Vetri's Osteria

[Tim Dolan]

How come none of you has pointed me to the Parma pizza?

Arugula and prosciutto piled on top of a crispy, cheesey crust: it's a pizza, it's a salad, it's a salumi platter...  That, and a few pastas: life is good.

Sit at the back bar, service is always great back there, and if you behave, they'll hip you to something cool like an old-vine Barbera di Asti that just came on the list. Oh, and speaking of the list, watch the corners on that spiffy new folder, you might hurt somebody. It's not so safe in close quarters. Good thing they're never crowded!

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Right here my man. I've been trying to pimp that thing for a while. I failed to mention it by its name on the menu, though, which may be the problem...

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...dpost&p=1372545

[mrbigjas]

How come none of you has pointed me to the Parma pizza?

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Uh, hellooo... I always suspected it would be a good pizza, but it's hard to focus on proscuitto/arugula/parmesan (which I've had before at other places) when you've got ramps and clams and octopus and egg/bitto to think about.

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and the cotechino. other people go on about the egg and whatnot, but that sausage made the pizza for me. all nutmeggy and cinnamony and clovey and whatnot--not the kind of thing i expect on a pizza.... i wish i could buy some. omg i'm dying. i might have to go there for lunch today.

[philadining]

Oh, and fiddleheads. Get 'em while they got 'em.

They were like a delicate, lacy baby asparagus, but with a little more forest floor funk. A little Pancetta never hurts.

[philadining]

And stand by: funky cocktails coming soon...

[dagordon]

Oh, and fiddleheads.  Get 'em while they got 'em. 

They were like a delicate, lacy baby asparagus, but with a little more forest floor funk. A little Pancetta never hurts.

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I hope you don't mind that I've taken some liberties to transform your description into a haiku:

"Springtime Beckons with Fiddlehead"

Delicate, lacy

Baby asparagus like

Oh, forest floor funk.

[mrbigjas]

three bells from laban. he says the pizza transports him to naples. you guys wanna correct him?

did i ever tell you about the pizza i had in rome that had, i think, mayonnaise on it? not so good.

i was gonna hit it up for lunch with a friend on thursday. we'll see, i guess, if i can.

[Buckethead]

Frank Bruni likes Osteria too, and he mentions something I forgot to acknowledge:

a sommelier, Karina Lyons, who’s as personable and contagiously enthusiastic a guide as any diner could wish for.

Word to that. Our service was a bit lackadaisical, but she really stood out. Among our group of diners I was the designated wine guy. She was very helpful and taught us a few things about pairing wine with fish, without making us feel like uninformed wine amateurs (which is pretty much what we are). I even noticed her picking up some of the server's slack on the side. I also learned from her that 'seasoning' a wine glass (I said I'm an amateur) actually does improve the experience of drinking it, and it looks really cool besides.

[dagordon]

I also learned from her that 'seasoning' a wine glass (I said I'm an amateur) actually does improve the experience of drinking it

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Isn't this evidence that the glass wasn't perfectly clean/dry to begin with?

I have some negative associations with Osteria's wine service -- the tiny Muscato poor, the giving my VIP dining companion a free glass of wine as compensation for having served me a corked glass...

[Rich Pawlak]

Frank Bruni likes Osteria too, and he mentions something I forgot to acknowledge:

a sommelier, Karina Lyons, who’s as personable and contagiously enthusiastic a guide as any diner could wish for.

Word to that. Our service was a bit lackadaisical, but she really stood out. Among our group of diners I was the designated wine guy. She was very helpful and taught us a few things about pairing wine with fish, without making us feel like uninformed wine amateurs (which is pretty much what we are). I even noticed her picking up some of the server's slack on the side. I also learned from her that 'seasoning' a wine glass (I said I'm an amateur) actually does improve the experience of drinking it, and it looks really cool besides.

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Good God what a gushy piece. Bruni goes ga-ga! Even gushier than any of us!

[Mummer]

Good God what a gushy piece.

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Kinda like this thread, eh?

(Just sayin'.)

[wkl]

when you say "gushy" are you referring to the appearrence of the egg on pizza and with pasta?

bruni did point out some shortcomings. what exactly was so gushy?

we gett some positive press from one of the most inflential food critics in america (deserving or not) and we complain. 'sup wit dat?!?

