Molecular gastronomist-turned-pizza chef opens new Flatiron District eatery

Dufresne, whose Lower East Side molecular gastronomy restaurant, wd~50, closed in 2014 and whose second restaurant, Alder, closed in 2016, hadn’t worked in a restaurant kitchen for eight years. He opened Du’s Donuts and Coffee in Williamsburg in 2017, but it closed during the pandemic.

“In these times of self-reflection,” he said, “I really had to admit that I missed restaurants.”

Almost three years to the day when the pandemic shut down the city, Dufresne will open Stretch Pizza on Park Avenue South with Breads Bakery owner Gadi Peleg, a permanent iteration of a six-month pop-up the chefs tested in 2021. The 60-seat full-service restaurant will serve 12-inch pizzas, salads and other appetizers, desserts and a full bar.

The partnership between Dufresne and Peleg was rooted in mutual respect and admiration for each other, said the former, and despite not really knowing each other, a mutual friend had encouraged them to collaborate on a project before the pandemic.

“I approached Gadi and said, ‘How about pizza?’ To which he correctly replied, ‘You don’t know how to make pizza,’” Dufresne said.

He conceded there was nothing in his previous work that involved pizza, but yet he rushed back to his apartment around the corner and baked Peleg a pie in his countertop pizza oven.