'O3's a Charm

See salt: Dishes like the carpaccio of sweet shrimp, sea beans, mango, American sturgeon caviar and shrimp essence at Salt were among the year's best.

Photo By: Michael T. Regan

A review of this year's best in food and wine -- plus what's to come.

by Maxine Keyser

In last year's roundup, I wrote that we were poised on the brink of war, that economic problems would probably lead to a wave of anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism and that the Middle East situation was far from resolved. Well, most of what I wrote remains with us as we segue into 2004, except that we are no longer poised on the brink of war -- we are in it. But while 2003 certainly wasn't the best of times globally, it was not the worst of times locally. We did have the opening of the new Constitution Center that can make us all proud, there have been wonderful exhibits at the Art Museum and the Philadelphia Orchestra welcomed Christoph Eschenbach to the glorious Kimmel Center. And the restaurant scene is tripping along merrily in the direction it was headed last year -- lots of small, bistro-type BYOBs to please everyone, lots more restaurants of every ethnicity and an occasional blockbuster. A meal without organic, seasonal or locally grown products is almost unheard of now, and chefs stand together in their support of small farms and cooperatives. By all accounts, the food we eat today should be about the purest and cleanest that we've ever ingested.

Despite the rage of the Atkins and South Beach diets, we are still fighting a battle against obesity on all fronts. People are definitely eating out, but not all are eating very wisely. But they are drinking wine; Wine Spectator reports that the country's total wine consumption increased 6 percent in 2002 to 245 million cases, and should expand to more than 300 million by 2010. Californian output is still strong but faces increasing competition from abroad, and not only from France, Italy and Spain but Australia, New Zealand, Chile and Argentina. Red wines have become the most popular, probably because of all the much-touted health benefits, especially Rhône-style wines and the Pinot Noirs that are grown most successfully in Oregon.

Italian cuisine is Philly's favorite food. Note the opening this year of Vesuvio, Bronzino, Melograno, Caffé Casta Diva, August and Stephen Starr's newest star, Angelina, with Chris Painter's inspired cuisine. Add those to 100 or more other little spots in South Philly, the big guys like Maggiano's and Buca di Beppo, and haute Italian spots like Panorama, La Famiglia, Savona and the still-great Vetri -- it could be downtown Naples!

French food, so much out of popularity lately, was revitalized when Olivier De Saint Martin took over Caribou Café, and Loie opened on Rittenhouse Square. The Italians lost the Monte Carlo Living Room when it reopened after its redecoration with Robert Capella at the helm, whose cooking is suspiciously French (Capella recently left the restaurant). In reverse of that, we lost The Blue Angel, but we gained Angelina. And a new kind of cuisine began to surface in places like Salt, Bliss and Lacroix, born of true creativity and global outlooks. These are places that have broken out of the Caesar salad/rare tuna/crûme brèlée mold that was once so new. "The new cooking seems to have produced less a new freedom than a revived orthodoxy," according to New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik.

The suburbs got The Wooden Iron in Wayne, Plate in Ardmore and Sprigs in East Falls, while Blue Bell got Alison Barshak back to town. The Moshulu came back as well, and though Trust is gone, Stephen Starr's El Vez has risen from its ashes.

Cuvée Notredame, Marco's, Trust, Bella Bistro -- all gone, but none felt more keenly than the twilight of Neil Stein's empire, with the demise of Avenue B and Stein's loss of Striped Bass. Cheer up however, for New Joe's Shanghai soup dumplings have come to town. There's always Borgata in Atlantic City if you want a little glamour and more good eating, especially at Susanna Foo's Suilan and Luke Palladino's Ombra.

This year I've especially enjoyed dishes that were airy and original -- a carpaccio of sweet shrimp, sea beans, mango, American sturgeon caviar and shrimp essence at Salt, truffled cappuccino with baby conch and baby clams done by Dominique Macquet at Chez Colette during The Book and the Cook, and a ragoèt of snails and scallops with Kaffir lime at Edouard Loubet's wonderful meal at Brasserie Perrier during that same event. It wasn't all foam, because the velouté of green lentils with a sweetbread garnish at Lacroix was quite astonishing, and though I keep returning to Cucina Forte for Maria Forte's fabulous ricotta cheesecake and gnocchi, the best pasta this year was chocolate fettuccine with wild boar sauce at Vetri.

We have bistros galore, we have cantinas and we have plenty of mac and cheese -- I really don't see any trends forming. I still don't think Austria will ever make it in Philly, nor do I hope that the "gourmet" special at Hooters, of 20 chicken wings and a bottle of Dom Perignon (about $150), will become the norm. In the end, I shall let Tom Stoppard say it for me: "We shed as we pick up, like travelers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind." Happy 2004, I hope.

-- Respond to this article in our Forums -- click to jump there