![]() ![]() Local rabbit came with foraged greens, a buckwheat pretzel, and deliciously livery dumplings made with rabbit kidneys. Meanwhile, underappreciated local seafoods were put on a pedestal at one of Fork's many special themed tasting menus: Cape May conch shaved with hakkurei turnips and grapefruit into a gorgeous ceviche eel from Norristown smoked and served like caviar in a crystal bowl beside soft-scrambled eggs. #Fork philadelphia Patch#The reason that a seemingly simple tomato pasta so vividly evokes a garden patch in summer? The spaghetti is infused with pureed tomato leaves. Nonetheless, the emergence of chef John Patterson as one of Philly's new culinary stars is a thrill, as the Gramercy Tavern (and Restaurant School) alum continues Kulp's dedication to hyper-seasonality, heritage grain, and creative wit for food that hints at a local backstory. The kitchen's recent meteoric rise was suddenly in jeopardy, though, after a tragic Amtrak crash left its supremely talented chef and partner, Eli Kulp, paralyzed in a wheelchair.īut Fork has triumphed over the dire expectations of that challenge, too, rising last year to four bells on the strength of dining room and kitchen staffs built by Yin and Kulp (still culinary director), whose ever-splendid performances prove long-earned team success can be more enduring than an individual. Yin's eye for the details of polished professionalism have remained a constant. The seamless contemporary experience that unfolds these days beside its open kitchen and the dining room's birchwood forest mural - whole animals turned into four-course feasts on a plank (including a Nashville "hot rabbit") clams that smoke inside a tabletop terrarium (and return as a later course) the tiniest whole veggies I've ever seen served on ice like crudité jewels - is infinitely more surprising, sophisticated, and relevant than the pleasant bistro Ellen Yin cofounded in 1997. To begin with, it's one of the few restaurants that's gotten better over the course of two decades, and not by a small margin. It never ceases to amaze me how deftly Fork defies conventional expectations. ![]()
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