Philadelphia Bar & Restaurant serves bigos, a taste of Poland

The twilight struggle for the soul of Old City is played out on the lower blocks of Chestnut and Market, permanently papered-over storefronts next to exquisite restorations, handsome Fork bistro not far from Rotten Ralph's.

Not many years ago there were visions of a history-themed promenade starting at Fourth Street and running down to Front along Market. But since then - and for better and worse - a more organic (some would argue jarring) streetscape has ebbed and flowed.

It has been 15 years since the bacon-and-eggs Continental Diner dropped the "diner" in its name, morphing into a bustling martini bar/cafe - retro replacing, well, the original item.

Then the Snow White Diner, just across Second Street, closed, and is being overhauled by the Sena family.

When Shane's Candies, the more than century-old stalwart, quit the business this year, the good news was that the Berley brothers (Eric and Ryan) from the nearby Franklin Fountain bought it and are painstakingly restoring its carvings and marble counters. (Reopening is set for late winter or early spring.)

But just west of it on Market, midway between Front and Second, a less certain fate was unfolding in the longtime Young's Meats butcher-shop space, which briefly housed a French bakery before first one, then another tawdry nightclub moved in, and later out.

So there has been a tentative sigh of relief in the last two months that the latest occupant, Philadelphia Bar & Restaurant (PBR), may be taking its cue from the street's old diner vibe as much as from its new boozing rep.

As evidence, the big paned windows aren't covered up anymore. And on a weekend morning, you can see kids and families having omelets at sunny tables facing Letitia Street.

Perhaps most encouraging, though, is the menu, presided over by Philadelphia native and former Modo Mio chef Jordan "Red" Sauter.

The menu isn't without its gastropub give-'em-what-they-wantness - deep-fried pockets of mac 'n' cheese (which are actually pretty darn good with a tomato dip), Tastykake bread pudding, scrapple cheesesteak (with fried egg!).

But there are also house-cured meats for a butcher's plate (which can be on the salty side), pumpkin cavatelli, braised veal cheeks, a thin-patty diner-style burger, and - the item that sucked me in like a carny barker's hook - bigos.

Bigos (BEE-goes) is a Polish sauerkraut-sausage stew, though that only begins to describe it. It comes from the same peasant-winter imperative as cassoulet, or cacciatore, goulash, or, probably most similar, choucroute.

It tends to hang in Port Richmond, keeping company with the pierogi and stuffed cabbage at Syrenka's and Krakus Market, and in the home kitchens of Bridesburg, where indeed, Sauter's grandmother Gloria Borowik Maziarz used to make it when he was a boy.

Sometimes Sauter flicks off the ventilator fans when he's cooking the cabbage, he says, just to let the scent transport him back to his grandma's kitchen.

"It's a patient dish," he says - the smoked kielbasa and chicken thighs browned first. Then he cooks off sliced green apples and onions and rehydrated dried porcini, then the fresh, green cabbage and the sauerkraut (half and half), Yuengling lager beer, and, sometime over the next few hours, honey and caraway seed, marjoram and pig's-feet stock.

In a toasty bowl of sourdough bread it makes its own statement that food wants to be a player here (food already accounts for 35 percent of sales), even though beer (including a handful of craft brews) is still the main draw.

For now, Sauter is offering it on Thursdays only. I hope he tweaks it a little, maybe chopping down the big chunks of kielbasa, so the meat isn't so separate from the cabbage. Maybe adding darker duck (to sub for chicken); toning down, just a notch, the golden sweetness.

But like the old Young's white butcher tile that owners Shawn Gormley and Nicolas Moore have exposed again behind the bar, Sauter's bigos is one more signal that maybe Philadelphia Bar & Restaurant is going to add its own bit of history to Old City's storied past.

120 Market St.; 215-925-7691

philadelphiabarandrestaurant.com.

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