Beyond Cheese Steaks: A Tour of Philadelphia Restaurants
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THOUGH tourists still mob Philadelphia's famous cheese-
steak institutions, these days locals are just as likely to line up elsewhere for house-cured charcuterie, farm-fresh beet salads and delicate foie gras terrine.
Confirmation of the city's evolving palate came on a recent evening in the form of a spellbinding smoked sweet potato soup that a waiter poured tableside at Supper, a restaurant in Center City. As I scraped bits of toasted marshmallow off the side of the oblong bowl and swirled my spoon through the cinnamon-kissed diced apples at the base of the spicy purée, the aromas roused rosy remembrances of Thanksgivings past and swept away my outdated notions about the range of Philadelphia cuisine.
One of my earliest childhood memories is of sitting next to my dad at Dalessandro's, a tiny, always-packed steak shop in northwest Philadelphia, grease from a cheese steak dripping down my chin. Not much had changed at that particular joint -- from yellowed newspaper clippings on the wall to the harried servers -- since my dad was a teenager eating there in the early '60s. For him, as it later was for me, and still is for plenty of others, Philly food could be summed up by those cheese steaks, some occasional soft pretzels and the local line of snacks called Tastykakes.
Today, these edible artifacts remain cherished novelty items in the Philadelphia food pyramid. But as the city sheds its blue-collar roots in favor of a more prosperous future, the food scene is shifting as well. The restaurateur Stephen Starr, of Buddakan and Morimoto fame, and the well-known chefs Marc Vetri and Jose Garces are all opening restaurants in the city at a stunningly quick clip. Elsewhere, hoagie shops now compete with the inventive B.Y.O.B.'s and creative farm-to-table restaurants that are transforming the cheese-steak capital into a well-rounded eating destination.
First Published January 23, 2011 12:01 am
