Vedge gets an edge with the new V Street bar in Rittenhouse
The anticipation is nearly over for V Street's opening, and it will be well worth the wait.
AFTER A YEAR of anticipation among vegans, drinkers and serious foodies, V Street, the vegan bar from Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby, is set to open Saturday.
And yes, the wait has been worth it.
Located a few yards from Rittenhouse Square at 126 S. 19th St., the cozy, quirky space reflects the offbeat creativity that Landau and Jacoby seem to bring to every venture, but especially this one, which focuses on street food from cultures around the world, some twisted and tweaked, all unapologetically vegan.
The dishes are a little smaller and a little simpler than those at the couple's high-end Locust Street restaurant Vedge, but no less exciting, as I discovered at a tasting earlier this week.
After many years of eating Rich Landau's cooking, I thought I had a good grasp of his culinary range. But no, his creations still astonish and delight equally, conjuring pitch-perfect tastes in totally new and different ways.
Several people asked about my favorite at the tasting, and I said it was too hard to eliminate any candidate. But finally I had to admit that Hungarian langos was something I was ready to knock people out of the way to get more of. It's almost like a single-serving pizza with a super-fluffy crust and a sauce of creamy dill. (The dill is dill; the creaminess sauerkraut remoulade.)
"That's probably the most authentic, the closest to the original version, of all of these," Landau pointed out as I was scarfing down my fifth or sixth sample. "Except for the ham, of course."
In place of the latter, Landau's langos is sprinkled with cubed, smoked beets. Yes, beets - and boy, does it work.
There are too many standouts among the "Street Snacks," "Market," "Grill" and "Hot Pot" options to name-check them all, but I have to mention the harissa cauliflower salad, with a riot of strong flavors that somehow blend perfectly - including, every now and then, a blast of fresh-picked mint.
Oh, and the Peruvian fries, with aji amarillo sauce bringing out a rich potato flavor. And the crunchy papadums with lusciously spicy whipped dal. The mucho-caliente carrot choripan. And, of course, those salt 'n' pepper green beans . . .
OK, I'd better stop there, because even though its street-food selections are incredible, V Street is a bar and, in addition to a score of vegan wines and beers, showcases an array of cool signature cocktails.
Front-of-house manager Daniel Miller talked me into one of his kooky craftworks, a "Colonel Mustard in the Library With a Dagger," which makes gin, mustard and citrus play well together.
I also enjoyed a "Lokum at the Bazaar" - Turkish coffee and bourbon, plus a barbecue-sauce drink called jelab - served in a Greek-restaurant-style blue-paper coffee cup that turned out to be porcelain.
The "Lima Mist" is topped with popcorn, cartoonishly mimicking Lima's fog, as Urban Vegan author/blogger Dynise Balcavage observed.
V for adVenture
It's that sense of zany exploration, pressing anything and everything into unfamiliar roles to shine in new ways, that's key to V Street's fun-loving identity and helps distinguish it from its grown-up sister, Vedge.
Landau has told me that when they were ready to move on from Horizons in 2011, a funky streetwise menu like this was closer to what they originally envisioned for Vedge, but the regal ambience of the historic, Frank Furness-designed townhouse they had chosen seemed to call for a little more stately cuisine.
V Street boasts a more hang-loose vibe and with no reservations (yes, no need to plan two months ahead!), the bar will be a welcoming drop-in space for anybody, vegan or not.
Will it redefine the vegan bar the way Landau and Jacoby have forever molded the concept of vegan upscale dining in Philadelphia? We'll see, but V Street's globetrotting goodies are already delighting palates of all persuasions, and that's reason enough to raise a glass.
Cheers, Kate and Rich!
writer, musician and 12-year vegan.
"V for Veg" chronicles plant-based
eating in and around Philadelphia.
@V4Veg on Twitter.