Waiting Game

Lafayette Bistro is a neighborhood place in need of more neighbors.

by Trey Popp

Neal Santos LIKE BUTTAH: Lafayette Bistro chef/co-owner Ramzi Boughamni's fettucini, topped with a pink sauce and fresh, juicy scallops, is both decadent and delicious.

[ review ]

The waiter gazed out the window. He studied a wall. He paced across the room and fiddled in a service station. Paced back. Leaned against the front door, peering out over the lamp-lit snow slush for someone, anyone to appear with a bottle of wine tucked under arm. Behind him were the first four customers of the night, and room for 46 more. The epiphany was slow in coming. Two hours later, the first diners became the last, and the only. They paid, put on their jackets, and stepped into the intersection of Fifth and Fairmount streets. Lafayette Bistro glowed through its wraparound windows, its interior once more as still as a scene behind museum glass.

The waiter hadn't given up hope. "You never know," he said. "The other night was just like this, and then 10 people walked in after 9 o'clock, and three more tables after that. Out of nothing." There's plenty that's hard about being a waiter. None is worse than just plain waiting.

Lafayette opened in December, and has perhaps also been waiting awhile to strike a chord with neighbors. It occupies a former antiques business remodeled by partners Mondher Khayat and Ramzi Boughamni, who replaced everything but the old-timey ceiling and a pair of lovely chandeliers whose amber glass harks back to Depression-era humbleness. The menu has something of a modest, dated quality to it, as well. Tunisian-born Boughamni runs the kitchen. He injects the occasional North African note into his meals, but mostly sticks to the canon of American-style Mediterranean cooking.

So there are pastas with red, white or pink sauces. Chicken dishes your grandparents would find familiar (breast stuffed with spinach, red peppers and mozzarella; breast dipped in egg, dressed with a white wine and lemon sauce). Crab-stuffed mushroom caps. Two variations on pan-seared veal cutlets — which is two more than you'll find on a lot of contemporary menus.

For a BYO named after a place in Tunisia, Lafayette has a lot in common with any number of South Philly Italian joints. But then Northern Liberties isn't exactly teeming with restaurants in this niche (though Il Cantuccio, two blocks down Fairmount, is one).

If this is beginning to sound like a long windup to an unexciting pitch, my slow-paced dinner here felt a little the same way. But that's misleading. After all, a meal need not be daring or innovative to be convivial. Sure, nothing I ordered had me quaking in my seat with anticipation. But most of what I ate reminded me that tried-and-true formulas are, well, tried and true.

I've had some variation of cheesy stuffed mushroom caps a hundred times, but that didn't diminish the pleasure of Lafayette's full-bodied portobello version. Boughamni banishes the breadcrumbs in favor of lump crab, draping a thin circle of melted fresh mozzarella over top where it can't gum up the main event. Same goes for his fettuccini in pink sauce, graced by fat, juicy scallops. It reminded me of the pastas my mother used to make before the discovery of abundant cholesterol in my father's arteries. Sun-dried tomatoes were a nice touch on this one, injecting a fruity tartness and chewy texture that counterbalanced the soft decadence of the rest.

HALF OFF DEPOT

Why live life at full price?

You wouldn't want to eat this richly every day, but every once in a while can't hurt too badly. Though in my case it became twice in a while; later in the week, for the first time ever, I poured heavy cream into a tomato-based sauce to get a second shot of that (usually forbidden) pink-sauce pleasure.

There are lighter options. Grilled whole dorado stood out, its skin crisped to a savory crackle, the flesh underneath perfectly done, needing nothing beyond a squirt of lemon juice. Whole fish will be a constant here. This supremely fresh one showed why. And the waiter was right to recommend scallops wherever on the menu they popped up. An appetizer trio rode atop a fruit salsa that rang with ripe cantaloupe, cleansing the palate with each swallow. The meaty arms in a simple octopus salad were uneven, though — one chewy morsel for every three tender ones, and underseasoned across the board.

Boughamni's Tunisian background comes to the fore in his couscous, served in a ceramic tagine. The semolina ballast was rich with the absorbed flavors of steamed cabbage and onion and especially carrots. But the grilled chicken breast on top, though moist and tasty for breast, lacked the slow-cooked depth (not to mention dark meat) that distinguishes superior chicken tagines.

For dessert, it was back to the Italian-style basics. A rustic tiramisu. A well-executed molten chocolate cake flanked by ivory scoops of gelato. But first, a complimentary digestif. You'll need it after portions as big as the ones you've off-loaded into takeaway boxes. Between the basilcello and the chocolate one, choose the basil. It's clean, bright, and medicinal in the right way. It shines like liquid emerald. The chocolate comes off like a milk shake, which is not what you need.

If your party's departure happens to leave the restaurant deserted, you might find yourself wondering why. The seafood was plentiful and fresh. The pastas were hearty and fairly priced — big enough to serve two, along with a couple of appetizers. That basilcello was an unexpected jolt of hospitality and flavor. The meal turned out better than the menu.

Lafayette isn't exciting enough to pack in customers elbow-to-elbow, yet it shouldn't be empty, either. The lonely glow of those vacant tables is lovely in an Edward Hopper kind of way, but the scene would make better sense with a few more people in it.

(t_popp@citypaper.net)

Lafayette Bistro | 501 Fairmount Ave., 215-928-9200. Open daily, 4-10 p.m. Appetizers, soups and salads, $6-$12; pasta, $14-$19; entrées, $18-MP. BYOB.