Walnut Street BYOB

Happy New Year once again to all of our readers! Since the Foodie Girl is back at the gym and I’m at home staring at the screen of my laptop, I felt it was up to me once again keep the world updated on our latest food and wine adventures. So don’t touch that dial!

Over the Christmas week we had several opportunities to check out a variety of restaurants and lounges in the city and beyond. The star of the week was a relatively new BYOB called Salento.

We actually decided to stay in the city overnight at the Loews at 12th and Market Street. This is the building with the gigantic ‘PSFS’ 33 floors up. It’s really a cool hotel with an Art Deco theme and a funky vibe, even with its halls decked with Holiday decorations. Sole Food is the resident restaurant on the lobby level facing Philly's Hard Rock Café across the street. We’ve dined at Sole Food twice, the first time under the original chef Martin Gagne and most recently with chef Thomas Harkins. We didn’t stay for dinner that night, just for a few happy hour martinis before heading out to yet another BYOB. I will say that the bar at Sole Food is certainly one of the top 5 hotel bars of all time and maybe the best in the city.

You can view a short video about Loews and Sole Food at the link below:
http://www.philadelphiapavideo.com/city/play.aspx?ItemID=8

We moved on to Salento, a new BYOB Italian Restaurant on Walnut Street between 22nd and 23rd Streets. This is the new creation of Davide and Kathryn Faenza, who also own the tiny L’Angolo in South Philadelphia. (If you ever want to feel like you’re sitting in someone’s dining room with 25 of your closest friends you should try L’Angolo.) This is the former location of the ubiquitous Fellini Café which exited this spot recently. The décor is sparse and almost reminiscent of my sister’s first apartment in 1975. OK not really, her apartment was pretty cool, especially to a 10-year-old. (I know she’ll eventually read this!) However, Salento’s white plaster walls did lack character and certainly don’t help with the noise level.

The restaurant filled up quickly as expected. The Foodie Babe started out with a marvelous salad of ripe red tomatoes, mozzarella and onions. She was sweet enough to share some of the cheese and it was out of this world. I went with the grilled Radicchio with gorgonzola and reduced balsamic. This was good but clearly could have used more dressing especially as I dove deeper into the center of the red leaves of the radicchio.

For our main course I went with the ‘Pappardelle al cinghiale,’ a homemade pappardelle pasta with wild boar ragu. This was outstanding. The ragu (which I’m told is one of the things Chef Davide is known for) was rich, slightly peppery and almost like a stew. My lovely wife raved about the ‘Orecchiette al’anatra,’ which is shredded braised duck with orecchiette pasta. This was served as she liked it with a generous broth almost like a soup. I thought the duck was right on but she felt that it may have been a tad overcooked and tough in parts. We both agreed it was excellent and unlike anything we’ve had previously.

While we did not stay for dessert, we are told that Kathryn is the pastry chef and her desserts are a real star. More about our eventual dessert experience in a second. As for the wine of the evening, my Italian collection is admittedly a bit weak. I went with La Forra Chianti Classico Riserva 2001. I purchased four bottles of La Forra on the suggestion of my wine friend Steve last year. It really takes a long time for the wine to open up and express its fruit. While more BYOBs have invested in quality stemware, I’ve yet to come across one with a real decanter. That would have helped. Anyway, the wine was a good choice for the pappardelle dish but could have potentially overwhelmed the more delicate flavors of orecchiette and duck. We wound up bringing half of the bottle back home with us.

Overall we think Salento provided excellent food and the wait staff was great. Our only criticism lies with some of the bus staff that were too quick to remove our plates when they saw a three second break in the eating action. I almost lost my gorgonzola before its time!

OK, now about dessert. Since we were staying in the city and didn’t have to worry about driving I felt comfortable enough over indulge in the intoxicating spirits of hot chocolate. The Foodie Babe was set on checking out a new spot called “Naked Chocolate” on Walnut Street between 13th and Broad Streets. So off we walked in the cold drizzle without an umbrella. The place was packed and I was down to my boxer shorts when I realized it was the chocolate that was naked and not the customers. (Thank God!) This place serves up different flavors and variations of hot chocolate, which tastes like 100% melted chocolate in a cup. I can still taste it ten days later. The closest we ever came to something this decadent was at a famous café called “Laudree” on the Champs-Elysees in Paris. When you get to Naked Chocolate be patient and wait it out for a seat. They serve the hot chocolate in cool little teacups with a side of whipped cream and a cookie. If you get it to go, remind them to give you the whipped cream and cookie. Also, be advised that since the chocolate is so rich, the smallest size is plenty.

Thanks for reading everyone and xoxo from the Foodie Girl!