Fashionably Late

Mediterranean newcomer Privé shows that Old City may have life in her yet.

by Trey Popp

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Published: Oct 21, 2008

Shirley Nicole Fonner PEPPER IN SOME FUN: Privé's stuffed peppers burst with flavorful orzo, feta and beef short rib. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

I

t seems weird to say, but the Old City dining scene has been kind of stale of late. After a decade in which the neighborhood metamorphosed from a nighttime no man's land into a compact zone where you could eat at a different restaurant every night for a month and still have more to try, the last year has not featured much in the way of big openings.

When bankruptcy felled Bluezette in 2006, rumors that it would be reborn under the same ownership gave way to an empty storefront that remained dark throughout 2007. Half a block in either direction on Market Street, the new kids of yesteryear kept chugging along: Anjou (2002), Tangerine (1999) and the pioneering Fork (1997). Had Old City reached its saturation point?

It took many months, but those spots finally have a new neighbor. Cousins Nick and Bill Lavdas hired 23-year-old chef Peter Karapanagiotis away from Brasserie Perrier to run a menu of Greek small plates at the newly christened Privé. And aside from its banal name, there is plenty to like about the place.

The eclectic interior aims for nightclub chic and hits it more or less on the nose: crimson red carpeting, chairs upholstered in a black-and-white speckle as dense as a dalmatian's coat, walls and windows and artwork partially veiled by luminescent drapery formed by thousands of strands of thin white string. It seats 150 on two floors and the sidewalk, but long halls and stairways break up the dining and lounging areas into a series of smaller, more intimate spaces.

The kitchen is still tinkering with the menu, which breathes enough inventiveness into the classic components of Greek cuisine to set the restaurant apart from more tradition-bound places. A rabbit risotto — demoted in status to a "first" not long after I was served a portion bordering on full-entrée size — had immense depth. The tiny shreds of meat were almost as small as the rice grains that had soaked up so much of their flavor, and sprigs of fresh thyme touched that richness with a simple but very effective herbal counterbalance.

Rosemary jus played a similar role in tiny red peppers stuffed with orzo, feta and cubes of beef short rib so small they could balance on a single fork tine. Karapanagiotis clearly knows how to meld flavors into creations that are more than the sum of their parts.

Carnivorous options weren't the only crowd-pleasers. A composed romaine salad married diced, roasted red peppers and manchego cheese with a charred half-head of lettuce for another simple and very pretty dish. A heaping pile of woodsy mushrooms rode atop a giant crouton of rosemary focaccia that had been toasted just enough not to get soppy with the Boursin cream sauce that rounded out the dish. Better yet, this assembly had been dabbed — not drenched, as so often is the case — with truffle oil.

Unfortunately, Privé's seafood did not meet the same mark. Sea scallops came overcooked and a little rubbery inside sheaths of bacon. And although no dish had a snazzier presentation — the plate was painted with bright red and DayGlo yellow sauces — I couldn't get any of that beet-horseradish flavor to rub off onto the scallops. Elsewhere, mussels were piled into a bowl like a mound of unredeemable mistakes. The meats were stringy and their off flavor spoiled a chorizo broth that was heavy-handed to begin with.

The service could do with some improvement, as well. Our dishes came in a giant, table-cramming wave. By the time you made your way through them, the last ones were no longer hot. Then it kind of took forever to get a check. There was no problem with friendliness or helpfulness, but more care needs to be taken to impart a better rhythm to dinner at Privé.

But don't let that discourage you from checking out this welcome addition to Market Street — especially since you can just place your order a few dishes at a time. There's admirable variety and ingenuity in Privé's small plates, all of which are big enough to give a party of four several bites. It's hard to bring something new to a neighborhood where nearly every food niche seems to have been filled, but the Lavdas cousins are showing that it's still worth a solid try.

(t_popp@citypaper.net)

Privé | 246 Market St., 215-923-8313, priveoldcity.com

Hours: Dinner served daily, 4-11 p.m.; late-night menu available daily, 11 p.m.-2 a.m.; brunch served Sat.-Sun., 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Small plates, $2-$19

Wheelchair accessible

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