Pie Piper

The pizza at Zavino is good — but it's far from the only reason to visit.

by Trey Popp

[ review ]

It has all but become a law of Philadelphia dining: Whenever the city is ready to turn the corner on a culinary trend, 13th Street is where the steering wheel spins.

Are those scents of a Mexican revival wafting out of South Philly? Bam, Stephen Starr plunks down El Vez at 13th and Sansom. Is Tiffin about to conquer the market for Indian 2.0 from a random perch on Girard Avenue? Time for Valerie Safran and Marcie Turney to add Bindi to their gourmet empire one block east of Broad. And say, are Philadelphians starting to show a hankering for upscale cocktails? Welcome to 13th Street, APO Bar + Lounge.

Trends aren't born on this corridor, but it's where they get anointed and gather strength to spread. If Malcolm Gladwell ever updates The Tipping Point, look out for that Fletch F. Fletch Afro bouncing along the street between Lolita and Capogiro.

He'll want to duck into Zavino along the way. Those first two letters signify the latest blip of good news for long-suffering Philadelphia pizza lovers. Flatbread fanatics who can't be bothered to reserve their dough ahead of time have gotten a few strong alternatives to Tacconelli's lately. Stella has become the standard-bearer in the Center City sit-down game, SliCE has elevated the downtown delivery scene, and Mount Airy's Earth Bread + Brewery is the best thing to happen to family-friendly dining in ages. Zavino, a casual trattoria that's been bustling on the corner of 13th and Sansom since January, marks another important milestone: good pizza at a place where the pizza is only the third- or fourth-best reason to go.

Chef Steve Gonzalez hails from Southwest Philly but has spent the last decade or so out of town, including a stint at New York's Co. under dough darling Jim Lahey, godfather of the no-knead bread craze. His résumé also includes Vetri, and that's the one that shows. More on the merits of his pizza in a minute — his homemade pasta is what's really distinguished Zavino in its first few months.

First, though, let's qualify that praise. There's nothing precious or fussy about these $8 and $9 plates — which are smaller than your standard entrée, but definitely bigger than a snack — so don't come in expecting to find shredded scallop meat reconstituted into post-modern "spaghetti." That doesn't play in a bar kitchen that boasts a whopping six burners. But Gonzalez has turned that limitation into a virtue, drawing on his whole-animal cooking philosophy to turn out some of the best down-home noodle dishes in town.

On a day when a salad claimed all the kitchen's octopus tentacles, Gonzalez channeled the head meat and some fish-bone stock into tufts of capellini so thoroughly oceanic you could practically hear seagulls. (He's got a knack with fisherman-style food in general; if you like anchovies, don't miss the bagna cauda that dresses his leafy shaved-root salad.) Meanwhile, trimmings left over from a pig that had mostly gone to make hams and terrines became a ragu whose awesome depth demanded — and received — a plate of ethereal gnocchi to absorb the richness. Too bad they'd run out of the pig's head ravioli already. A previous afternoon had featured one featherweight version stuffed with Swiss chard under fried sage and browned butter, and another filled with bacalao. Whether he cuts his dough in ribbons or tubes or fills them with ballasts as substantial as salt cod, Gonzalez imbues his pastas with a lightness that is hard to match.

The pizza lineup is comparatively static, consisting of about half a dozen options that don't change much, though they do span a decent range of flavors. Tomato-sauce pies are as simple as garlic and oregano, or as busy as sopressata and olives with pickled red onions and pecorino. White pies feature a judiciously applied béchamel — a particularly effective foil for the woodsy Kennett, with its fragrant cargo of local mushrooms (mercifully free, for once, of truffle oil). The toppings here outshine the crust, which I kept wishing had a crispier bite. But at $8 to $13 for a meal-size pie, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better deal.

That value proposition extends to the wine service, which, after the pastas, is the second big reason to squeeze into one of Zavino's tight tables — or nestle up to the cream-colored marble bar. Reasonable markups and offbeat varietals are enough to make for good exploring; throw in a staff that's quick with down-to-earth suggestions and complimentary sips and you've got the tasting trifecta.

Right now the list leans toward Europe, embracing unusual stuff like a single-varietal Nerello Mascalese from Sicily and best-drunk-young quaffs like a Dolcetto di Dogliani redolent of eucalyptus and a Ribera del Duero Joven that had me searching the PLCB Web site to make a special order as soon as I got home. Gonzalez says he's keen to bring more domestic juice into the mix, but his yen is for far-out styles that can be hard-to-get, like the experimental Scholium wines, made by an ex-philosophy professor whose methods are so unorthodox he readily admits to pouring failed batches down the drain.

Take that attitude too far, and trouble awaits. But Zavino's down-to-earth cooking and pricing keep everything in balance. So does its service. Tired of the bottled-water hard sell? "Welcome to Zavino. Would you like filtered flat water, or complimentary sparkling?" Want to linger over that excellent mint panna cotta until the bittersweet slick of chocolate underneath it is nothing but fingerprints? No check came to end either of my two visits until I asked for it. Those are the kinds of touches that make it easy to breathe. So welcome to 13th Street, Steve Gonzalez. We've been waiting for you.

(t_popp@citypaper.net)

Zavino | 112 S. 13th St., 215-732-2400, zavino.com. Open for lunch daily, 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m.; open for dinner Sun.-Wed., 5 p.m.-mid; Thu.-Sat., 5 p.m.-2 a.m. Cured meats, $6; vegetables, $5; pizza, $8-$13; seasonal specials, $7-$20; cheese, $3-$12.