Barbuzzo

Barbuzzo
110 S 13th St, Philadelphia, PA 19107 (215) 546-9300
Mediterranean Kitchen and Bar
Lunch Monday-Saturday 12-3pm
Dinner Daily, 5pm-12am

Barbuzzo bills itself as a Mediterranean style kitchen which means offerings consist of small plates (tapas). A typical meal might include 3-4 of these plates depending on how hungry you are. Barbuzzo is one of several restaurants owned and operated by Chef Marcie and Valerie Safran. Their other popular establishments include lolita, jamonera, grocery, verde, open house, little nonna's and marcie blaine chocolates.

We were able to sneak in for dinner around 8pm on a Sunday night where the dinner rush was under way.  We were seated promptly but I must say, while I appreciate economy of space, I was wedged between the wall and table. My dinner companion, inches away from the next table had the delight of enjoying their entire dinner conversation.

However, this is a blog about food, so space issues aside, let us begin.

SHEEPS MILK RICOTTA (10) extra virgin olive oil, vin cotto, herbs, sea salt, grilled country bread. Quite fantastic.  Very creamy ricotta and a nice blend of the olive oil herbs and vin cotto. Vincotto "cooked wine" or Sapa is a dark, sweet dense condiment produced artisanally in the Puglia/Apulia and Marche regions of Italy

CHEESE BOARD (17) with membrillo, roasted garlic mustard, toasted hazelnut honey, fig compote, baguette, crostini and marcona almonds ·
-chevre dargental, goat, france ·
-salva cremasco, cow, italy ·
-bianco sardo, sheep, italy ·
-mountain gorgonzola, cow, italy

BUTTERNUT SQUASH ARANCINI (9) crispy butternut squash risotto balls, walnut-basil pesto, pumpkin seeds and grana padano.  Fantastic offering here. I couldn't taste the butternut squash as much as I would have liked unfortunately, but this dish was still amazing.

BLACK AND WHITE CORZETTI (16) fresh gulf shrimp, spicy sausage, confit tomato (slow roasted tomato), french feta, pine nuts. Corzetti are a kind of fresh pasta typical of the Ligurian cuisine of north-west Italy, and traditional also in the area of Novi Ligure just across the border with Piedmont in the Province of Alessandria.

SPAGHETTI AND SUNCHOKES (14) trumpet mushroom, garlic, sunchokes, local greens, pecorino, pinenuts, lemon. Sunchoke (Jersualem artichoke) look a bit like a knobbly pink-skinned ginger root and have a sweet, nutty flavor, reminiscent of water chestnuts. Pecorino is the name of a family of hard Italian cheeses made from ewe's milk. The word derives from Italian pecora meaning ‘sheep’, which in turn is from the Latin pecus meaning livestock.

Of Note:

Earthy wooden tables and parchment paper, matte menus.

Crispen Cider. Crisp over ice. A classically styled, but untraditional hard apple cider. Fruit forward, with a fresh, crunchy appley nose and a deliciously refreshing, crisp mouth feel.

Lovely chandeliers over the bar area.

Chic place settings.

Sitting at the bar offers unique views of an open kitchen grill area.

Cheese plates come with handy labeling--great since seconds after the server spouts off the names of the cheeses, you don't remember a thing.

Crispin American Craft Ciders.  Puts me in the winter mood.

Bistro 7

Bistro 7 - Philadelphia 
www.bistro7restaurant.com/
7 N 3rd St, Philadelphia, PA 19106 (215) 931-1560

A true hidden pearl of the Penn's Landing area, Bistro 7 needs to be on every Philadelphian's bucket list. Nestled just off of Market St on North 3rd, this home-converted-to-restaurant is an intimate space with seating for roughly 30 on the main first floor area.  There is an upstairs banquet room available for groups up to 35.  Dinner is served Tuesdays through Saturdays with the first seating at 530 and the last at 930.  A late seating at 1030 is offered on Friday and Saturdays. This is a BYOB restaurant, so a nice bottle of Cabernet (or your choice beverage) will do swimmingly.

