Recessive Plates

Price-slashing isn't the only way for chefs to counter a bad economy.

by A.D. Amorosi

Michael T. Regan MARKET WATCH: Davis Denick, who cooks at Teri's on Ninth Street, is one of many chefs who've decided to offer high-grade food at recession-friendly prices.

Sure, you can still see and taste opulent eating in Philly, what with the recent openings of a few towering steak houses and the crowds filling their seats nightly. But fine dining as a whole is getting its ass kicked. Some restaurateurs will tell you fearfully that the apocalypse is near, and that they'll soon be swallowed by the great hungry whale named Recession.

Yet if you look hard enough, there are plenty of industrious chefs out there killing and cooking that whale, and divvying it up at a decent price so as to survive the new economy. For some, it's meant rethinking styles, locations, ingredients and concepts. For others, it's meant simply refining what they got. But regardless of approach, all the chefs I've talked to have figured out how to thrive while offering their grub at affordable prices.

For Jonathan McDonald, a move from molecular futurism (his work as opening chef at Snackbar) to retro-rustic Great Britain (Pub & Kitchen) meant more than a change in address — it signaled a personal stylistic shift. "Gone are my delicate leafy things from Blue Moon Acres, the hydrocolloids that manipulate texture and the Cryovac machine," laughs McDonald.

His current menu at this 20th and Lombard spot tops out at $24, with a selection of $3 bar snacks. He does stuff like an inexpensive cassoulet with white beans, garlic ("lots of it"), carrots, onions, bacon and sausage cooked in beer and stock, all topped with a confit-cooked chicken leg. "We're not trying to reinvent the wheel," says McDonald. "It's about good food at reasonable prices. We use fresh ingredients and are excited about making staple items from scratch. ... It's hearty, simple [and] tasty, yet shows some refinement on our part. Kind of hits just where we want to be."

For the Culinary Institute of America-trained Davis Denick, it was about letting his classical education and white-linen aesthetic run free at Teri's Restaurant, located just off Ninth and Washington on a block known for its array of ethnic fare and takeout food. "It's about good food at a good price while letting my training do the work," says Denick, who previously ran the raw bar at Coquette and cooked for the Noble House hotel group in Florida. "Instead of buying top-end ingredients and worrying about selling those at a premium price, I'm getting good produce and pasta from the neighborhood [his meat is still from Jetro], spending the time to prepare it well and make it approachable."

Denick gets that there's not much in the Market beyond Vietnamese, Mexican and Italian food — he's heard as much from pals who, like he, live right in the area. So he figured it could use a spruced-up eatery that would utilize his twists on standard fare — duck confit and flavorful pork chops brined, rosemary-ed and thyme-ed for 24 hours are just two of his specialties. The Teri's menu features apps and entrées under $20, as well as a $30 three-course prix fixe option.

"There's no pretense when you walk in Teri's," says Denick. "I can make great food the likes of which you'd find on Rittenhouse without having to charge those prices."

But residents of the Square and their near neighbors also have to keep an eye on value if they want to keep kicking. Chef Al Paris ran Mantra, a successful, experimental Asian fusion spot at 18th and Sansom, for three years until he saw the market change in October. Paris has recently tweaked the restaurant into a new concept called Bar Amalfi, centered around warm, traditional and comforting food in the style of the coastline of the Sorrentine peninsula.

Paris feels that the dining world as a whole lost a bit of its adventurous nature due to the economic downturn. "Persian nut-rubbed chicken wasn't the norm," he says. But Italian food? That is. Oddly enough, though, it wasn't as if Mantra was crazy pricey — it just had a narrower market in general. "My food costs haven't gone down," says Paris. "My inventory now has expanded. I'm saving on labor because I'm doing stuff in the kitchen. And we've gone toward a more everyman menu."

When the economy fell, Paris witnessed his customers' food and beverage connection with Asian food dwindle, save for sake. ("[But] the sake trend died away fast," he points out.) Now? His wine and beer trade is up. That's because that's what goes best with his $21-and-under menu, which toasts on eats from the Amalfi coast as well as Neapolitan specialties like parms, meatballs, salmon capri in puttanesca sauce and homemade goat cheese gnocchi.

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Paris, who also co-owns Pat Bombino's at Ninth and Fitzwater, has even kept some of his best-loved menu items from Mantra and tweaked them to match his new approach. "I'm still braising ribs, but rather than use a hoisin plum sauce, now we're serving them with roasted rosemary potatoes and a balsamic glaze," he says.

Not far from Amalfi, Rittenhouse's Alfa developed its price-friendly approach to dining rather organically. Owner Joe Beckham and chef Sean Ford were used to crowds drinking at their bar at 17th and Walnut before leaving to dine at pricier restaurants. But then they began to notice that "some people were staying longer because of how good our bar food was," says Beckham.

When Ford was hired six months ago, Alfa decided to up the ante. "Now, people who came to us just to have a drink and [then] go to dinner are having the meal here," says Beckham. "We've always had strong small and shared plates sales. Now with Sean, we have committed diners to large-plate entrées."

Ford, a vet of Oregon's Timberline Lodge (where The Shining was filmed) as well as Continental Mid-town and Salt & Pepper, was able to transfer his restaurant-honed culinary skills to a bar-food setting. "When I got to Alfa, I didn't envision just making bar food — not with the opportunity Joe gave me," says the chef. "And not with the fact that the bigger-name restaurants were having a hard time selling." Everything Ford's got is made from scratch — and he starts with quality ingredients, including beef he dry-ages himself, house-made pancetta and ultra-fresh raw fish and oysters.

Diners trust Alfa for their food and their under-$22 prices — think brioche bun sliders with crab cake, seared rare ahi tuna or Angus beef, and skirt steak dishes. "I'm doing fish specials that Brasserie Perrier was serving for $38 — and I'm down here serving the same thing for $22," says Ford.

Now give me a slice of that whale.

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)