[Alcibiades]

One thing that I find a bit disappointing about all the press Osteria's getting is that very little is mentioned of Jeff Michaud. While Marc is terrific and certianly is the front-man of the Vetri empire (for good and obvious reasons), Jeff is the chef at Osteria and deserves to be credited for his immense contributions to the restaurant's success. Not one mention of him from Bruni and only in passing by Laban.

[Vadouvan]

One thing that I find a bit disappointing about all the press Osteria's getting is that very little is mentioned of Jeff Michaud. While Marc is terrific and certianly is the front-man of the Vetri empire (for good and obvious reasons), Jeff is the chef at Osteria and deserves to be credited for his immense contributions to the restaurant's success. Not one mention of him from Bruni and only in passing by Laban.

True.

But the dining public is sophisticated enough to know that one person cannot be in two places at once.

Chef's inherently run this risk by working for other chefs whose profiles overshadows thiers.

It all filters out eventually.

I think Michauds contributions are duly noted.

In fact he was in a big spread of 10 chefs to watch in philly 3 months before the restaurant opened.

It's about teamwork, PR works itself out eventually.

Benno does for keller.

Alex Lee did for Boulud.

didnt hurt thier careers........

[matthewj]

I don't know V . Keller did well for Beno, but Daniel for Alex Lee? A country club in CT not exactly a ringing endorsement

[matthewj]

... but I do think that a good deal of press was directed toward the chef d' cuisine. Hope for great things for him as well.

[philadining]

Frank Bruni likes Osteria too, and he mentions something I forgot to acknowledge:

a sommelier, Karina Lyons, who’s as personable and contagiously enthusiastic a guide as any diner could wish for.

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Sign me up for the Karina fan club as well, her contagious excitement about the wines at Osteria has significantly improved my last few experiences there.

In dagordon's defense, I was with him for those slightly weird experiences he mentioned (a seemingly short Moscato pour, a glass of corked wine, a compensatory glass delivered to the wrong person) and those certainly lend put an off-taste to the wine experience. But in defense of Ms Lyons, we weren't actually dealing with her that evening, I'm not sure she was in the house.

I've noticed her giving a good sniff to all the glasses she's pouring, there's no way a corked wine would have made it out under her watch. I thought it was very gracious that they offered compensation for sending out a bad glass, unfortunate that they sent it to the wrong person, but I think that's a factor of their too-many-servers problem. The moscato portion might be her policy, and I can't say I agree with it, but there's a logic to it. Overall I think the prices and pours for wines by the glass are more than fair.

Sure, everything should run perfectly no matter who's actually pouring, checking, delivering, but hey, it's the real world...

In any case, it's nice to see yet another review from New York admiring what we've got going on down here in Philly.

Edited May 24, 2007 by philadining (log)

[Diann]

I think they put crack in the pizzas. Seriously -- I was there this past Friday night, then again last night, and now my friend wants to go AGAIN tonight... it's madness!

Anyways, just wanted to notify y'all that they have a nice outdoor dining space now -- there are maybe ten good-size tables placed between the loft building and the church next door, with plenty of foliage to protect you from the noise and fumes of Broad Street. The tables and chairs are actually the right dining height and size, unlike a lot of sidewalk dining settings. There's a random rusty trellis by the patio entrance, which is kind of jarring, but that's the only off note. Go while the weather's still nice!

[Holly Moore]

Saw on their web site that they serve lunch Friday and Saturday. I called at 1:30 to learn when they stopped serving. 1:15.

Molto uncivil.

[philadining]

yeah, that seems a little early to stop serving lunch.

Thankfully they still serve dinner fairly late. There is a very interesting and creative list of cocktails now, but I didn't get a chance to sample them, as I was busily plowing through some of the interesting beers and wines that are changing so quickly I just can't keep up!

For you fans of dessert stickies, ask about a vertical of Monbazillac (especially nice with a cheese plate.) The differences of a few years are fascinating.

Oh, and the warm spinach "salad" with sweetbreads, escargots and leeks is weird and wonderful. Why does it work? Oh yeah, pancetta...

