Osteria

EVER SINCE Food and Wine magazine named Marc Vetri one of the country's best new chefs in 1999, Philadelphia foodies have treated him as if he were captain of the high school football team - a local hero who can do no wrong, destined to bring the national spotlight to our community. I have to admit that I was one of the cheerleader wannabees in the booster club. I never left Vetri, a small, 35-seat restaurant on Spruce Street, thinking, "Wow, I just spent over a month's worth of groceries on one meal!"

Giuseppina Carrara is what they refer to in Italy as a buongustaio - literally a "good taster. " "She loves to eat," says chef Jeff Michaud, speaking of his Italian mother-in-law, whose home cooking inspires many of his dishes at Osteria. "She's not into the dainty. When I put the francobolli on the table [at Osteria], she says, 'Come on Jeffrey. I want a plate of pasta, so give me a plate of pasta,' " says Michaud, chef partner at Osteria. Michaud, 33, met Carrara in 2004 about a month after he started dating her daughter Claudia, a bella donna with big brown eyes who walked into the restaurant where he was cooking in Bergamo, Italy.

When the word went out that Osteria's estimable chef Jeff Michaud was hosting a pizza workshop in the demonstration kitchen at Foster's Homeware in Old City, I could feel a mischievous glint rising in my eye. I'd always wondered how he pulled it off; made those smoky, crackling-crusted pizzas so thin, so perfect, some so plain (with uncooked tomato sauce and basil), some so refined (with arugula, fontina cheese, and prosciutto di Parma, or sunny egg, or green and white asparagus.

Monday is the target opening of Alla Spina (1410 Mount Vernon St., 215-600-0017), the Italian gastropub from Marc Vetri, Jeff Michaud, and Jeff Benjamin. It's just a half-block from Osteria and next door to Stephen Starr's Route 6 and Joe Volpe's catering hall, Vie , at the old Wilkie showroom on North Broad. Alla Spina - "from the tap" - has a wide-open, industrial atmosphere and two prize tables: one in the kitchen for eight to 12 people, and another on top of the beer fridge above the bar for six to eight.

From a quick glance at the flour-dusted baby face that sidled up to our table at Zavino to check on our meal, I'd never have guessed that chef-owner Steven Gonzalez was even remotely near 30 years old. But take a closer look at the angry welts that stripe his forearms - they're hard to miss as he wields a pizza cutter and dusts pinches of cheese atop finished pies in front of the furnace glow of his hot brick oven ? and it's clear Gonzalez is a tested veteran of Philly's rapidly rising pizza wars.

Chef Luke Palladino is as much a consumer of food as he is a distributor of it. So where does he go when a restaurant meal is in order? A few of his favorite places: Italian: Osteria and Vetri, in Philadelphia. Asian: Sampan, in Philadelphia; Imperial Inn, in Atlantic City. Seafood: Dock's Oyster House, in Atlantic City. Cheesesteak: Sack o' Subs, various Shore locations, including Harrah's Resort Atlantic City.  

Willingboro's Kevin Sbraga - who's cooked at some of the hottest restaurants in the region - was named winner of the seventh season of the Bravo series Top Chef . Sbraga, 31, watched the taped final episode Wednesday at the North Philadelphia restaurant Osteria among a private party including his wife, Jesmary, and two children. His prizes are $125,000, a spread in Food & Wine magazine, and a showcase at the magazine's annual event in Aspen, Colo. The season, set in Washington, D.C., moved to Singapore for the last two episodes.

A little past noon a week ago yesterday, Dana Cowin, the birdlike editor of Food & Wine magazine, balanced herself uncertainly atop a chair at Osteria, the northern Italian darling on North Broad. She had some words to eat, she announced: Philadelphia was really not the "boring" food town she'd once thought and, in fact, had once proclaimed at a food conference. She'd actually come down and visited from New York since then. Actually, had a few cocktails, checked out Capogiro's artisan gelato (pictured here)

In the fine-dining wilderness of the near suburbs that cradle Northeast Philadelphia, it wouldn't take much for a chef of Augusto Jalon's skill to find a band of grateful patrons. One of them, a happy silver-haired gent on his way out of the hexagonal dining room at Tavolo in Huntingdon Valley, paused in the parking lot to assure me as I headed in: "It's always excellent. " The Ecuadorean-born Jalon, 47, clearly has an outgoing personality to stoke such a loyal following, a natural warmth that extends to his solicitous (albeit sometimes stiff)

Chef Marc Vetri has ventured around the corner from his eponymous destination restaurant for a far more casual approach: Amìs (412 S. 13th St., 215-732-2647). Say it "ah-MEES" - that's "friends," colloquially. The Roman-style trattoria, opening tonight at 13th and Waverly Streets, looks rustic with its exposed ceiling, concrete walls, wooden floor, zinc bar, and open kitchen helmed by Vetri's Brad Spence. So does the menu, studded with bar-friendly small plates of earthy dishes such as crispy sweetbreads with fennel marmalade; fried lambs tongue; and gnocchi alla romana with oxtail ragu; check average will be in the high $40s, compared with $65 at his Osteria on Broad and a third of the tab at Vetri.

