A chic new museum cafe will offer diners a rare and controversial dish — horse tartare, or raw horsemeat.
The M. Wells Dinette, opening at MoMA PS I in Long Island City, Queens, will have a sushi display case with a hand grinder inside covered with horsemeat, according to New York Magazine’s Grub Street blog.
Aidan O’Neal, a manager of the restuarant, said he and chef Hugue Dufour discussed importing Canadian horsemeat and think New Yorkers are ready to try a new taste.
“New York is a great city for that,” he said.
“I think New York diners are very open to eating other things.”
The M. Wells team offered horse during Brooklyn’s GoogaMooga food festival — “Horse Bologna and Foie Gras Grilled Cheese.”
“It sold really well,” O’Neal said.
And it is legal to offer horse in New York restaurants, the city Health Department said.
Diners on the same block as the museum had mixed feelings.
“Mr. Ed and Trigger would be very upset,” said Denee Paciello, 48, said.
Would she try it? Neigh!
But fellow diner Patricia Jones said she’s tried it in Italy and liked it.
“It was cured and they made it into a sausage. It was pretty good,” she said.