The best thing I ate this week: the Esca-Roll at My Loup

For many years, chef Alex Kemp felt the frustration of escargotus interruptus, the conundrum of trying to jam oversized hunks of crusty baguette into the tiny divots that typically cradle snails and their molten butter. Then recently, while out for a brisk jog with his wife, Amanda Shulman, his partner and co-chef at My Loup in Rittenhouse Square, inspiration struck: the Cinnabon. Though not with cinnamon. Kemp had imagined instead a savory version whose potato dough is smeared with an emerald pesto made from the days’ greens (hakurei turnip tops our night), scattered with a fistful of Burgundian gastropods, then rolled-up into a multi-layered, fresh-baked muffin crown bursting with garlicky snails. The Esca-Roll was born!

Sprinkled with shaved Parmesan and then more snails, every table, it seemed, had ordered one the night of our recent visit, a successful walk-in attempt after arriving right at 5 p.m. to get our name on the list.

We found a rare and palpable energy at My Loup, a rollicking follow-up to Shulman’s cozy Her Place Supper Club and a bold Philly debut for the Montréal-born Kemp. It felt like a party on Monday night as patrons (many restaurant industry workers on their day off) swelled around the lively central bar where a Slow Drinks pop-up with guest bartender Danny Childs perked their spirits with foraged sassafras Old Fashioneds and Concord grape sorbet vodka slurpees sparkling with local juniper tonic.

Shulman and Kemp’s tributes to French-Canadian bistro cooking, though, remain the prime draw. And their seasonally driven flavors are now at their height as we enter the cold-weather months, from the throwback lobster vol-au-vents ringed by rich sauce Américaine, to brilliant raw bar twists on razor clams (layered with creamy sunchoke purée and sunflower seeds) and plumes of creamy Maine sea urchin (posed over a urchin-look-alike of zesty carrot puree), foie gras- and sausage-stuffed quails, and crispy sweetbreads with cauliflower and truffle.

No dish, though, embodied the combination of wit and over-the-top abundance of inventive Montréal bistro cooking like the Esca-Roll, because, as Kemp says, “you get everything you want all at once in every bite.”

The Esca-Roll, $14, My Loup, 2005 Walnut St., 267-239-5925; myloupphl.com