THAT DRUMMER sure looked familiar. "Malcolm in the Middle" star Frankie Muniz played his third show with central Pennsylvania indie rock band Kingsfoil Sunday night at World Cafe Live (3025 Walnut). Muniz and Co. opened for D&M at their CD-release party for "Wait for Me. " D&M are Drexel students Danny Fornasa and Matt Klahre, the latter of whom is interning at Matthew Vlahos PR and working on the Philadelphia Science Festival and the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Franklin Institute.

Monday is the target opening of Alla Spina (1410 Mount Vernon St., 215-600-0017), the Italian gastropub from Marc Vetri, Jeff Michaud, and Jeff Benjamin. It's just a half-block from Osteria and next door to Stephen Starr's Route 6 and Joe Volpe's catering hall, Vie , at the old Wilkie showroom on North Broad. Alla Spina - "from the tap" - has a wide-open, industrial atmosphere and two prize tables: one in the kitchen for eight to 12 people, and another on top of the beer fridge above the bar for six to eight.

EATS BEAT On Chester County fields once slated to become houses, former bond trader turned farmer Dean Carlson has pasture-raised, hand-butchered meats and eggs from his "truly free-range" chickens, grass-fed beef and heritage-breed pigs. From noon to 5 p.m. this Saturday and Sunday, he'll open Wyebrook Farm (150 Wyebrook Road, Honey Brook, 610-942-7480) to the public for a sale of his Freedom Ranger chickens at $4 a pound. Eggs will be available at $4 a dozen. Reserve your bird by emailing him at Dean@WyebrookFarm.com . More info at www.wyebrookfarm.com . The Parma pizza at Osteria (640 N. Broad St., 215-763-0920)

Chef Luke Palladino is as much a consumer of food as he is a distributor of it. So where does he go when a restaurant meal is in order? A few of his favorite places: Italian: Osteria and Vetri, in Philadelphia. Asian: Sampan, in Philadelphia; Imperial Inn, in Atlantic City. Seafood: Dock's Oyster House, in Atlantic City. Cheesesteak: Sack o' Subs, various Shore locations, including Harrah's Resort Atlantic City.  

Giuseppina Carrara is what they refer to in Italy as a buongustaio - literally a "good taster. " "She loves to eat," says chef Jeff Michaud, speaking of his Italian mother-in-law, whose home cooking inspires many of his dishes at Osteria. "She's not into the dainty. When I put the francobolli on the table [at Osteria], she says, 'Come on Jeffrey. I want a plate of pasta, so give me a plate of pasta,' " says Michaud, chef partner at Osteria. Michaud, 33, met Carrara in 2004 about a month after he started dating her daughter Claudia, a bella donna with big brown eyes who walked into the restaurant where he was cooking in Bergamo, Italy.

We now have JG (for Jose Garces ) Domestic taking its best shot at warming up the chilly lobby of the Cira Centre, the iceberg of an office building tethered, by skywalk, to the classic bones of 30th Street Station. Domestic has a faux farmhouse thing going on - shelves populated by nicked watering cans and countertop balance scales, antique milk bottles and implements designed, blessedly, before the age of the digital readout. There are also, in this multiroom, 175-seat arena, acres of maple-hued pine, both knotty and not. And I'm still weighing whether the decor (there's plaid in there, too)

Willingboro's Kevin Sbraga - who's cooked at some of the hottest restaurants in the region - was named winner of the seventh season of the Bravo series Top Chef . Sbraga, 31, watched the taped final episode Wednesday at the North Philadelphia restaurant Osteria among a private party including his wife, Jesmary, and two children. His prizes are $125,000, a spread in Food & Wine magazine, and a showcase at the magazine's annual event in Aspen, Colo. The season, set in Washington, D.C., moved to Singapore for the last two episodes.

In the fine-dining wilderness of the near suburbs that cradle Northeast Philadelphia, it wouldn't take much for a chef of Augusto Jalon's skill to find a band of grateful patrons. One of them, a happy silver-haired gent on his way out of the hexagonal dining room at Tavolo in Huntingdon Valley, paused in the parking lot to assure me as I headed in: "It's always excellent. " The Ecuadorean-born Jalon, 47, clearly has an outgoing personality to stoke such a loyal following, a natural warmth that extends to his solicitous (albeit sometimes stiff)

From a quick glance at the flour-dusted baby face that sidled up to our table at Zavino to check on our meal, I'd never have guessed that chef-owner Steven Gonzalez was even remotely near 30 years old. But take a closer look at the angry welts that stripe his forearms - they're hard to miss as he wields a pizza cutter and dusts pinches of cheese atop finished pies in front of the furnace glow of his hot brick oven ? and it's clear Gonzalez is a tested veteran of Philly's rapidly rising pizza wars.

Chef Marc Vetri has ventured around the corner from his eponymous destination restaurant for a far more casual approach: Amìs (412 S. 13th St., 215-732-2647). Say it "ah-MEES" - that's "friends," colloquially. The Roman-style trattoria, opening tonight at 13th and Waverly Streets, looks rustic with its exposed ceiling, concrete walls, wooden floor, zinc bar, and open kitchen helmed by Vetri's Brad Spence. So does the menu, studded with bar-friendly small plates of earthy dishes such as crispy sweetbreads with fennel marmalade; fried lambs tongue; and gnocchi alla romana with oxtail ragu; check average will be in the high $40s, compared with $65 at his Osteria on Broad and a third of the tab at Vetri.