When the “last meal” question gets posed, I always include pizza as one of my final mortal tastings. Great pizza is so elemental, so utterly enjoyable, that the inclusion of a slice of Osteria’s amazing margherita--chased with a gloppy wedge of Mac & Manco--would be natural for me before I take that final walk toward the light. Although after a recent meal at Cooper’s Brick Oven Wine Bar in Manayunk, I may have to update that list of cheese-topped terminal favorites.

Cooper’s seems to be a perfect fit for Manayunk: hip enough to represent that hoity-toity hood (talk about a beautiful bar crowd) but casual enough to attract families and older area residents. Cooper's keeps both sets happy by serving them savory snacks, sandwiches, cheeses, small plates and an array of outstanding brick-oven delights.

Known as the chef/owner of the famed Jake’s Restaurant (for more than two decades), Cooper’s own Bruce Cooper has breathed much-needed new life into Manayunk’s dining scene, which in recent years had remained fairly static. With this new wine bar he borrows a note from Philly’s most popular nibble nooks--Center City’s Tria being a prime example (a favorite for sharers)--and added the concept of high-end pizza, which works so well at Osteria, the city’s best and certainly its priciest haute pizzeria. Cooper’s melds it all within a high-energy space conjoined with the older, more cerebral brother that is Jake’s. Two separate doors, one restaurant, connected kitchens: insouciant yang to the other’s more subdued yin.

House music pulses across one long wall that is warm with the sunset hues (and interpretive crayon-looking gray-blue squiggles) of a Christopher Lynn mural and continues back toward the exposed kitchen and rustic Woodstone brick oven. In between, the bar appears linear and orderly, wine bottles are arranged in neat little rows on its many shelves and delicate cone lights suspend above comfy stools. Sleek booths have large and creamy pillbox lanterns overhead; dark woods and chocolaty tones complete the very contemporary scene.

We will indulge mightily on that recent weekday night. Cooper’s encourages sharing and ordering 'till you find your proper satiation point, though we’ll push our stomach envelopes with quite a few selections. To begin, a ramekin of roasted beets is simple and savory with crunchy almond thyme praline crumbles. Cooper’s caprese is made enjoyably unconventional--an un-salad of oven roasted tomatoes, served on-the-vine, intertwining simply with fresh mozzarella and basil. Chimichurri shrimp are delicate, and have gunpowder peppery bite added to a taste that I found to be akin to scampi. Boneless BBQ chicken wings are mini, meaty and have a pepper-pungency that becomes nicely sniffle-inducing. The menu pricing is also palatable, with tags ranging from $4 to $15.

And there’s more. Gorgonzola-stuffed mission figs disappear quickly, though the charcuterie plate--aged country ham, hot soppresetta and zesty salami--lingers due to its larger size. The cheeses at Cooper’s are absolutely worth sampling, especially the clean and ulra-fresh sharp goat’s milk from local artisan Shellbark Hollow Farm, just outside West Chester. Only the crispy leg of duck confit was a bit hard to take down; over-salting combined with added sodium from Roquefort was simply too much to fully enjoy, a point not lost on general manager Evan Oxenfeldt, who has heard our same comment before from a few customers.

No salty remarks about the pizzas, though. Cooper’s are thin, perfectly fired, the earthy crust possessing density and a nutty flavor, waiting to be topped by fennel sausage or cremini mushrooms, ham and egg or, as in our own pie, tender pulls of short rib. Add delicate fontina and mozzarella as its ethereal outer layer and you’ve got yourself one amazing pizza.

If you and the company you’re keeping at Cooper’s enjoy sweet stuff, then I can’t emphasize enough to use restraint so you can fit dessert into the plate-by-plate mix. Still a Jake’s fixture and ever the talented pastry chef, Debbie Tonsey, creates award-winning creations worth the derriere dimples. Rather than quirky geometrics and squeezy-bottle Picasso strokes, her style seems to be simplicity done right. Deep chocolate and hazelnut mousse cake is molten with an oozy ganache core of magma. And her Lancaster County berries rest peacefully on a chiffon halo of dainty Chantilly cream.

This restaurant is still very new, so the few occasional service lapses are brush-off forgivable. As I know Oxenfelt enough to be constructive, I have shared those limited opportunities with him, all simple tweaks to the system. Only one lapse standout is worth mentioning: the greeting we were given upon arrival--“Are you guys here to dine?"--was towards the very X-chromosome bearing lady next to me. This is a pet peeve of mine, brought about by once hearing my wife and my grandmother being addressed elsewhere as “guys,” so if I continue to bring this issue up, maybe it will one day go away.

Oh, wait. How can I write about a place with the words Wine Bar in the title and not spend time on the wines? It is, as one would expect, a fine and very manageable list--27 by the glass or bottle, skipping lightly across global destinations (Australia/Chile/France/Italy/Spain/USA), the choices offering unfussy pleasure. A wine bar indeed, though I was in the mood for beer, which also gets serious attention with an abridged though serious selection, from local fave Sly Fox Royal Weisse to Hitachino Nest, a brilliant Japanese.

I suspect that Mr. Cooper, he who knows a thing or three about restaurant longevity, has hit on something really special and very-needed near the Main Line and western reaches of the city. With his Brick Oven Wine Bar, Cooper has finally brought trendy and fashionable to a Main Street that was partially built on those concepts. And don't forget about those to-die-for pies.

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