Philly's Top Chef Retires
- Thread starter amyb
- Start date
KevinS
Senior Insider
Andynap said:
I had to go to the Google for this one. They sure don't use these at Red Lobster...
Lobster Press
Jeanette
Senior Insider
Andynap said:
You mentioned the "going casual" comment last year and I never noticed other than the $40 anniversary menu from 5-6. Perrier was still offering a 7 course French tasting menu and the 10 course grande degustation menu and a la carte options from the same menu.
I had the pleasure of dining at Le Bec Fin on several occasions - each visit a special memory. The dining room is elegant, the service is pampering and the cuisine was always among the best meals I've enjoyed anywhere. The cheese cart and dessert chariot are worth the price of admission by themselves.
After my last meal there in the fall we realized we were the last table still dining and had yet to order dessert. When I mentioned not wanting to hold up my waiter from going home to his family, the dessert chariot "guy" created an elegant dessert box for us with a sampling of every dessert. I think it took us two weeks to finish!
Nicholas Fannucci, the GM of the French Laundry in Napa Valley, bought Le Bec Fin and is re-opening in the spring. I assume it will be easier to get a reservation here than there. Nicholas Elmi, the executive chef of Le Bec Fin, will be the opening chef at the new Rittenhouse Tavern in the Art Alliance - a really gorgeous building off the square with a beautiful outdoor garden for dining.
andynap
Senior Insider
If the owner says he is going casual then it must be .........
Georges Perrier lightens up Le Bec-Fin
STEVEN M. FALK / Philadelphia Daily News
Georges Perrier, the demanding entrepreneur behind Le Bec-Fin, is going casual: "I've always been at the avant garde of my profession."
Philadelphia has lost its only Mobil five-star restaurant.
Saying he wants to "start having fun," chef Georges Perrier will do away with the fixed-price dinner menus and set seating times that have been the hallmarks of his landmark Le Bec-Fin since it opened in 1970.
Starting Monday, Perrier will drop prix-fixe dégustation menus - some as high as $165 per person - in favor of much less expensive à la carte dining at the French restaurant at 1523 Walnut St. Instead of 6 and 9:30 p.m. dinner seatings Mondays through Saturdays, reservations will be booked every 15 minutes.
The vibe will be relaxed as well, although he has no plans to change the decor.
Jeans at Le Bec? Oui.
I want to make my restaurant "casual because I have no fun anymore," Perrier, 64, said in an interview.
The move - Le Bec-Fun? - comes at a price, at least to Perrier's ego. Perrier yesterday relinquished his prized five-star award, the top prize from Mobil Travel Guide. Mobil demands it back when a restaurant changes its concept.
Le Bec-Fin was one of only 17 such five-star restaurants in the United States.
Anonymous Mobil inspectors demand the highest standards from a checklist of nearly 300 criteria. Five-star restaurants, for example, must be "flawless" in all respects. Solid ice cubes are preferred over hollow ones. Washrooms must have "cloth towels, fresh plants or flowers and elegant fixtures." Not only must such restaurants offer an amuse bouche - a tasty morsel served before the first course - but it must be "of exceptional quality and presentation."
"You have no idea what it is like to live with this kind of pressure," Perrier said.
When Mobil downgraded Le Bec-Fin to four stars in June 2000, Perrier slipped into a deep funk that did not lift until November 2002, when - after numerous staff changes and a $500,000 freshening of the decor to that of a Parisian salon - Le Bec-Fin regained the fifth star.
Newly married and 30 pounds lighter, Perrier said he wants time to breathe. He also has another restaurant due to open next month.
He and chef de cuisine Pierre Calmels have set up a new menu of appetizers (an $11 endive salad to a $17 tuna tartare with caviar) and entrees ($17 for pasta to $68 côte de bœuf for two). Perrier said two people could eat for less than $100.
Le Bec-Fin's all-you-can-eat dessert cart will remain ($15), as will its cheese cart. Lunch, which became à la carte last year, is served on Fridays and Saturdays.
It's many years removed from Le Bec-Fin's opening on Spruce Street in 1970, when a six-course menu cost about $12.
