Back to Tria

Philly has a number of great restaurants, but I've found myself returning to a select few so far to get to know them better. So it was no surprise that after a rainy Sunday spent in the movie theater (I will not divulge the movie we saw in order to protect innocent male parties), AP, MS, and BH and I found ourselves gunning for wine and food at Tria.

We ranged widely over the wine list, from zinfandel to pino & toi (which was my choice-- a bit of a thin and unmemorable white wine). A glass for each of us was just the right way to ease into Sunday evening.

Pino & Toi

And then a few bites to continue: some rosemary marcona almonds to start, which were decent but nothing to return for.

Almonds. Not quite spicy, not quite warm.

MS and AP shared the warm Tuscan white bean spread with baguette. There was some sort of spice on the toasted baguette (paprika?), and the dip appeared a tad oily, but AP especially seemed to enjoy it.

Looks almost like creme brulee with pink bread

Then there was the brie and strawberry bruschetta. The portion was tiny, but it was rich and very tasty. Oozy brie, sprightly strawberries, crunchy bread... nothing beats that.

Classy!

My choice was the beet and goat cheese salad, which I'd promised to return for when I saw it last time. I ordered it without the onions, and it was really good. There were enough beets so that the salad was substantial, and enough goat cheese not to be outmatched by the beets. The dressing was bright, and the bits of toasted almonds added nice crunch and heft. It's a really good salad, especially with a glass of wine.

Chee-EE-eese mountain

Is there really any better way to wind down a weekend than food and wine with friends? Don't think so. Tria made it happen, and I suspect we'll be back.

Tria
18th Street and Sansom
215-972-TRIA

Twenty Manning, part I

Upon the recommendation of AB, I made it a priority to check out Twenty Manning, a seemingly casual-but-upscale neighborhood spot on Twentieth Street just north of Spruce. A couple of weeks ago, I stopped in for a quick weeknight meal with AP for my first go-round.

I really like the vibe of the restaurant. It's got an appealing aesthetic, with lots of wood and white paint, straight out of a Restoration Hardware catalogue. And the menu covers all the new-American comfort food bases, from a small list of "snacks" (olives, fries) to complement the well-edited list of wines, cocktails, and beers to a range of burger options.

The meal started with some slightly unusual bread, warm (just out of the oven?) mini-baguettes tinged with caraway seeds. The bread is truly high quality, and though I'm not a rabid lover of the flavor of caraway, these were good enough to convince me to keep nibbling.

Best with some of their sweet butter

With the help of AP, we dove into the burgers head-on. He ordered the tuna burger, which comes with ginger-soy marinade and avocado-wasabi mayo. He enjoyed the burger, although he noted it could have used a bit more flavor from the marinade. The fries, however, which came in a portion bordering on "metric ton," were a huge hit-- crisp and thin and insanely, ridiculously addictive. Bring a fry-loving friend if you tackle the burger, because it's hard to eat that many fries on your own. (Note: Not impossible, but challenging.)

Burger dwarfed by mound of fries

My choice was the farmer's market beets with goat cheese, lavender honey, and aged balsamic. I was really looking forward to this dish (also on the recommendation of AB), and I was actually a bit disappointed that I didn't like it more. The beets were huge chunks of the red and yellow varieties, tender and flavorful, but their sheer quantity overwhelmed the other elements. After a while, eating a whole lot of beets just gets a little old... and even with the funk of the goat cheese and the tang of the balsamic, the dish was a little tiresome by the end. I'm also not the hugest fan of lavender in my food, and though this was surely not overpowering, I'd prefer non-lavender honey.

So many beets...

Based on first impressions, Twenty Manning was a solid three Offset Spatula joint-- casual, with friendly, accommodating service and decent, well-priced food. Would my second visit corroborate those impressions? Stay tuned...

Twenty Manning
261 S. 20th Street, at Manning
215-731-0900

And we're off: Fork eases us gently into Philly

After the big move down to Philly, my mom stuck around for a couple of days to help me get set up. Thanks Mom! And so of course we made time for some meals, including Saturday night dinner at Fork.