Edited June 15, 2007 by philadining (log)

[mrbigjas]

just hit up osteria for lunch. if i'm on my bike it's about 7 minutes from here, so if anyone's having lunch you just let me know.

i'm not sure about the panini. i had the mortadella/scamorza. while the mortadella is fantastic, and combined with scamorza it's even better, the whole thing is just too big. there's too much fatty salty meat on there, the bread can't stand up to it without being too thick, and too crunchy from being grilled too long....

basically if it had half the meat it does in it, it would still be great, and filling enough for the likes of me, and the thing would work better as a whole.

good stuff though, on the whole. that pizza lombarda, woo. and i swear i haven't been in that pleasant a space in a long time. i really like it.

[philadining]

It seems that lunch is just thursdays and fridays, at least that what the website says.

At dinner, I recently tried the spaghetti a la chitarra with wild mushrooms. Thumbs up. Great texture to the pasta.

Word to the wise: if you order the Parmigiana Pizza (with eggplant and stracciatella) speak loudly, and enunciate. Otherwise you might get the Parma pizza (with prosciutto and arugula.) Not that a mistake like that is an entirely bad thing... I could almost see not mentioning it and just rolling with it! Kind-of messes up the wine matches though.

[Andrew Fenton]

Funny, I went back to Osteria for dinner last night. As James mentions, it really is a lovely, pleasant space in there, and I enjoyed my meal. As with my previous visit, the food all fell on a range from okay to outstanding:

- the pizza margherita was a little underwhelming. The cheese was great, and they used enough good basil to get a nice perfumed steam going. But the crust was soggy everywhere except the very edges.

- Gnocchi sardi with peas and prosciutto was fine, but kind of unexciting.

- the stuffed baby lamb was quite good, with a terrific spiced, sausage-y filling.

- I really liked the sweetbread and spinach salad. They know how to fry up a sweetbread there, that's for sure. Some snails in there, just to make it even nicer.

- The pistachio and olive oil gelati are both very good. But the king of their desserts has to be that polenta budino. I really think that it's the best dessert in Philadelphia right now. It hits all the right notes of texture (smooth, with a little roughness) and flavor (sweet, and a little salty), all bound up with buttery unctuousness. It's just terrific stuff.

Oh, and they still have the same issues of too many servers all trying to do the same things; for example, we got our check twice. Individually, all of the servers are fine... it just seems disorganized. Not a big deal, really; just odd.

[jmbrightman]

We had a terrific meal there last night - the parma pizza was outstanding, the octopus good (not great), the salumi platter very good, the rabbit casolinga excellent, as well as the halibut with porcini and peaches. The sommelier was a young guy that paired Italian wines by the glass with each of our courses, made excellent choices, hooked us up with a couple half glasses as well that he wanted us to try at no extra charge, and enhanced the overall dining experience. We had no waitstaff issues to speak of. Edited to add: We sat down for dinner at 10:15, so that probably had something to do with the quality of service we experienced.

Edited June 25, 2007 by jmbrightman (log)

[philadining]

New pizza - the "Trentino" - figs, speck, gorgonzola, no sauce. It goes immediately to (near) the top of the pizza hall of fame. Great combination of sweet, salty, pungent, soft, crunchy and chewy. A glass of Pinot Nero amplifies the fig flavors perfectly. The Puglia Rosso they're pouring supports the funk of the cheese. What to do? Drink both....

They seem to have changed the name of the eggplant pizza to "Melanzana," which should eliminate that Parma-Parmigiana confusion.

Speaking of eggplant: the eggplant ravioli are impossibly light, the filling seeming more like an airy whipped ricotta rather than a mashed vegetable. Some anchovy and herbs tether it to the earth, lending a dark anchor to the ethereal mouthfeel. Yep, it's swimming in oil. You got a problem with that?

[philadining]

Really interesting new(ish) entry on the list of primi: saffron linguine with sardines, raisins, pinenuts and toasted bread crumbs.

The pasta had a great chewiness, the pinenuts adding some richness, the breadcrumbs a little crunch and a pleasing caramelized flavor. The raisins balanced the assertive sardines, which were chopped into small pieces, but whose flavor permeated the oil that served as a sauce.

Not for those timid about strong fish, but it was a thrilling combination of tastes and textures. I liked it a lot.