November 12, 2007
By: Ken Alan
kalan@aroundphilly.com
Ask most food-savvy suburban diners what the very best area restaurant may be and you’re sure to find a majority who will cast their culinary vote for the Dilworthtown Inn. Since 1972 it’s been considered to be one of the finest experiences west of the city line.
Dilworthtown’s success is based in part on the patient efforts of its owners, Jim Barnes and Bob Rafetto, who also operate their InnKeeper’s Kitchen (a deluxe cooking demo site) just across the road within the quaint D-town village, five miles south of West Chester. Highly civilized gastronomic offerings, a voluminous wine list, cozy fireplace-lit rooms and a genteel, colonial experience are other reasons for the duo’s ongoing accolades.
Admittedly though, the famed inn is a destination restaurant and not one where you’ll readily visit for a drink and a quick nosh. Most menu entrees here stretch into the upper-$30’s and some of those 860+ bottles of wine can run in the hundreds (if not more) of dollars; hardly a drop in the bucket, even for the well-heeled area gentry.
Enter the Blue Pear Bistro, which opened this past September to high acclaim inside a restored building that once housed a general store adjacent to the venerable inn. Barnes and Rafetto reportedly sunk a couple mil into the 1754 colonial structure, turning it into a “hip-centric” (their words, not mine, though I’ll concur) and stylized 75-seat restaurant and bar.
“The inn is very serious while the bistro is more laid back and whimsical.” Barnes explained to me recently about his sibling operations. “One is absolutely a destination while the other is becoming a local’s favorite.”
True enough. I espied a phalanx of out-of-state Cadies and Lexus’ parked at the inn’s lot, while those vehicles situated nearer to the bistro all read “Pennsylvania” (and “Delaware” which is just a couple clicks down Route 202). Once inside, I see a very warm and convivial scene, as opposed to the suited-up, black tied finery within the other.
The first floor of Pear is soothed in coppery/cappuccino colors; the welcoming mahogany bar has a back wall that shimmers with gold-crusted glass. A few tables are scattered in this lounge, several more in a nearby dining room.
Up a set of steps and there is another smallish dining room, an intimate semi-private one, too, plus a very cool (and unexpected) lounge that’s replete with cushy leather sofas and plush chairs – a fire-placed sitting area that’s perfect for cocktails, munchies or an after-dinner drink. Outside, when the weather warms back up, there’s porch dining in front, and a few tables out back. And that’s it. Unlike the endless series of dark nooks and dim warrens inside the inn next door, the scene is simple and welcoming.
Chef David Fogalman really likes to play with his food. He has broken the menu into two components, Small Plates and Medium Plates, providing a sharing experience with each – larger portions than traditional tapas but not piled-high food that warrants a doggie bag afterward.
The "Small" column contains such items as soups, salads, sandwiches, crepes, crudite and charcuterie; the “Medium" comprised of substantial entrees like pan-roasted salmon, mussels, beef short ribs and the farmhouse cheddar burger. Prices are as palatable as the portions with the steak frites being the menu-topper at $18.50.
Side dishes too, can be substantial (and tasty) additions. They include collard greens, house made fries, marinated heirloom tomatoes (seasonal) and truffle-scented succotash.
Fogalman’s take on chicken nuggets, for example, are indeed playful, skewered on two long sticks, stuck in a pot of raw black beans and served with white truffle mustard. Bacon and egg salad is made with a savory, smoky pork belly. And the steak frites is classically flavorful, seared and cooked to order. The braised fennel that sided the dish was delightful.
A shared dense brownie and good strong coffee capped the meal off nicely. Service was friendly and casual. Only missed bread slightly marred the entirety of the experience.
Unlike the inn next door, the bistro has a quick-read wine list of fun and intriguing choices that never mire the reader in verbiage and descriptors. Beer too is unfussy: your regular menu suspects plus a few high-end local breweries are featured such as Troegs from Harrisburg and Dogfish Head in Delaware. And with this styling crowd, the requisite martini list abounds with sweet, spicy and colorful concoctions. (Remember when a martini was just gin and a whiff of vermouth?)
The bistro gets its name from the pear trees that grew behind the property, said to be the first of their kind in the area. “Blue” refers to the decorative glass once used by locals as adornment on the trees.
Along with other notables in this part of Chester County such as the Marshalton Inn and Talulah’s Table, foodies now have this enjoyable and convivial Blue Pear to call their own.
Isn’t it amazing what two mil will get you these days?
