Silk City Diner

[philadining]

It's a little too early to really assess what the Silk City Diner will be like under Chef David Katz, who many of us remember from M. He's only recently taken the helm, and is slowly changing the menu, so it's hard to know what to ascribe to him and what to Chef Peter Dunmire, who opened the place, and has since returned to North Third.

But we were in the mood for well-made diner food, so gave it a whirl in early september.

Southern-Fried Chicken Drummettes

Mac and Cheese with country ham and peas

Corn Soup with Crabmeat (special soup of the day)

Meatloaf

Hot Roast Beef Sandwich with Gruyere and onions

Bread Pudding, Brownie Sundae

The quick and dirty assessment? Starters were fantastic. The chicken drummettes were light and crispy and flavorful. Mac And Cheese had a great crunchy top over a creamy interior, with deep flavor from intense ham. The corn soup was especially stellar, sweet, creamy, and a great base for the ample crab.

The meatloaf and beef sandwich were well-made, but kind of conventional. They definitely were well-made diner classics, but I'm hoping to see some more distinctive spark. We'll see.

Both desserts were very good, and huge, I don't think we realize the bread pudding was chocolate, or so generously portioned, so the brownie sundae was a little redundant, but hey...

Overall, looks promising, but I'm going to wait a little longer to let Katz settle-in before I make a final assessment.

[TarteTatin]

We were there last week and split that same, wonderful soup. Outrageous!

Sam had the beef sandwich, it was good.

I "junk fooded" out and had wings. Very meaty wings, fresh tasting, not fried tasting. Not as spicy as when Peter Dunmire made them, and I think those of us that order wings - do like it spicy? As assumption, of course...

Our waitress was going on about this scallop entree with a green tomato chutney (?), which we didn't order. A few minutes later, one of the other waitresses got it for staff meal. Our waitress stole one away from her, and put it on a plate and gave it to us to try! Well, you should have seen the face of the one who got her food pulled out from under her! I felt so bad! BUT, it was truly delicious. Super scallop, perfectly cooked, and the sauce/chutney, whatever it was-delicious!

Mark Bee (the owner), and his lovely girlfriend, stopped us when we were leaving and spent about 15 minutes talking to us about the change. They were truly concerned/listening to our opinions, since Peter has such a following; that we liked the changes. Very sweet. (they know us from living in the neighborhood for 22 years).

Oh, good wine on the list there! A Spanish wine-15% Chardonnay and 85% another grape. Merde. Can't remember, but it was really good! I think it was $25.

I used to love Peter's frisee salad there. It was frisee and beets and maytag bleu... and not too much dressing.

I'll miss that. Wonder if they have it back at N. 3rd.

[scase805]

When did David Katz take over? The gf and I were there a couple of weeks ago and the menu looked totally different - was kind of uninspiring actually. And friends who had eaten at Silk City when they first reopened said the menu was awesome and expansive. I guess things are going in the right direction again!

[dagordon]

Well that was quick... Foobooz is reporting that Katz is no longer at Silk City.

[mikerowley]

guess it doesn't really matter but foobooz was rereporting what philly mag already reported; either way, katz is out; and there's a thing in the inquirer today too. jeez! a whole lot of stuff about a rather trivial matter. don't chefs move around all the time?

[scase805]

At least the NYT recognizes that Silk City is the"jawn."

Ridic.