and rabbit terrine ($13). Then they ordered cod brandade, with mashed potatoes, black olive oil and oven-dried tomatoes ($10); and beef cheek stroganoff ($16). They had glasses of petit syrah ($10) and cabernet franc ($10). For dessert, Ms. Minter ordered the Paris-Brest, a pastry wheel filled with hazelnut butter cream ($15); and pumpkin tres leches ($10).
Mr. Soulellis started with the M. Wells version of French onion soup ($9), as did Mr. Mueller, who called the cheese, rosemary and bacon mélange “voluptuous.” Ms. Ponce was agog over her escargot and bone marrow ($12). For entrees, Mr. Soulellis had the stroganoff. Ms. Ponce and Mr. Mueller ordered bibimbap with raw tuna, poached egg, oyster and marinated raw scallops over rice with red wine vinegar and maple sauce and (the M. Wells signature) shaved foie gras ($22).
The five diners compared notes. “I saw you soldiering on, one dish after another,” Ms. Ponce joked to the other women, who donated their leftover Paris-Brest, while Mr. Mueller ordered maple pie ($7).
WHAT THEY TALKED ABOUT Ms. Wingard was sharing work-life balance tips with her niece. “I’m not sure she can have a life for a while,” Ms. Wingard said. Ms. Minter agreed: “This is a last hurrah.”
There were toasts, meanwhile, to Ms. Ponce’s and Mr. Mueller’s coming wedding anniversary on Halloween. “Whenever we get together, it’s a celebration,” Mr. Soulellis, a book artist, said.
None at the table were troubled by the horse meat hullabaloo. Ms. Wingard had eaten horse in France. Ms. Minter had just had foal carpaccio in Iceland. And Mr. Mueller might have tried it at M. Wells, where, he said, ordering an odd menu item reliably “changes from a risk to a good investment.”
