Sam Mason's Mayonnaise: Former WD-50 Chef To Open Aioli Shop In Brooklyn

Chef To Open All-Mayonnaise Shop

Since he left his post as the highly lauded, absurdly creative pastry chef at Wylie Dufresne's WD-50 restaurant, Sam Mason has bounced around quite a bit. He opened (and closed) a cocktail-centric restaurant in downtown Manhattan called Tailor, he hosted a food show on IFC called Dinner With The Band and he opened a relaxed bar called Lady Jay's in Williamsburg. But his next venture is far odder still: he's opening a store in Brooklyn that will sell only mayonnaise.

Apparently, the new venture is an outgrowth of a small mayonnaise business he's been running out of food festival Smorgasburg in Brooklyn all summer. The business is called Empire Mayo, and is a collaboration with fashion designer Elizabeth Valleau. Flavors for the high-end mayo, which comes in cute little jars, include parmesan, mushroom, foie gras and coffee.

We at HuffPost Food love a good flavored aioli, and have been to restaurants with mayo lists longer than their wine lists. But they're usually french fry specialists, and the different varieties are dipping sauces for crunchy french fries. The main hangup we're having with the idea of an all-mayo storefront is one of decor. When you walk in, will you be surrounded on all sides by refrigerators stocked with full rainbows of mayonnaise? That sounds a little scary, even to us.

The Empire Mayo storefront opens in November at 564 Vanderbilt Ave. in Brooklyn's Prospect Heights.

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