Can You Justify Vetri?


Trey Popp is taken back to a simple farmer’s potato patch in Tuscany, even as he drops $650 on dinner at Vetri.

Nantucket Bay scallops came in crudo form—daring, in its own way, to opt for these diminutive specimens over their more highly sought day-boat cousins, but also delicious. In fact, more delicious than I knew a bay scallop could be. There were tufts of ethereal fettuccine (Marc Vetri and his supporting chefs must roll their yolk-rich sheets of pasta to a state of near-transparency) whose cocoa-sprinkled snags sheltered bits of boar ragu. Pappardelle became a beribboned canvas for something like a Vulcan mind-meld of venison ragu and Bartlett pears. It seemed as though only one time in a hundred could those flavors penetrate into one another so sublimely, but the fact is that at this restaurant, it’s more likely a routine occurrence.

But the question remains, would Popp do it again?

The Revisit: Vetri [Philadelphia magazine]

Vetri
1312 Spruce Street
215-732-3478
3 Stars (Write your own review)

Photo via Vetri Family Flickr

UPDATE: Trey Popp responds to the comments and adds some more thoughts on his dinner at Vetri.