The City of Brotherly Love boasts memorable fine-dining restaurants, such as Vetri Cucina, one of the first to bring attention to Philadelphia’s culinary achievements. Chef owner Marc Vetri — a Philadelphia native — and business partner Jeff Benjamin have worked tirelessly to put the city’s food scene on the map.

The destination launched in September 1998 within a historic townhouse, where I had previously dined when it housed Le Bec-Fin, then the city’s most notable French restaurant. Soon after the début, Chef Vetri’s critically acclaimed reputation for authentic rustic Italian “cucina” prompted me to feature the story. Bob, my late husband, and I arrived mid-afternoon on the day of our dinner reservation — I to interview the chef and he to photograph him and the restaurant. We entered as the chef was scrubbing the dining room floor on his hands and knees.

© Steve Legato / Chris Petersen

The “hands-on” chef may no longer be on his knees, but he has upgraded the 30-seat dining room and added an upstairs room for extra seating and private parties. Current enhancements boast fabulous tableware, a strikingly beautiful chandelier, and a gorgeous custom-built wooden wall unit with storage and a service area with an espresso bar.

Within two years of the launch, Marc was named one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs and earned Philadelphia Inquirer’s highest restaurant rating. In 2005, he received the James Beard Award for Best Chef Mid-Atlantic. Multiple nominations and accolades followed, as have entrepreneurial ventures, multiple cookbooks and guest chef appearances.

© Steve Legato / Chris Petersen

Upon returning to Vetri Cucina this past April, I delighted in a four-course tasting menu; alternate options include a six-course menu, a seasonal Forchetta menu, and an optional cheese course and wine pairing. Once seated, Bobby Domenick, wine director/sommelier, who started as a server there in 2009, presented a seasonal spritz, like a blood orange Aperol spritzer made with a sparkling Muscato. Later, he introduced some wines from the high-end Italian domains listed, including Ottaviano Lambruschi Vermentino 2023 from Liguria and regional specialties from the famed Canelli region’s 150-year-old Contratto wine house.

The light-as-air olive oil focaccia and sesame sourdough soon arrived, along with house churned butter and a spreadable andouille sausage. A trio of amuse-bouches delivered superb surprises: a cheesy round crouton with Robiola cheese and salmon; a foie gras pastrami on a toasted brioche accompanied by Mostarda, a candied fruit preserve; and lomo, or cured pork, served with a tempura-fried Meyer lemon.

Springtime produce appeared on the menu starting with the antipasto: artfully presented fresh blue fin tuna crudo on celery with rhubarb ribbons and a garnish of fried basil leaf.

© Steve Legato / Chris Petersen

When I admired the green and white asparagus delivered to a neighboring table, the server substituted the pasta selection from the six-course menu for the house-made, crepe-thin cannelloni, which encircled the two-toned al dente spears topped with aerated hollandaise sauce sprinkled with dried tarragon powder. With the secondi, a bronzino filet bathed in truffle butter and olive oil-basted Brussel sprouts, the wine director served a Tuscan Castell’in Villa, Chianti Classico 2020.

A tart pomegranate grapefruit sorbet on white chocolate crumbs followed before an intoxicating Gianduja chocolate mousse with passionfruit atop a thin chocolate crust encased in a chocolate shell dome. Mignardises included petits fours: vanilla lemon blond fudge; a raspberry caramel bon bon; and a cuccidati, a traditional Sicilian cookie which probably inspired the Fig Newton.

Following years of acclaim for Vetri Cucina, Vetri and Benjamin contributed to Philadelphia’s restaurant resurgence by opening Osteria, Amis, Pizzeria Vetri, Lo Spiedo and Alla Spina, and outposts in Las Vegas. There are also ample opportunities to savor la cucina di Vetri, from tasting menus to pasta and pizza or at home by using recipes from his cookbooks.

Vetri Cucina

1312 Spruce St

Philadelphia, PA 19107

tel 215 732 3478