It's a welcoming dining room with a vibrant open kitchen, and especially when it's 100+ degrees out and it's air conditioned inside, Fork feels like heaven. The vibe is casual and slightly eclectic, just on this side of "fine dining."

To start, we were offered a choice of three breads. Mom took the fruit and nut with a devilish look on her face, and she gobbled it down. Mine was a multigrain roll, and it was hearty and studded with all kinds of yummy seeds that I gracelessly picked off the top.

Fruits and nuts inside

Yeah, this is a terrible picture, but you get the idea

To start, we split the baby lettuces salad. This was very simple, with two fried balls of lemon ricotta- surprisingly lemony, and a nice touch. Sadly, the leaves themselves were a touch oversalted, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

Lettuces, y'know.

For her entree, Mom went for the halibut, with parsley-garlic puree, wax beans, and parisienne potatoes (essentially little potato balls sauteed in butter). She enjoyed it, noting that the fish was well cooked and not dry at all. I do also applaud the kitchen for putting a textbook golden-brown sear on that puppy. Check it out:

Pretty fish

My entree was the pickled beets and garden vegetable salad. This was decent, but it didn't blow my mind; the vegetables (beans, radishes, beets) and tangle of micro-greens were fresh, but there wasn't anything particularly special about the dish. Every now and then, I'd get a bite of pickled beet, and the burst of vinegar was the tastiest thing about the dish.

There are veggies under there

On to dessert. We debated going elsewhere for ice cream, but instead we decided to stick it out at Fork-- which may have been the wrong choice, given that pastry doesn't seem to be the restaurant's forte. Mom went for the malted chocolate cream cake, which packed layers of flourless chocolate cake, caramel mousse, and malted vanilla cream, all enrobed in chocolate ganache and paired with blackberry gelato. This got the job done-- it was chocolatey, after all-- but the plating seemed to be a bit of an afterthought.

I guess?

I went for an order of salted caramel gelato, which came with a cocoa nib shortbread cookie. The gelato was mild and sweet, which was good, but it was the shortbread that was the surprise winner: crumbly, sugary, and buttery, all interspersed with little bursts of bitter chocolateyness from the nibs. I could have gone for just a plate of those cookies, frankly.

Welp, it's gelato. Plus cookie.

So all in all, Fork was decent. We agreed it didn't blow us away, but I'd certainly return if the opportunity presented. So therefore I award fork my inaugural Philly three OS rating, with an eye toward many more ratings to come.

Fork
306 Market Street, between 3rd and 4th Streets
215-625-9425

LWF&D goes to Napa, part II

The day after we arrived was my birthday, so of course I had booked something special for dinner. After hot-air ballooning in the morning and doing a bit of inaugural wine-tasting in the afternoon, we headed into downtown Napa for dinner. And where was our destination? No less than the most famous vegetable-focused restaurant in the country, of course: Ubuntu.

Frank Bruni brought fame to the vegetable restaurant-slash-yoga-studio when he wrote about it a few years ago. In person, the restaurant is quite large, with warehouse-style high ceilings and an insanely, almost preternaturally peppy and friendly staff, all of whom are clearly committed to the pro-vegetable ethos of the restaurant. We each started out with some bubbly in their elegant flutes, and after a few moments the amuse bouche emerged. Unfortunately, I have absolutely no recollection of what this was, except for the fact that the foam was bizarrely flavorful and the chilled soup below it was delicious.

Wine! Because it's Napa, of course

I want to say it was cucumber-based soup with tomato-basil foam?

To begin, we shared the "garden snake," a tangle of fresh greens and flowers accented with their signature "soil," essentially a way to repurpose vegetable scraps (as explained by our server). That night, the soil was made of charred kohlrabi, and it was a bitter counterpoint to the fresh greens.