These people have the right idea.  Moving along.

crunchy salad: organic celery, fennel, green apples, frisee, spiced walnuts, blue cheese, sherry vinaigrette.  Pretty good.  Nice start to the meal.   Little FYI: Frisee is a member of the endive/chicory family with finely curled leaves and a slightly bitter flavor.  You can see a large piece of it on the right of the above picture (it is touching the edge of the photo).

poached farm egg, parmesan cream, black truffle, toasted quinoa, brown butter hollandaise.  This was absolutely fantastic.  Probably horrible for the arteries, but I practically inhaled it.

free-form goat milk ricotta and spinach lasagna, n’duja ragout, toasted almond pesto, burrata. Nduja is a soft, spicy hot, spreadable salami considered one of the most famous, if not the most famous, of typical calabrian (Southern Italian) foods. Burrata is a fresh Italian cheese made from mozzarella and cream.

Parisian-style gnocchi, butternut squash, spiced walnuts, green apples, sage, garlic, brown butter.  This is hailed as the signature dish of Bistro 7, and for good reason.  As soon as that hit the table, I was practically drooling.  Mouth watering squash, the sweetness of the brown butter, and the mixture of gnocchi, walnuts, sage, and garlic.  Ugh.  Need to go back.

Slow roasted black pearl organic salmon: white beans stew with rock shrimp, spicy pork sausage, rosemary, baby arugula, lemon-black pepper aioli

Chinese five-spiced duck breast duck confit risotto, toasted hazelnuts, swiss chard, yellow beets, sundried cherry gastrique

Dessert 1: ?

Dessert 2: ?

Of Note:

The City Tavern Restaurant

The City Tavern Restaurant
138 S 2nd St, Philadelphia, PA 19106 (215) 413-1443
www.citytavern.comThis Penn's Landing gem situation in the Old City, Philadelphia is unique in that the waitstaff are costumed, the food is authentic 18th century offers, and the china, lighting, glassware is all dated to transport you to another time.  As I sat down to dinner a festive Benjamin Franklin served cocktails to the table adjacent mine and a buxom Harriet Tubman served some gentlemen their ales.  The tables were lit by lanterns which unfortunately made food photography challenging, but...in a phrase...challenge accepted!  Hopefully the images do not disappoint.

The lighter colored bread, Sally Lunn: large bun or teacake made with a yeast dough including cream, eggs, and spice, similar to the sweet brioche breads of France. Served warm and sliced, with butter, it was first recorded in 1780 in the spa town of Bath in southwest England.  Darker bread is Anadama, a traditional yeast bread of New England in the United States made with wheat flour, cornmeal, molasses and sometimes rye flour.  The small muffins are Thomas Jefferson's own recipe for sweet potato butter pecan biscuits.

Note: Thomas Jefferson's Biscuit recipe is from the National Constitution Center (NCC), Philadelphia PA. According to the NCC, Thomas Jefferson's biscuits were served at the first meeting of the First Continental Congress in 1774. These are light, tasty biscuits (scones), with or without the pecans.

Corn Chowder.  Nothing to write home about, but I will comment on the period china it is served in.  Those are iron bowls and something about eating out of a metal bowl just does it for me.  The Founding Fathers surely knew this as well since after tossing back a few ales, coming up with quotes like, "When in the Course of human events..." In fact I'm pretty sure most of the introduction to the Declaration of Independence was written drunk as it has some pretty dramatic stage effect (Jefferson got carried away)...but I digress, anyway, these dishes won't break easily.  Enough said.  Moving on.

Tenderloin Tips & Mushrooms. Marinated & sauteed beef tenderloin tips, mushrooms, sour cream-Dijon sauce, herbed egg noodles & vegetable of the season.

Medallions of Beef Tenderloin. Pan-seared beef medallions, Burgundy demi-glaze, mashed potatoes, asparagus & Sauce Béarnaise. Béarnaise sauce is a sauce made of clarified butter emulsified in egg yolks, white wine vinegar and flavored with herbs.

This was a strawberry tort served with ice cream.  The cool thing about the desserts is a huge tray of sample desserts comes out at the end of the meal and you get to pick what it is you want.  Rather than look at a dessert menu, you actually get to see the desserts themselves.

Very touristy atrium.

One of the highlights of the evening.

Historical Information: If you're reading this I expect you already know, this was the place the founding fathers gathered and visited and drank. However it burned down long long ago, and after over 150 years the National Park Service had this new version created but it was made to be as original as possible. It opened again in 1975.

Will BYOB

Will BYOB
1911 E Passyunk Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19148 | (215) 271-7683 | http://www.willbyob.com/

Will BYOB is an intimate house-converted-to-restaurant establishment specializing in both authentic classical French cuisine and its modern accouterments. They offer a simple a la carte menu with a special prix fixe menu on Sundays that is four courses. We decided on the tasting menu.