"I am upset that a lot of food critics always feel I am the most expensive restaurant in Philadelphia," Perrier said. "Maybe 25 years ago, yes. But I feel I was the cheapest in terms of quality [of the food]. You can go to a steakhouse and spend $120."
Around the country, fancy restaurants are loosening their ties. Bastide in Los Angeles relinquished its five stars last year when it closed to reconceptualize. The five-star Alain Ducasse in New York's Essex House closed last year, forcing the chef to start from scratch at the St. Regis Hotel with his new restaurant, Adour.
Though his dinner checks may be half of what they were, Perrier said the trend toward more casual dining elsewhere was not a factor.
"I think this is a wise decision," Perrier said. "I've always been at the avant garde of my profession. I have my awards. I was the first to open on Walnut Street" in 1983, after 13 years at 13th and Spruce Streets. "I have nothing to prove to myself or to anyone. I just want to please myself and my customers."
"Georges has always been ahead of the curve," said Norman Cohn, a longtime customer. "If he feels now is the time to come to à la carte, then it must be right. I'll miss the old Le Bec-Fin, but I have a lot of confidence in him. That took a lot of courage."
Georges Perrier lightens up Le Bec-Fin
STEVEN M. FALK / Philadelphia Daily News
Georges Perrier, the demanding entrepreneur behind Le Bec-Fin, is going casual: "I've always been at the avant garde of my profession."
Philadelphia has lost its only Mobil five-star restaurant.
Saying he wants to "start having fun," chef Georges Perrier will do away with the fixed-price dinner menus and set seating times that have been the hallmarks of his landmark Le Bec-Fin since it opened in 1970.
Starting Monday, Perrier will drop prix-fixe dégustation menus - some as high as $165 per person - in favor of much less expensive à la carte dining at the French restaurant at 1523 Walnut St. Instead of 6 and 9:30 p.m. dinner seatings Mondays through Saturdays, reservations will be booked every 15 minutes.
The vibe will be relaxed as well, although he has no plans to change the decor.
Jeans at Le Bec? Oui.
I want to make my restaurant "casual because I have no fun anymore," Perrier, 64, said in an interview.
The move - Le Bec-Fun? - comes at a price, at least to Perrier's ego. Perrier yesterday relinquished his prized five-star award, the top prize from Mobil Travel Guide. Mobil demands it back when a restaurant changes its concept.
Le Bec-Fin was one of only 17 such five-star restaurants in the United States.
Anonymous Mobil inspectors demand the highest standards from a checklist of nearly 300 criteria. Five-star restaurants, for example, must be "flawless" in all respects. Solid ice cubes are preferred over hollow ones. Washrooms must have "cloth towels, fresh plants or flowers and elegant fixtures." Not only must such restaurants offer an amuse bouche - a tasty morsel served before the first course - but it must be "of exceptional quality and presentation."
"You have no idea what it is like to live with this kind of pressure," Perrier said.
When Mobil downgraded Le Bec-Fin to four stars in June 2000, Perrier slipped into a deep funk that did not lift until November 2002, when - after numerous staff changes and a $500,000 freshening of the decor to that of a Parisian salon - Le Bec-Fin regained the fifth star.
Newly married and 30 pounds lighter, Perrier said he wants time to breathe. He also has another restaurant due to open next month.
He and chef de cuisine Pierre Calmels have set up a new menu of appetizers (an $11 endive salad to a $17 tuna tartare with caviar) and entrees ($17 for pasta to $68 côte de bœuf for two). Perrier said two people could eat for less than $100.
Le Bec-Fin's all-you-can-eat dessert cart will remain ($15), as will its cheese cart. Lunch, which became à la carte last year, is served on Fridays and Saturdays.
It's many years removed from Le Bec-Fin's opening on Spruce Street in 1970, when a six-course menu cost about $12.
"I am upset that a lot of food critics always feel I am the most expensive restaurant in Philadelphia," Perrier said. "Maybe 25 years ago, yes. But I feel I was the cheapest in terms of quality [of the food]. You can go to a steakhouse and spend $120."