Served on a plank of unfinished wood

As entrees, Mom and I shared the beets ("assorted beets, roasted and a la giardiniera, with preserved lime and pistachio; lightly cooked squash, mint, torn potatoes, purslane"). This was a symphony of flavors, with fuscia beet puree and all different kinds and colors of raw and cooked beets. The spice-coated crispy potatoes were hearty and tasty as well.

Isn't that beautiful?

We also went for the asparagus dish: "roast and raw asparagus, cool burrata coated with s&p potato chip crumbs; potato skin puree, pine nut/currant soffrito, baby head lettuces." This was an insanely busy plate, arranged like the forest floor, with tastes of asparagus, dollops of creamy puree, puddles of foam, sweet currants, and more. Oh, and the small spheres of burrata were as reliably milky and creamy as expected. I preferred this dish, potentially because the flavors were slightly more familiar (asparagus and cheese, sure!) while Mom slightly preferred the beets.

Asparagus and burrata. Of course.

Nothing on the dessert menu appealed (stay tuned...), but since it was my birthday, the kitchen sent out two mignardises with a candle. These were their play on PB&J, with jelly gelees sandwiched between peanut butter chips, and darn it if it didn't taste exactly like PB&J. Spot on and incredible.

Adorable. And there was a candle on the end of the plate.

Ubuntu was certainly an experience, and I'm very glad I went. It's not exactly the kind of food I crave every day, but it featured the most creative takes on vegetables I've ever seen, alongside an attractive dining room and super friendly and welcoming service. For those who appreciate food-- even those who aren't vegetarian-- it's a prominent example of a restaurant keeping the purity and integrity in its food while not forgoing creativity or deliciousness. If you're in the Napa region, it's an experience and a must-do.

Ubuntu
1140 Main Street, Napa
707-251-5656

A quick bite at Taboon

For Dad's last meal in town, we stayed local. Up 10th Avenue we went to Taboon, one of my local favorites and a place I hadn't visited in a couple of months.

Neither of us was very hungry, but it was pre-theater and we had to eat, so we stuck with appetizers for both of us. First, of course, came a gratis plate of their intoxicating flatbread, as good as ever.

Some of the best in the city

And then, for dad, came the Kube, a bulgur wheat croquette filled with skirt steak and a bunch of seasonings, all sitting in a pool of eggplant tzaziki. It was small but filling, and Dad enjoyed it.

Is Lady Gaga inside?

My choice was the beet and pear salad, with a leaf or two of arugula and some oil-soaked walnuts. I had requested goat cheese rather than the included blue cheese, and a small ramekin of about a half ounce of goat cheese semicircles came on the side. Overall, the salad was okay, not the best I've ever gotten at Taboon; without the cheese mixed into the salad, and with the combined effect of the beets and the crunchy pear cubes, the overall impression was a bit too sweet. Ah well, next time I'll stick with my tried-and-true zucchini cakes.

Pretty

And that was that. I'm still a huge Taboon fan, and I'll be back soon to try my old favorites.

Taboon
773 Tenth Avenue, at 52nd Street
212-713-0271

Getting salted in Philadelphia

Last week, I went on a whirlwind down-and-back day trip to Philadelphia for a quick school visit at Wharton. (Yes, it is b-school application season, and this year my hat is in the ring...) After wandering around the campus, attending an information session, and meeting up with a friend who's a student there, I had about two hours before my train back to NYC. So what to do, what to do? Eat, of course!

First, dinner. Word on the street (Internet) was the Gia Pronto was a good place to get a salad. So with the help of a campus map and a decent sense of direction, I soon found myself at this typical take-out salad, sandwich, and soup joint on Spruce Street.

I went for a make-your-own salad, peering over the glass barrier to choose from the range of high-quality but expensive ingredients. Into my arugula base went organic beets, grilled portobellos, and capers for good measure. I asked for balsamic vinegar on the side, but I suspected I wouldn't need it due to the mushrooms' marinade and the capers' brine. And I was right, kinda.

