Alla
Spina
1410 Mount Vernon Street
Philadelphia, PA 19130
Alla Spina, another gem in the empire of
Marc Vetri, had been on my radar since it opened. I had heard numerous things
about the place, from both print and word of mouth, and I really liked what I
was hearing. My girlfriend and I made a reservation for a Friday night and we
headed up to North Broad to check it out.
When we got there we had to wait, and it
turned out to be a bit longer than they originally let on; it was almost 40
minutes by the time we were seated. I really get mad when you have reservations
and they make you wait a significant amount of time. While this did make me
pretty annoyed at first, I am actually glad we got to sit at the bar for a
little bit, because the bar snacks that they offered up were incredibly
delicious! It was like a gourmet homemade chex mix, and it was highly
addictive. It had parmesan crisps, spiced nuts of a lot of different varieties,
and all sorts of different croutons and things of that nature. They seriously
could charge for it because it was so good.
Once we were finally seated, we ordered
a few more of the delicious craft beers that they have, and settled in. When we
started looking at the menu, my head began to spin a little bit. There were so
many deliciously porky options on the menu. I probably should have prefaced
that with a sentence saying that Alla Spina is known for its head to tail
cooking of pig, so at least you know now. After much deliberation, we decided
on everything we would share, making sure that we got some of the dishes I had
read about over the prior months. We ordered the guinea hen poutine, Schisola polenta,
cucumber with peperoncino and mint, the pig pot pie, the mortadella hot dog and
the espresso budino.
The poutine, polenta and cucumbers all
came out together. I thought it was a nice pairing to come out together because
we could cut some of the richness of the other two dishes with the cucumbers.
It was an incredible height to start the meal at. The guinea hen poutine was
spectacular. Poutine in any form will always catch my eye, but this particular
one contained elements of fine dining, yet stayed true to the original version.
For those of you that don’t know, poutine is a dish that originated in Canada
and is traditionally French fries topped with cheese curds and gravy. I had
never had guinea hen before, but it was actually a nice topping with the gravy
and mozzarella cheese curds.
The polenta balls were fantastic as
well. They were balls of polenta, stuffed with tellagio cheese, an Italian
cheese with a bit of tang. They were
served with a brown butter sauce and fried sage as well. I could have eaten a
plateful. Interspersed throughout were the cucumbers, and their wonderful
acidity and spice that cut through the richness of the other two dishes
beautifully as expected.
The richness didn’t stop there though.
The pig pot pie and the mortadella hot dog were up next, and they didn’t
disappoint either. The mortadella hot dog was one of the dishes that I had read
about from quite a few different writers and when my friend, Eve, recommended
it, I vowed to try it. My only gripe was that it wasn’t hot when I got to it,
but that may have been because my girlfriend had it before I got to it. The
salt and vinegar chips that were served with it were forgettable unfortunately,
not because of their lack of flavor, but because they were flimsy and nowhere
near crispy enough. The pig pot pie was heavenly. I don’t know what cuts of the
pig they used in it, but the breading on top, mixed with the piping hot gravy,
bits of pork, and deliciously tender vegetables was truly a revelation.
Not to be outdone, dessert was up last
and surprise, surprise I ordered yet another budino at an Italian restaurant.
While this one wasn’t as good as the others I have had, it was nothing short of
delicious. It had a mountain of coffee flavor, and it was creamy as can be. The
texture of these budino puddings I have come to love is simply unmatched. It’s
as light as a cloud and I could eat it over and over again.
A solid three and a half pints for Alla
Spina. I love the concept, and Marc Vetri along with his partners have really
hit home with this amazing upscale bar food scene. The food is very homey and
comforting, but you still get that type of flair that makes you think you are
sitting in a white linen, shirt and tie kind of place. I loved it and I think
you will too, so go try it and let me know what you think! Cheers!
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