Around the country, fancy restaurants are loosening their ties. Bastide in Los Angeles relinquished its five stars last year when it closed to reconceptualize. The five-star Alain Ducasse in New York's Essex House closed last year, forcing the chef to start from scratch at the St. Regis Hotel with his new restaurant, Adour.
Though his dinner checks may be half of what they were, Perrier said the trend toward more casual dining elsewhere was not a factor.
"I think this is a wise decision," Perrier said. "I've always been at the avant garde of my profession. I have my awards. I was the first to open on Walnut Street" in 1983, after 13 years at 13th and Spruce Streets. "I have nothing to prove to myself or to anyone. I just want to please myself and my customers."
"Georges has always been ahead of the curve," said Norman Cohn, a longtime customer. "If he feels now is the time to come to à la carte, then it must be right. I'll miss the old Le Bec-Fin, but I have a lot of confidence in him. That took a lot of courage."
andynap
Senior Insider
The final nail....
Dear Georges Perrier: What the Bec has happened?
Craig LaBan, Inquirer Restaurant Critic
Email Craig LaBan, follow Craig LaBan on Twitter
Downgraded 2 bells.
The cheese trolley is broken at Le Bec-Fin. And that's not all. No, the fact that its crystal lid had long since been replaced by plexiglass that split across the rear like a cheap suit was only a fraction of what was bothering me here.
The clueless server, scowling with faux gravitas, had rolled it up to our table backward, misidentified half its contents, and allowed the rind of one sloppy wedge to smear back and forth against the lid.
Dear Georges Perrier: What the Bec has happened?!
Changing tastes, a fumbling economy, rising competition, and an even more inflated ego (Perrier's) have all played a role in the demise of what was the premier showpiece of Philadelphia dining for an incredible four decades.
But the formidable challenge of evolving an institution rooted in the precision and lavish details of haute French gastronomy has proven, in this case, impossible. No Restaurant Week menu, no empty threats of closure, no gourmet burgers or renovation of the downstairs bar (which looks like an airport lounge) can save it.
Over the course of four meals, I realized it had fallen farther and more swiftly than I'd ever imagined. There were occasional flashes of contemporary culinary wit that made it clear why Perrier had chosen young Nicholas Elmi, 31, as his chef. Batons of salsify root came draped with sea urchin over foamy poufs of bacon dashi - earthy, briny, smoky in one bite. Perfect duck with rutabagas was napped in rich red sauce edged by the sweetness of reduced maple, cider, and juniper. Truffles still worked magic on veal. A nutty froth of sweet vermouth enveloped branzino and artichokes. The splendid dessert cart was still proper, albeit reduced from its former grandeur.
Elmi's feel for the classics, though, is spotty. The famous crab cake, once a perfect pedestal of creamy seafood mousse, arrived as an eggy, overcooked dome drenched in mustard mayo. The sausage-stuffed quail was basically a bird-shaped Bob Evans patty. The gamy wild hare terrine was sloppy with fleshy flaps. The stone crab terrine had the texture of tarragon-flecked chicken loaf.
Even so, Elmi has three-bell skills, at least. But he has been given the impossible task of turning out ambitious tasting meals that will never be worth $85 to $185 with this decimated service team. Where once there were legions of career waiters whose pride and grace helped lend magic to this potentially intimidating room, we now have food runners stomping about in suits wondering what to do. Nearly an entire meal passed without my table's being crumbed.
And Bernard, Georges' sommelier and younger brother, managed to utter something offensive at every visit. When I noted that my wife's riesling wasn't cold, he snapped dismissively: "That's the temperature I serve my wine."
I can only imagine the surprise on my editors' faces when, at the end of their meals (having visited after my reports), they watched the cheese-cart lid go up and release a fruit fly, giddy from feasting on shriveled grapes.
Someone, at least, was happy
Dear Georges Perrier: What the Bec has happened?
Craig LaBan, Inquirer Restaurant Critic
Email Craig LaBan, follow Craig LaBan on Twitter
Downgraded 2 bells.
