Mighty Oak

A little-known restaurant serves up big flavor.

by Trey Popp

Five months after opening their first restaurant in far North Philadelphia, Kelly McShain Tyree and her husband, Robert, are thinking of hiring neighborhood teenagers to saddle up on bicycles and cover the local doorsteps with leaflets. If that comes to pass, some recipients may well suspect that a joke's being played on them. East Oak Lane, a bedroom community that I'd never heard of until last week, hasn't seen a place like theirs in decades — if ever.

Near the top of North Broad, a few quiet blocks from a Pizza Hut and just down the street from the Melrose Park SEPTA station, Under the Oak Café is an unexpected oasis. It occupies a lovely stone cottage overlooking the R1 train tracks. The cozy interior holds about 20 if you include its antique love seat and the pillow-lined window bench. Ensconced in the former, one of my companions announced that he felt like he'd been taken to a mountain retreat.

There are passes in the Alps that get more foot traffic than Under the Oak's sidewalk, but that could change once word of this place (co-owned with Kelly's brother, Devitt McShain) spreads. The pastries alone are worth a trip — and not just for close neighbors. The palm-size cinnamon knots were as good as any sweet-dough delicacy available in Center City. Impossibly soft, sugary but not cloying, perfectly spiced — it was hard not to cancel the rest of my order and just triple up on those. But a moist raspberry scone served with lemon curd amply rewarded my discipline.

House-cured salmon came with a very good bagel and three giant capers — stems still attached — as well as red onion and tomato. A spinach quiche proved that the kitchen knows its way around whipped eggs; this version could hardly have been fluffier if they'd snuck helium into the recipe.

Even the turkey stew had a light touch. The broth was rich but nowhere near congealed, and it came over a buttermilk scone, giving the dish a profile a little like a dressed-up pot pie. Red lentil cakes were sautéed to a thin crisp but retained a pillowy texture within, and married excellently with shaved carrots smothered in oil and Moroccan spices.

It's hard to find a single fault with this member of the Buy Fresh Buy Local alliance. The coffee is from La Colombe; the tea is loose leaf; the folks serving seem genuinely to love what they do. My side of bacon could have been crispier, but that didn't come close to eroding the charm. If Under the Oak moved to my neighborhood, I'd take a stack of leaflets and hop on my own bicycle to support it.

(t_popp@citypaper.net)

Under the Oak Café

804 Oak Lane, 215-924-1410, undertheoakcafe.com

Hours: Mon.-Sat., 6:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m.; Sun., 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Pastries, $2-$5.50; Breakfast, lunch and sandwiches, $5-$10