Land of Twenty

Munching the numbers: Salmon gravlax, with sour cream, potato blini, red pepper oil and horseradish cream, at Twenty21.

Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Twenty21's fare is simple but not by the numbers.

by Maxine Keyser

Twenty21One Commerce Square, 2005 Market St., 215-851-6262

Appetizers, $6-$14; entrees, $17-$28 Lunch: Mon.-Fri., 11:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.; Dinner: Mon.-Sat., 5-10 p.m.

Wheelchair accessible. Smoking permitted at the bar. Reservations suggested. All major credit cards.

You drive into the elegant (for a parking lot) space, complete with potted palms, that burrows beneath One Commerce Square; you leave your car (the parking is free); you rise to an outdoor patio, complete with magnificent fountain, that is wall-to-wall with Gen-Xers and cacophonous music. Remain calm, this is the crowd from Marathon Grill’s happy hour across the courtyard. It has nothing to do with Twenty21, the restaurant that has taken over the space where Cutters once was.

Inside, all is serene. Although they retain the handsome mahogany wine and spirits wall that defines the bar and lounge area, all is changed to a palette of warm amber tones accented with plum. Colonnades separate the main dining room into distinct semi-private spaces; shimmering bronze drapes also serve to define the space, and the whole three-tiered area is lit by drum-shaped chandeliers.

The first thing you will note is the menu, a brown paper sheet that is cleverly wrapped around your napkin and is jam-packed with offerings. They call the food American with European influences, and, as is the case in finer restaurants these days, they celebrate the best ingredients of each season. The award-winning wine list is not cheap -- $40 for a Jadot Macon-Village seems excessive to me -- but you can find a Jaboulet Parallele at $29, or a Sartori Pinot Grigio for $26. They also offer 22 wines by the glass. We start with Ketel One martinis, and have a Bordeaux later in the meal. I am surprised when we ask to have the wine decanted that a place with such an important wine list doesn’t possess a decanter.

Chef Martin Doyle, a Dubliner who attended Dublin College for his culinary training, worked at the prestigious Berkeley Hotel in London, and in New York, and finally ended up at the ill-fated Windows of the World, seems anxious to break with tradition. He sends out escargot on a bed of gorgonzola polenta with a light tomato sauce that doesn’t quite make it. The snails are tender enough, but they are still best in the classic garlic butter. The ravioli du jour is spinach pasta with an intriguing filling of blue cheese, cilantro and scallions, but the dough is tough. A sirloin carpaccio, however, glows with garnet freshness; dabbed with a bit of pesto and rosemary, it is a stunning preparation.

One night, there’s a lobster tart on puff pastry that is an excess of buttery lobster, wild mushrooms and fava beans. Its richness plays against the austerity of a simple salad of asparagus and julienned beets. Doyle’s version of foie gras terrine -- two generous slices rimmed with luscious fat -- is a wee bit underdone, although the unctuous flavor, aided by a sweet onion marmalade, is fine. One perfect diver scallop on a bed of mashed potatoes appears -- all soft and slippery and very tasty. He even makes a brandade de morue, a dish of salt cod, potatoes and garlic, pounded to a froth and beloved by the French. When Doyle plays it straight, he is at his best.

There is always plenty of fish at Twenty21 -- five varieties as a rule, from herb-crusted salmon, to sapid halibut over a barley risotto with grilled vegetables, to the seven spice-crusted tuna. All the dishes come with different vegetables that complement the main course. I can vouch for the clay-pot baked grouper that, cooked together with tomatoes, cured olives, capers, beans and potatoes, melts into a sort of Spanish/Italian mix of tender fish with an almost puttanesca sauce. The Dover sole is a marvel of restraint, perfectly boned and sauced. For the meat-eaters, the 12-ounce sirloin is done au poivre with decent frites in a little metal pot. The meat is prepared with a strong, meaty essence, and it is very hot, since it includes red, green and black peppercorns. For a completely old-fashioned, excessive dish, I vote for the veal Napoleon -- veal fillets bedded on spinach and wild mushrooms, topped with sweetbreads, the whole thing doused with an earthy truffle sauce. I expected to hate it but it was delicious; there go my theories about simplicity right out the window. The idea is formulaic -- a piece of protein, a piece of something complementary, and a sauce over it. What the chef does with this formula is another matter.

Pastry chef Todd Van Winkle has not been asleep at his marble block. He produces molten chocolate confections; apricot cheesecake that is quite good; Irish whiskey and toasted oatmeal crème brûlée, an odd combination and not appreciated by those with me whose attention is captured by profiteroles, each filled with a different mousse -- chocolate, vanilla, raspberry, caramel -- and covered with chocolate sauce beneath a cloud of spun sugar.

Twenty21 is the product of a partnership between Doyle, Sue Mahoney and Mick Houston, all former employees of the Seattle-based Cutters. Aside from Doyle, either Mahoney or Houston are on hand to welcome you and supervise the black-clad staff (who are, incidentally, most impressive in their attention and knowledge of the menu). Lunch at Twenty21 is a sold-out deal, while dinner may not have quite caught on yet. The spacious, lofty room has a hushed ambience that is totally civilized, and makes dining a pleasant experience. Were it not for a tendency to oversalt, I would pronounce most of the dishes perfect. Doyle is a worldly guy who uses top ingredients -- sometimes, though, he uses too many of them. Remember, less is more. All in all, Twenty21 should be on the road to success, and when the weather gets cooler, you won’t have to fight through the hordes on the terrace.

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