Alpen Rose

Alpen Rose is the city’s newest steakhouse. Except it isn’t really a steakhouse at all.

The door at Alpen Rose is locked.

There’s a bell. You ring it, and one of the panels opens, a friendly face on the other side asking who you are and what you want. Not a speakeasy gimmick, exactly, but a threshold to be passed through, off of 13th Street and into the rarefied atmosphere of the restaurant. It’s supposed to feel like a departure, like you’re passing through something (a wardrobe, a tornado, whatever) into someplace other. And thresholds are one of those things that Michael Schulson, his wife and partner Nina Tinari, and their design teams have always been very good at.