The cheese trolley is broken at Le Bec-Fin. And that's not all. No, the fact that its crystal lid had long since been replaced by plexiglass that split across the rear like a cheap suit was only a fraction of what was bothering me here.
The clueless server, scowling with faux gravitas, had rolled it up to our table backward, misidentified half its contents, and allowed the rind of one sloppy wedge to smear back and forth against the lid.
Dear Georges Perrier: What the Bec has happened?!
Changing tastes, a fumbling economy, rising competition, and an even more inflated ego (Perrier's) have all played a role in the demise of what was the premier showpiece of Philadelphia dining for an incredible four decades.
But the formidable challenge of evolving an institution rooted in the precision and lavish details of haute French gastronomy has proven, in this case, impossible. No Restaurant Week menu, no empty threats of closure, no gourmet burgers or renovation of the downstairs bar (which looks like an airport lounge) can save it.
Over the course of four meals, I realized it had fallen farther and more swiftly than I'd ever imagined. There were occasional flashes of contemporary culinary wit that made it clear why Perrier had chosen young Nicholas Elmi, 31, as his chef. Batons of salsify root came draped with sea urchin over foamy poufs of bacon dashi - earthy, briny, smoky in one bite. Perfect duck with rutabagas was napped in rich red sauce edged by the sweetness of reduced maple, cider, and juniper. Truffles still worked magic on veal. A nutty froth of sweet vermouth enveloped branzino and artichokes. The splendid dessert cart was still proper, albeit reduced from its former grandeur.
Elmi's feel for the classics, though, is spotty. The famous crab cake, once a perfect pedestal of creamy seafood mousse, arrived as an eggy, overcooked dome drenched in mustard mayo. The sausage-stuffed quail was basically a bird-shaped Bob Evans patty. The gamy wild hare terrine was sloppy with fleshy flaps. The stone crab terrine had the texture of tarragon-flecked chicken loaf.
Even so, Elmi has three-bell skills, at least. But he has been given the impossible task of turning out ambitious tasting meals that will never be worth $85 to $185 with this decimated service team. Where once there were legions of career waiters whose pride and grace helped lend magic to this potentially intimidating room, we now have food runners stomping about in suits wondering what to do. Nearly an entire meal passed without my table's being crumbed.
And Bernard, Georges' sommelier and younger brother, managed to utter something offensive at every visit. When I noted that my wife's riesling wasn't cold, he snapped dismissively: "That's the temperature I serve my wine."
I can only imagine the surprise on my editors' faces when, at the end of their meals (having visited after my reports), they watched the cheese-cart lid go up and release a fruit fly, giddy from feasting on shriveled grapes.
Someone, at least, was happy
Jeanette
Senior Insider
Andynap said:
Keep up with the times, fellow Philadelphian. :laugh: Your article is out-dated and the chef mentioned in the first article left to open Bibou almost three years ago. LBF was still offering more classic French prix fixe menus (as noted in your LeBan review). Perhaps that is what loyal customers ultimately wanted. My last meal there was splendid.
Jeanette
Senior Insider
The restaurant had been slated to close for years, but the hefty pricetag and small, confining space made a sale difficult. Let's hope Fannucci does something fabulous with the space. It looks like he may be keeping the Le Bec Fin name.
Philly's 13th street restaurant mecca continues to expand. I am heading to the new Jamonera this weekend and noticed that Fish recently moved to 13th Street.
Philly's 13th street restaurant mecca continues to expand. I am heading to the new Jamonera this weekend and noticed that Fish recently moved to 13th Street.
Jeanette
Senior Insider
I poked around on Foobooz and couldn't find the Fish article. I saw Philadelphia Magazine rated Fish top 10 and the menu looks fantastic. I wish them luck in their new digs.
I subscribe to Philly Mag and follow uwishunu.com for all things Philly. Even after way-too-much dining out in Philly last year, I feel like I only touched the surface of the city's amazing culinary offerings.
I subscribe to Philly Mag and follow uwishunu.com for all things Philly. Even after way-too-much dining out in Philly last year, I feel like I only touched the surface of the city's amazing culinary offerings.
