PARC Bistro.

[Scoats]

Back to Parc for a minute.  I finally got to eat there as part of a Philadelphia Speaks meetup, and found the food good, as the food is usually at SRO establishments. But -- as I've come to realize -- Starr's true genius is in creating a stage set. Parc is simply his biggest and most complete stage set yet. The food matters, sure -- serve mediocre food in a fabulous stage set and you won't get repeat business -- but it is merely one element in an elaborate dramatic production, one in which the diners are the lead actors.

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I found it surreal and unsettling. It is indeed a giant stage set. I've never been to Paris but I have a feeling Parc was copied verbatim from somewhere there. It all felt too perfectly dressed. There seemed to be a lot of stuff that was not there for function but was there for stage feel.

The question/issue for me is: If I'm on Rittenhouse Sq in Philadelphia, which is really a world class location and indeed somewhere worth being, do I want to/need to pretend I am in Paris? Eating French food in a good restaurant on Rittenhouse Square should be enough without the theatrics.

The food was very good and the prices seemed reasonable for the most part. It was a very nice dining experience but it felt forced and phony. I'm an adult. I live in a world class city. I don't feel the need to pretend I am elsewhere.

[Holly Moore]

It's been a while since I've been back to Parc. Today I checked the site, seeing if they were retailing their bread yet. Doesn't seem to be the case.

While on the site I checked out their menus. The lunch menu also had the dreaded Apres-Midi selections. The good news, Parc has more than doubled the selections - eighteen choices now and many things I would actually like to order.

[Capaneus]

It's been a while since I've been back to Parc.  Today I checked the site, seeing if they were retailing their bread yet.  Doesn't seem to be the case. 

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If by "retailing their bread" you mean allowing you to stop in and pick up a baguette for off-site consumption, I have done that.

[brescd01]

I completely agree with the lack of need for an "elsewhere" feel, in fact I would prefer to feel like I am in Philadelphia and happy! This is what I loved about Brasserie Perrier, it made no attempt to make one feel like one was in Paris, just in a really cool restaurant. I did not realize at the time how many of the "required" brasserie elements it had and I miss it more now that I have been to Paris, eaten in brasseries, and loved them. I wonder if Table 31 will become more and more like a brasserie, though its location is all wrong for this.

[Holly Moore]

Parc is really stepping up its charcuterie game since I last had it many months ago.

Chicken liver mousse in the ramekin, wedges of country pate, wild boar sausage in front, and other charcuterie including a coarse salami and a nice ham. Heck of a deal at only $16.

[rlibkind]

Parc is really stepping up its charcuterie game since I last had it many months ago.

Definitely so, as noted in my previous post of a Bastille Day visit. The fat-topped chicken liver mousse was particularly good.

Edited August 28, 2009 by rlibkind (log)