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Summary

There are more than 20,000 restaurants in New York City. Rumor has it that, given the rate at which they open and close, you could spend a lifetime eating out three times a day and still not visit all of them. The likelihood that any new restaurant will survive is slim. The likelihood that a tiny restaurant with an unknown chef in an unfashionable neighborhood will survive is slimmer still.

And rave reviews from the city's most renowned restaurant critics? Dream on.

But Wylie Dufresne '92 has beaten the odds- and then some. Two years ago he opened his own restaurant, 71 Clinton Fresh Food. Before he could even finish tweaking the wine list, the reviewers began waxing enthusiastic. Five months later, New York magazine put him on the cover and named him one of the 10 best young chefs in town. Not long after, The New York Times commissioned him to write a series of food columns.

The rush of attention was truly unprecedented. "I don't think anyone has had the kind of success that Wylie Dufresne has had," said Gillian Duffy, food editor of New York. "It's an entirely unique situation."

Not bad for a guy who once tended a salad bar at Dana.

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