ISO Alison Barshak

[Suzanne F]

One of the chefs I most enjoyed working for was Alison Barshak, when she was here in NYC at Maritime. Does anyone know what she's doing now? (I saw a mention of something in Food Arts quite a while ago, but couldn't track it down.)

[Holly Moore]

I'm sure someone has better info, but I read somewhere that she has a place in the countryside outside of Philadelphia. A friend also told me last week that she has also opened up a hamburger restaurant in the same area.

[joanmlau]

Well, not exactly countryside. She's now in Blue Bell (near where the old Ikea store used to be):

721 Skippack Pike; 215-641-2660

Michael Klein reported this in Table Talk

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertain...ein/5489546.htm

[Holly Moore]

From here in Center City, Blue Bell is indeed the countryside.

But thanks for the better info.

[Suzanne F]

Thanks for all the info.

[davidbdesilva]

I dearly miss her previous restaurant, Alison Cafe, on Skippack Pike in Skippack. In an area devoid of fine cuisine, it was one of the few fine places to eat. I'll have to try her new place, which is a little further from me. But I still have Ravenna and FuziOn down the road in Centre Point (both good places to eat if you happen to be "in the countryside").

[davidbdesilva]

Wife and I had an opportunity to eat at Alison's at Blue Bell last weekend. We were both disappointed and delighted at the same time. First of all, the restaurant itself. While I understand that she needed a bigger place, I felt a bit of a selling out job. The restaurant itself, IMO, is bland and unappealing. It's like a big box with no character at all, blue paper on the windows (whats with that?), very unlike her previous place which was small and cozy and had character. It is in a nice section of Blue Bell, thus there were more than their share of blue-haired woman arriving in Mercedes, Lexus, etc.

Now for the food. Our appetizers took longer than they should have so our server brought us a complimentary plate of fried calamari, tender, lightly fried, very good. My appetizer of grilled asparagus with shards of parmasean cheese was very good (a carry over from the previous menu). My wife's shredded chicken quesidillas, on the other hand, came out fairly burnt and the dish was not that great.

Entrees though were right on the mark and very good. My crab cakes were excellent, pure crab and no filler and wife's snapper was perfectly cooked and very tasty. Alison is awesome at seafood (of course) and her menu is primarily that. Dessert (lemon semifreddo) was refreshing and very good. Her prices have risen fairly significantly though. While an article I read listed entress as "$14.50 to 25", this is not true. The cheapest entree (chicken) is $15.50 and nearly all the other entrees run from $23-25. Thus, for two apps, 2 entrees, 1 dessert and 2 coffees, the bill (with tip) was $90. This is far more than we used to pay at her previous location and for that kind of money I'd sooner head into the city for a meal. So, if you want a meal of finely prepared seafood in a boring BYOB in the 'burbs, then go to Alison's. While I enjoyed the food, I won't be running back anytime soon.

[ldough]

My husband and I like Alison's new "box", it's softly modern. I understand Alison's friend, Courtney, designed the decor and did much of the physical labor. There was no blue paper on windows on our visits--just delicious food.

[joanmlau]

Alison's is reviewed this week by Laban in the Inky. David: perhaps a revisit is warranted, or was Laban right on?

http://ae.philly.com/entertainment/ui/phil...&reviewId=13647

[davidbdesilva]

We may have to give Allison's another try but, personally, I've stopped trusting LeBan's reviews a long time ago. For example, I think three stars for Allison's is too high and two stars for a place like L'Angolo is too low. I'm not saying Allison's wasn't good, but it just didn't really wow me like other places I've eaten. And again, I found the decor to be rather boring and uninspired. There are too many other really good restaurants to run back to Allison's, but that's just my opinion (which seems to be in the minority).