I took my salad back to the Penn bookstore and dug in. It's a big portion, to be sure, and they give you a big ol' scoop of each of the ingredients. The problem with this salad was evident upon first bite: it was a complete and utter salt bomb. A huge scoop of capers made it salty, no doubt, but I had anticipated that; what I hadn't counted on was the fact that the mushrooms were also unbearably salty on their own. I pondered for a moment whether the salad was edible, and I decided that if I ate it quickly and tried not to focus on the salt, it was. So I ate it.

Boo.

I was disappointed, though. The ingredients seemed well-prepared aside from that, and the greens were fresh. Why dump a ton of salt in your mushrooms, though, Gia? Why? If that hadn't been the case, even with the capers I think this would have been a good salad. It coulda been a contender...

Gia Pronto
3736 Spruce Street
Philadelphia, PA
215-222-7713

Blossom Du Jour truly brings the "shrewd"

Last week, I was in Chelsea on my way to watch the (AWFUL, TRAGIC) Pats game and found myself in need of a take-out salad. I happened across Blossom Du Jour, the takeout branch of Blossom, one of the best-known vegetarian/vegan outposts in New York City. I'd been to Blossom a year or two ago and not really enjoyed it, but for some reason I had higher hopes for Blossom Du Jour. Why does my brain do things like that? I don't know.

The space itself is kind of odd-- mostly empty, not much seating, but not much else, either. There's one very small, sleek fridge built into the wall, which holds the take-out salads and sandwiches. There wasn't a huge variety-- four salads on offer-- and since they were all pre-made, what you got was what you got. I grabbed a "Two-Tone Beet" salad, described as "marinated red and yellow beets, peppers, field greens, citrus dressing." It felt very, very light in my hand, even with the included enclosed container of dressing, which should have tipped me off to something, but it didn't. I paid my $8 and change and left.

When I got a chance to eat the salad a bit later in the evening, it was... well... okay. There were about a dozen pieces of field greens and three little dishes of shredded vegetables. the "marinated" red and yellow beets didn't have much discernible flavor beyond "wet," and it's notable that there weren't any peppers-- they seemed to have been replaced by equally "marinated" (wet) carrots, which honestly was all the better for me because I'm not a huge pepper fan. I realized only mid-consumption that this was a raw salad, so nothing was cooked, meaning the only real flavor came from the mildly tangy dressing. And given that most of the room in the container was taken up by the empty space around the plastic dishes, after finishing off the salad in approximately six bites, I was hungry about three minutes later.

There is really not much in this small, small salad

So, while there wasn't really anything WRONG with the salad per se, overall it was pretty flavorless and unnecessarily small for an outrageous $8+ dollars. I felt, honestly, ripped off. And while I appreciate that it's great for vegans to have another eating outlet in the city, Blossom Du Jour is really not a place I'd recommend or visit again myself. I should have paid more attention to the tagline: "Shrewd Fast Food." When the restaurant advertises itself as tricky and/or cunning, you're bound to leave with a (proverbial) bad taste in your mouth.

Blossom Du Jour
174 Ninth Avenue, between 20th and 21st Streets
212-229-2595

Watch your mouth at Elsewhere

After a last-minute summons last Saturday evening, I skipped out into the frigid night to meet JR at Elsewhere. It's the newest entry into the Hell's Kitchen dining scene, provided by the folks behind House of Cheese Casellula.

JR had gotten to the restaurant just before me, and apparently the host had told him there was a waitlist. I looked around the nearly-empty restaurant and asked the host how long the wait was; he said there was a table in the indoor garden area that was available immediately. Um, okay? We'll take that. Right then.

So we sat in the indoor garden, which was actually quite lovely. There's a big (real) tree, and although the patio-furniture-style tables were slightly rickety and a bit obnoxious, it's nice to have a bit of the (faux) outdoors in the city.

We ordered from the not-quite-friendly but not-quite-rude server, and our drinks arrived promptly. JR went for a glass of red. Since it was still early in the night, I went for a glass of water. Oh, and the menu notes that Elsewhere only serves water upon request. Sure. I get it (I'm actually very pro-conservation), but it struck us both as unnecessarily standoffish and/or a bit holier-than-thou to state it like that on the menu. How about just having your servers ask tables if they'd like water? That gets to the same end without the whiff of alienation.

