Fond

Fond
1537 South 11th Street Philadelphia, PA 19147 | 215.551.5000
Tuesday through Saturday 5:30PM until 10PM
Per their website, "A contemporary American restaurant. Focusing on passionately prepared, refined and flavorful fare with warm and welcoming service."

Located in South Philly on the corner of S 11th St and Tasker, this Passyunk Square restaurant offers views of the South Philly Singing Fountain and bustling Passyunk Square nightlife.  We had the good fortune to sit down for dinner around 630pm on a Friday night just before the dinner rush started.  Parking tends to be a bear in this neighborhood so give yourself a good 10-15 minutes extra time to find available street parking. $8 Valet parking available Friday and Saturday nights 5pm through midnight per Fond's Website.

The restaurant adds a nice al fresco dining area decorated with potted plants and an awning in case of inclement weather. A few diners were enjoying some after work drinks when we arrived in the well kept al fresco dining section.

We sat down and received some window seats next to the door.  The place-mats, menus and china were adequate, nothing special, but had a clean, modern, contemporary look. The menus were mounted on cork-board which I thought was an unusual, nice touch.  One minor caveat is that being next to the door in 80+ degree weather with all glass windows around you makes for a somewhat moggy dining experience. I did not perspire through my shirt--the mark of a truly hot environment, but I could feel my face beginning to glisten throughout the meal. Either the air conditioning was not up to the task or the constant opening/closing of the door made for a typical "tropical greenhouse" experience while dining.

Lovely cork-board menus.  This was certainly very original and an idea I have not seen implemented at other restaurants. Delightful. After perusing the short-ish menu, which by the way I deeply admire, I hate wading through several pages trying to decide, we decided on the chef's tasting menu of 7 courses for $67 a person. An optional wine pairing was available for $30 more per person but we chose not to add that.

My drink of the evening was: Lemon Sprig $12 absolut vodka, limoncello, thyme. It was served up, and personally I like my drinks a bit sweeter, so it was a little on the boozy side for me.  Would have liked a sweeter limoncello in there, but that is personal opinion.  A perfectly adequate and tasty drink, just a caveat, it is made quite strong.

Dinner began with a lovely spicy watermelon soup amuse bouche. Very tasty and completely delicious.  Had a bit of a kick too, but in this case I enjoyed the sweet and spicy combination.  It was served chilled.

The culinary pilgrimage began with this lovely Rock Shrimp Ceviche cucumber, long hots, avocado puree, gazpacho. Here we can see the server adding the chilled gazpacho to the ceviche.

Chicken Liver Mousse pickled red onions, grilled sourdough $12. Finally, we get to a restaurant were the mousse is served at the correct temperature.  Just cold enough so it can be sliced with a butter knife and spread on the sourdough.  I don't know how many places I've been where its been too cold and it would literally clump together on the knife. The sourdough was good and the pickled onions in a vinaigrette of sorts was a welcome edition and accompanied the mousse quite well.

Greek Style Escargot piperade, fennel, feta sauce, garlic toast $14. Piperade is a typical Basque dish prepared with onion, green peppers, and tomatoes sautéd and flavoured with red Espelette pepper.  The feta sauce was sweet and creamy and mixed well with the escargot. My friend did not care for the snails but my gullet certainly did.  I polished off both courses.

Skate Wing corn risotto, pancetta, cilantro, sherry reduction $27. Pancetta is Italian bacon made of pork belly meat that is salt cured and spiced with black pepper. These are the little chunks in the corn risotto.  The skate was well cooked and the sherry reduction accompanied nicely.  Sweet and creamy, this dish was easy to finish.

By my calculation, it was still one more course before the two dessert courses, so when this came out I was wondering what had happened.  Our server politely informed us this was a complimentary Grand Marnier sorbet to cleanse the palate before the next course.  So delicious. It was a raspberry sorbet and the hints of Grand Marnier permeated the sorbet.  Fantastic.

Pork Belly fingerling potatoes, melted leeks, hericots verts, pork jus $28. Pork was cooked just right- not too rare and the fingerling potatoes and pork jus mixed well. Haricot vert is indeed French for green beans. Haricot meaning beans and vert meaning green. French green beans are longer and thinner than most.

At this point I was almost stuffed, but given we had a true pastry chef in the back, I decided to go the culinary distance so to speak. I'm glad I did. Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Cannolis seasonal local fruit and complementary garnishes $8. The peaches were divine.  The cream cheese was orgasmic and the addition of a blueberry drizzle made my mouth water.

Malted Milk Chocolate Ice Cream peanut brittle, chocolate crumble, peanut butter ganache $8. The peanut brittle was very rich with the chocolate ice cream.  The ganache was rich and tasty.  After a total of 9 courses before this however, it was a bit of a swing to finish.  Probably would have tasted better at the beginning of the night, but who am I to judge just based on the insufficiency of my stomach to force more food down.  A perfectly adequate, very rich, tasty dessert.

Of Note:

Bathroom was clean and well decorated.  I did however only notice there was one bathroom, but it was spacious and roomy. I have to comment on the presence of a handicapped bar above the toilet. I was laughing inside while conducting business in there because there is no way a handicapped person would do well in this restaurant. First off, there are two sizable entrance steps to get into the restaurant.  No way a wheelchair is making it up there without the assistance of 3-4 burly line cooks or waitstaff.  The entrance doors were not large enough for wheelchairs to get through.  Finally, the isles are narrow and always full of scurrying patrons and staff.  I had to turn sideways at times to slide by.  A wheelchair trying to access this place would need a grand procession and the full compliance of staff and patrons alike to re arrange the furniture and stand if necessary to let the wheelchair slide by.

Good to know the staff is sanitizing frequently.

Nice view of the restaurant interior.

 This plaque is dedicated to the person responsible for the design and construction of the bar itself.  Quite intricate woodwork here.

One of the lighting fixtures used to give this restaurant the warm ambiance it had.

View of the fully stocked bar.

Diners seated at the bar.

Another look at the gorgeous cork board menus.

The tiling on the steps out side the restaurant.

The caricatures in the bathroom, presumably of head chef Lee Styer (right), pastry chef Jessie Prawlucki (left).

(Left to Right) chef Lee Styer, Jessie Prawlucki, and Tory Keomanivong.  The three owners of Fond. Photo credit: http://media.philly.com/images/20121213_inq_table13_600.JPG