Shell Game

Dining and loungey hiptitude meet and make eyes at Pearl.

by Trey Popp

Michael T. Regan BIG TUNA: Flash-grilled fish (here served with cumin-nori "mustard" and Asian pear) is one of Pearl chef Ari Weiswasser's many superb starters. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Between Nostradamus and whatever saloon sage first noted that it's more fun to eat in a bar than to drink in a restaurant, it's pretty clear who had a better grip on the future. Hard as it may be to imagine, there was a time not too long ago when anyone who wanted fancy food had to brave a deliberately forbidding atmosphere to get it. The starched white tablecloth was the emblem of this era, its very stiffness signaling the somber reverence one was meant to accord such temples.

These days, of course, you could eat the best dishes a town has to offer and never brush up a tablecloth at all. Somewhere along the line, restaurateurs learned a lesson that has reached its fullest expression in Stephen Starr's El Vez: namely, that people would rather eat next to a spinning, jewel-lined motorcycle than suffer waiters wearing silk gloves.

Pearl, a new lounge and restaurant at the corner of 19th and Chestnut streets, casts its lot with class over kitsch, but it, too, aims to envelop its dinner service in a hip bar scene. Even if you don't go upstairs to check out the DJ booth and lounge space, the atmosphere is pervasively sleek and modern. Philadelphia's DAS Architects has designed a mostly white first-floor interior, giving the long bar a luminous quality echoed by white banquets farther back. Black tables are cordoned off from one another by planes of pearl-like strings suspended from the ceiling, a clever touch that gives a sense of privacy without fracturing the well-wrought space.

The brains behind the operation are working from a model they developed at Old City's Red Sky, and even in the early going, it is clear that they know what they're doing. For starters, the cocktail list is more than mere verbal stimulation, which it too often turns out to be. "Lemonade" married green tea shochu, a mild Japanese liquor that doesn't turn up very often Stateside, with lemon and minty shiso. Delightfully, this subtle and dry mixture actually needed its sugar-coated rim. "French pear" sounded like a girlier concoction, what with the elderflower liquor and white Bordeaux, but it, too, hit the mark of a serious cocktail. What a pleasure to find a place that doesn't dumb down every bit of booze with simple syrup.

The wine list won't please bargain hunters, but it does pack a lot of variety. From Pinotages to Gruner-Veltliners to one new-style "Super Rioja," there's a lot to explore. I'd never heard of Scheurebe, a white grape that drinks like a slightly off-dry Riesling crossed with a Sauvignon Blanc, but I was glad to be offered a taste by my waiter.

Chef Ari Weiswasser, whose résumé includes stints at Striped Bass and New York's Daniel, has put together a menu that channels pan-Asian favorites through classical French technique. Appetizers find the kitchen at its best. Sumptuously crabby crab cakes were punched up with fried capers and shaved radishes, and got a cool note from a subtle lemongrass aioli. Peking duck spring rolls rang with little shreds of Thai basil. A bit more daring was a plate of flash-grilled yellowtail paired with a cumin-nori "mustard" whose bold, oceany flavor got a crisp, sweet counterpoint from little matchsticks of Asian pear. A calamari salad with hearts of palm and mandarin orange sections was simply gigantic, and came studded with little cluster bombs of sesame.

Entrées were a little uneven — but Pearl cries out for small plates and cocktail treatment anyway. Roasted duck came off flat, sauced with a Tamari almond emulsion that totally got lost and didn't have much pep even on its own — yet a garnish of sweet and sour daikon made up for what the main event lacked. Crab pad thai also missed the mark for me, although my companions liked it more. It looked pretty enough, but I found it surprisingly sour. Perhaps I'm too used to the sweeter versions sold from Bangkok street carts. It's possible that Pearl's version better resembles what's served behind King Bhumibol's palace gates.

Much better was an Asian bouillabaisse that drew its deep flavor partly from oyster sauce and fish sauce, offset wonderfully by sweet coconut rice. That the king prawns had been cleaned and reassembled so that their heads fell away at the push of a fork was also a high-end, functional touch. The fish in a seared tuna entrée was a little dead on my tongue, but the pickled cabbage and braised endive sharing the plate had a brilliant, uncommonly full flavor for something so perfectly acidic.

Big portions limit room for dessert, which wasn't the strong point anyway. The crust of an Asian pear tartlet was disappointingly uncrisp, which was too bad considering how tasty the accompanying scoop of sesame ice cream was. Mochi balls are trucked in for now, but that may change in the future. In the meantime, though, this is a more than worthy place for a good drink that may turn into a meal.

(t_popp@citypaper.net)

Pearl

1904 Chestnut St., 215-564-9090, pearlphilly.com

Hours: 5 p.m.-2 a.m. daily

Appetizers, $8-$17; Entrées, $18-$32

Reservations recommended

Wheelchair accessible