Anyway, how was the food? The menu has options of various sizes, from "share these" to "smaller" to "larger." We chose a couple of the "share these" and one "smaller" for my meal.

The first bite to arrive was the horseradish popcorn. It looked innocuous enough, and upon first bite, it was actually rather bland. I expected a salty, spicy punch of horseradish, but it actually manifested itself in a rather creeping heat that soon filled your mouth. It was one of those things that kind of grew on you after a couple of kernels. One warning: this popcorn is absolutely, positively drenched in oil (or butter? it tasted more like oil). I had maybe a quarter of the bowl, and without going into too much detail, I'll say that that quarter bowl haunted me for the rest of the night... if your stomach is not used to really heavy, greasy foods, this will throw you for a loop. Consider yourself warned.

If you look closely, you can actually see the oil

On to lighter things. JR ordered the Dilly chili green beans, which were pickled haricots verts with a chili kick. And when I say kick, I mean "roundhouse to the taste buds," because a few green beans in and JR was positively tearing up and groping for water across the table. These little buggers were spicy as hell.

Fire in the hole!

I thought I'd escaped the fiery torment, but turns out my own selection--"baby beets, horseradish cream, chestnuts"-- was incredibly spicy as well. The little beets tasted almost pickled and were quite delicious, with an assertive vinegary bite; the horseradish cream was really mild, providing only the heat from the horseradish and very little additional flavor (it made me yearn for the tang of the traditional goat cheese accompaniment). As far as I could tell, there were no hazelnuts in this dish, only a showering of parmesan. It was an interesting take on the traditional beet salad, and on balance it was enjoyable. Plus, it cleared out my sinuses.

Also surprisingly spicy

So, I suppose it's time to rate Elsewhere. To be honest, I'm a bit torn. I really, really wanted to like the place; I wanted it to feel welcoming and warm and... well, like a big ol' cozy sweater. But it didn't. With their confusing door policy, the whole no-water proclamation, the aloof service, and the food that kicked you in the mouth, the experience was a little... aggressive. In your face. That's about it: Elsewhere is in yo' face. Would I go back? Sure, I'd give it another shot, but I doubt it will ever become my go-to neighborhood hangout. For that, Elsewhere gets three Offset Spatulas and a watchful eye towards the future.

Elsewhere
403 W. 43rd Street, at 9th Avenue
212-315-2121

More Chicago: Tavern at the Park

While Bossman and I were in Chicago for our conference, we set out one night in search of a nice dinner. Our first choice, Gage, was insanely packed, so we left and wandered up Michigan Avenue to see what we could find. Unfortunately, what we found was driving sleet, so we dashed into the first welcoming restaurant we could find: Tavern at the Park.

There was a lengthy wait here, too, but we hovered by the bar and grabbed two bar seats relatively quickly. Two drinks-- a beer for Bossman; a glass of Valpolicella for me (yum)-- and we were set. Then the food arrived.

Bossman went with a chopped steak cheeseburger with American cheese and a side of delicious, delicious fries. This burger was huge and was pronounced delicious.

Burger dwarfs bun

An extra side of garlic parmesan broccoli was unimaginably rich-- swimming in a bath of melted something (garlic butter?) and covered in cheese, this was broccoli at its most sinful.

Looks virtuous, but...

My choice was the goat cheese and beet salad. I'd say this was ah-kay; it was an enormous portion, but the beets were a tiny bit overcooked and over-coated with dressing. The candied walnuts were delicious, though.

Bigger than it appears

And such was our dinner. We both left stuffed and headed back to the hotel for some sleep before another full day of conferencing. Overall, Tavern at the Park was one of Chicago's entrants in the three Offset Spatula market: decent food, a comfortable ambiance-- it gets the job done.

Tavern at the Park
130 E. Randolph Street, Chicago
312-552-0070