All successful avant-garde expression is rooted, ultimately, in a deep and abiding understanding of the classical roots that buttress it. That, at least, rings true when it comes to the successful ones, those artists who push the boundaries in ways that provoke us, that make us reconsider what we thought we knew, as opposed to just pushing buttons for button-pushing’s sake: Picasso was an accomplished technical painter before he broke the mold with Les Demoiselles d’Avignon; Stravinsky had mastered the traditional tenets of composition before branching off into the crazy world of atonality. Heck, even Robin Williams, though he didn’t graduate, attended the Juilliard School in New York to hone his craft.
The same rings true for chefs. Even the most forward-thinking typically have a healthy respect for what preceded them. At Pub & Kitchen, the woody, British-by-way-of-Philly, thoroughly comfortable new venture is helmed by Jonathan McDonald, who has left his most overtly avant-garde flourishes behind (no Snackbar-style wasabi pea-crusted apples here) and traded them in for the kind of food that most chefs I know tend to eat when they’re not cooking: well-crafted, thoughtfully conceived standards, with just the slightest twist.Which is not to say that McDonald has left his trademark sense of culinary intellectualism behind. Rather, he has simply shifted his focus to the heart of the mealtime matter, and allows his sly sense of whimsy to creep in as a final touch, as the occasionally clever flourish, as opposed to serving as raison d’etre of the entire dish.
When it works, his food is rarely short of delicious. The Windsor burger never made the prospect of defibrillation paddles so appealing. Constructed of pork belly and ground chuck, this is a gullet-filling monster cosseted inside a brioche cocoon that manages to absorb all that gloriously unhealthy juice and still maintain a sturdy enough structure to stay together even in the face of that hearty, fleshy assault. Cutting all that richness were surprisingly bracing caramelized onions, a classically clever addition whose acid sliced right through the meat and did nothing less than electrify the proceedings. (Defib-paddle-style!)
Fish and chips seemed particularly at home amid the amber light and rock-leaning soundtrack of Pub & Kitchen. And aside from the “mushy peas” accompanying them (exactly what the name implies with a twist: rough-mashed peas, brilliant green and brightened up with a hit of fresh mint), the dish consisted of nothing more unexpected than two perfectly battered-and-fried hake filets, crispy fries and…that’s it. Paired with a bracing Left Hand Sawtooth Ale, it was the perfect remedy for one of the first cold nights of the season.
Mussels in a creamy, beery, leek-bright broth showed all the plump tenderness you’d hope for this time of year. And that broth, as was the case with so much of the rest of the food here, demonstrated a sense of both lustiness and deft balance all too rare right now. (Fair disclosure: Pub and Kitchen’s PR representatives were sitting at the bar having dinner and sent over the mussels on their bill before I could say no. All the rest of the food, as is protocol, was paid for by Aroundphilly.com, and, as always, I never let the restaurant staff know who I am or why I was there.)
Not everything sings with the same clarity as these shining successes. Honey-whiskey wings, while a great idea in theory, were overburdened by the cloying sweetness of too much honey and nothing adequately salty to counter it. Bibb salad, though well-dressed and intriguing in theory, fell short on the reality of the plate. The nutty similarity between the escargots and spiced walnuts scattered throughout just didn’t do anything on the palate. The flavors simply ended up getting jumbled, and neither one was afforded its fullest expression.
Desserts like the classically rigorous cherry clafoutis—all dense batter and bright little explosions of fruit, highlighted by a subtly wonderful fennel whipped cream—and the simple, satisfying chocolate cake with beer ice cream, round out a dining experience that has clearly been conceived as a seamless whole, and given serious thought in terms of how it might all hang together.Pub & Kitchen, indeed, is clearly no quickly thrown-together gastrostop; it’s the sensible next step for one of the city’s most promising young chefs, a more-than-satisfying sequel to his work at Snackbar, and a standout among Philly’s ever-growing crop of pubby spots with more intricate menus.
What sets this one apart, however, is McDonald’s solid grounding in the standards and techniques that, when all the flourishes are complete, make for truly tasty food. You might even make the argument that, as ever more chefs continue to push the envelope, it’s a truly revolutionary thing for one of the stars of the movement to scale it back, get down to basics and let the flavors he’s working with speak for themselves.
Main photo thanks to Nicolle Morales Kern of South Philly Review.
AroundPhilly Staff