The meal began with a delicious Plowshare Farms Pumpkin Potage. Pumpernickel. Uni Creme, Onion Confiture.  The uni creme is the edible part of the sea urchin and deliciously balances the sweetness of the pumpkin potage.

Burgundian snails glazed with garlic butter in a country ham Dashi emulsion. Steamed cauliflower, truffle of spinach puree, oyster jus. Dashi refers to stock made from fish and kelp, used in Japanese cooking.  Delicious to say the least, and I am not one to be into eating snails.  However, that being considered, I cleared my plate rather quickly...in 1-2 minutes to be exact.

Whole Roasted Hen of the Woods Mushroom, better known as the Japanese name maitake mushroom, which means "dancing mushroom".  Ricotta, Madeira, Petite Herbs. Madeira is a fortified Portuguese wine made in the Madeira Islands.  Served with some edible marigolds. The mushroom tastes fresh and delicious and not chewy like one would expect a mushroom to be.  It was a delight to eat that while I started cautiously, it turned out to be one of the best dishes of the evening.

The meal was interrupted before the main course with a lovely palate cleanser in the form of a mango sherbet. Delicious.

Florida Cobia Sunchokes. Shishito Peppers. Matsutake Mushroom. Red Wine Bouillon. Very similar to tuna. A very diverse fish. Honey miso surrounds the fish. Miso is a fermented rice based sauce. It added just the flavor the dish needed. Again, another home run at Will BYOB.

Crème Fraiche Coffee Cake. Chocolate Cremeux, Greek Yogurt, Red Wine Caramel.

Dessert course 2

Of Note:

Lovely table settings.

Window sill decorations.

French madeleines to go.

A lovely lantern in the bathrooms.

Make sure to bring a bottle of good wine.

Lovely ceiling fan detail.

Le Virtu

Le Virtu
1927 E Passyunk Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19148 (215) 271-5626
www.levirtu.com/

Le Virtu prides itself on being based on Abruzzese culinary tradition.  Abruzzo is a region of Southern Italy bordered on the east by the coastal waters of the Adriatic sea and on the west by the outskirts of Rome. Le Virtu, Italian for "the virtues," is based on the concept of presenting unspoiled, wild, unpretentious food either imported from Abruzzo itself or made using locally sourced ingredients. The restaurant prides itself on the quality and authenticity of its food and guests are encouraged to stay and savor the experience.  The restaurant itself is nice on the interior with an excellent covered al fresco dining area.

Traditional Italian fare starting with bread and extra virgin olive oil. Personally, it was good, but nothing too special.

Burrata pugliese: Imported Pugliese burrata, rainbow cherry tomatoes, basil. Burrata is a fresh Italian cheese made from mozzarella and cream.  Excellent start.  The tartness of the tomatoes balanced well with the creamy dairy of the burrata.

Shrimp Bisque.  Creamy and rich.  Also a very good start to a meal.

Casarecce al pesto di pistacchi: Casarecce, pistachio pesto, grated ricotta salata. Casarecce pasta is shaped like a very narrow, twisted and rolled tube. It has a green hue from the pistachio pesto.  Ricotta salata is a variation of ricotta that has been pressed, salted and dried. Ricotta salata is hard and white and has a mildly salty, nutty and milky flavor. It can be shaved or grated over salads, pastas and vegetable dishes.

Taccozzelle ali'aquilana: Handkerchief pasta, Abruzzese-style sausage, porcini, black truffle, Navelli saffron.  Navelli saffron, more often called L’Aquila saffron, is generally agreed to be the very best in the world. Its stigmas are longer, its aroma stronger and its colour deeper than any other. And after eating this dish, I'd have to agree.

Trota. Grilled lake trout, heirloom beans, cucumbers, lentils.  Trout was served with the skin, wish it had been taken off, but that is easily remedied. Otherwise, fairly good, nothing to write home about however, but not bad by any means.  Meat was tender and seasoning was perfectly adequate.

Agnello alla griglia.  Smoked lamb top round, chick peas, mint. A far better main course in my opinion. This italian phrase is for "grilled lamb" and it was complimented by the chick peas and mint.  Served with a tasty jus sauce as well. B+ in my book.  It's only deficits were a slight overcooking of the meat and the mint was a bit too overpowering in my book.

Panna cotta d'alloro.  Bay leaf panna cotta, carmamelized oranges, cardamom, citrus biscotti. Fantastic dessert.  We almost left without ordering any dessert.  Glad we changed our minds.

Of Note:

Restaurant interior.