TOPEKA
2601 Pennsylvania
Ave., 765-7605
FOOD:
Eclectic American; fresh ingredients, inventive recipes, local suppliers
ATMOSPHERE:
Sleek, budget-deco decor; new young city liberal arrivistes, quietly
enjoying all their money can buy. No bar. Bottles of good wine on every
table.
PRICE:
Bargain. Meal-size entrees $12 to $15
THREE AND
A HALF STARS: Excellent
News of the Year:
the Gen X/ 30-Something/ ex-Slacker crowd, the kids whose fondest childhood
memories are of fast food and fatty chips, has finally got enough money
in its chinos, or cords, or jeans, to want to spend it Ñ in restaurants!
This is a revolution as profound as, as, as... OK, imagine if every
person with a nose ring you see on the street would suddenly stop, read
a column by Dave Boldt or Jane Eisner, shout, "They're right!"
and apply metal shears to all their pierced body parts.
For the past few
years, going out to eat was like revisiting the darkest days of Grownup
'60s Cuisine: everybody in the room under 50 was accompanied by a responsible
(and leering) adult. Now the kids are willing to pay for themselves,
and restaurants, after a middle-age period of somber ritzy executive
glitter, are trying to look young.
Some rely on color
schemes taken from the cover of the Daily News"Yo!"
section. Some try nostalgie de boue, and the Formica college cafeteria
look. They fail. Problem is, the strain shows Ñ and E for Effort isn't
a passing grade with this generation.
Topeka kids itself
into success. The room is such a gorgeous little glassbrick and plateglass
space that it qualifies as found cute sculpture. Outside, on a sidewalk
level with your tabletop, joggers slog breathily breathing, responsible
dog walkers walk doggies with bags full of doggy-doo, and the fading
green trees take up most of the sky. Inside, the walls are off-white
and dark green, the tablecloths faded rust-rose, the plates mixed unmatched
cafeteria china. Paper napkins, of course. Pretty funny to take so much
trouble to look pretty and funny at the same time.
Best of all, the
food is a cross-generational bargain. This is one of the few restaurants
that lists its suppliers on the menu Ñ they read like the best "Best
of Philly" list in Philly. Owner-chef Corbin Evans takes old-time
American or Americanized recipes and nudges them up to modern standards
of fat content and biteyness. There's a lot of intelligence in Topeka.
Oh, and Corbin Evans sure can cook.
The crowd is urban
young or wannabe young professional: a little more liberal (judging
by eavesdropping) than its suburban fellow workers, but just as politely
insistent on good value. The difference is that casual clothes are really
casual. At Topeka clothes look lived-in, people look lived-with. A good
bunch.
Metropolitan Bakery
breads are various and delicious. They come with homemade preserves
and honey-whipped butter (odd but tasty). Vegetarian chili ($4) is cracked
wheat, organic black and red beans, bits of bitey carrot, chunks of
chipotle, slivers of habaero pepper, kernels of fresh corn Ñ a thick,
hot, flavorful chili, too large for an appetizer. But I finished it
anyhow. Southern fried oysters ($6) is six fresh small oysters, deep-fried
in a thick corn-flour breading, and absolutely greaseless. They come
with Anastasio mesclun full of delicious oddities like baby arugula,
which looks like a 2-D green lollipop and tastes extra grassy green.
Pennsylvania Dutch preserved chicken ($7) is chicken thighs, skinned
and fried to extrude all the fat, then buried in the fat to preserve
it Ñ an American confit. Like confit, it gets a richer, smoother, softer
consistency. At Topeka, it's seared to just-brown tender moistness.
With it comes excellent fresh sauerkraut topped with poached crabapple.
An immense pile of mesclun ($7) comes with raspberry vinaigrette, crumbs
and crumbles of blue cheese, slices of earthy roasted beet and tart
green apple. Lots of busy tastes, and they all go together.
Medallions of Esposito
pork ($13) is fat-free slices of loin, sauteed at heat so high it colors
the outside a rich brown and keeps the inside moist and delicious. With
them come peppery cooked pears, honey-sweetened mashed sweet potatoes,
just-chewy collard greens, homemade potato and sweet potato chips. A
big hearty fall meal full of American delights. Many entrees are pan-roasted
Ñ seared on top of the stove, popped into a 650-degree oven to cook
just not quite through. Pan-roasted salmon from Samuel's ($15) is crispy-crusty
outside, moist and medium down to a single rare steak in the center.
It is topped with brittle toast strips of Bitar's pita and sits on dime-sized
fresh clams, baby beets of occult shapes and colors, and their sauteed
greens. Catfish ($13) is crusted with cornmeal and seed-filled mustard
and sauteed quick. It sits over extra-big fresh limas mixed with fresh
goat cheese Ñ perhaps the best of all the great taste combinations at
Topeka. Pan-roasted chicken breast ($13) is two plump half breasts,
skinless and fatless, seared outside and moist inside, topped with oven-dried
tomato and a slice of South Philly smoked mozzarella. A simple, inventive
and delicious combination. With it comes a huge potato cake, lots of
shiitake and fresh baby mushrooms in dark chicken juice, mixed up with
fresh baby peas.
Desserts ($4) are
large, ever-changing, American and great fun. Double chocolate pudding
is more heavily chocolate than mousse, and even silkier and smoother
on the tongue. Sweet potato pie is spicy, thick and seemed cinnamon-free
Ñ one of the few Northern versions that doesn't try to imitate pumpkin
pie, and one of the best. Rice pudding is chewy big grains and reduced
cream and no spices Ñ and it's one of the best in town. |
