Square 1682 combines substance and style

It is unlikely that William Penn would recognize a thing about Square 1682, the snazzy new hotel restaurant lounge at 17th and Sansom Streets named in his honor. Then again, I doubt many modern-day Philadelphians have seen anything quite like it in this city - a bilevel restaurant space with such a hyperkinetic sense of contemporary style, it would make most designer showrooms blush.

Devotees of the Kimpton chain, which created the new Palomar Hotel where Square 1682 resides, are familiar with the aesthetic, an über-fashionable hodge-podge of high-tech lights and funky modern art, living room-plush furniture in the dining room, glitzy balloon shades for window treatments, and eco-friendly cork on the ceiling. It's a lot to take in from the moment you step inside the revolving door: nattily-dressed cocktailians sip maple-infused Manhattans in the lively ground-floor lounge (with a square bar, naturally) beside the bustling open kitchen, while a floating staircase to the side winds up and around to the more intimate, 48-seat dining room upstairs.

I wasn't sure if I liked these rooms on my first visit, a sunlit lunch where the cork ceiling and bric-a-brac décor looked like an overdecorated plywood box. But it grew on me quickly over the course of two dinners. Long-armed lamps cast a golden light across the cushy central banquette lined with dating young diners, lending the room a special-occasion buzz. A modern stained-glass wall, meanwhile, illuminated a clever contemporary echo to the classic stained-glass windows of the First Baptist Church across the street. Though it is so self-consciously stylized, this restaurant still manages to connect like a snug puzzle-piece into the intimate and quirky urban setting that is Sansom Street.

I have many of the same feelings about chef Guillermo Tellez's ambitious menu, which has grown on me steadily over three visits. A globe-hopping New American swoop from Mexico through Asia and the Mediterranean, with stops in Chester County for heirloom veggies, his beautifully crafted plates were at turns artful and fun, but also, occasionally, overreached.

Usually, those stumbles were over small details in execution - too much citric tang on the truffled popcorn, not enough lobster in the lunch quesadilla, too much fat left on the lamb short ribs, an extra shine on the house-fried purple potato chips, or a flicker of too much ancho chile heat in the South American shrimp.