In case you haven't heard, chef, restaurateur, cookbook author, and oh yeah, Iron Chef, Jose Garces has a new spot in the City of Brotherly Love, Volver, a ticket-only prix fixe restaurant.
What's a ticket-only restaurant you ask? We'll tell you. Instead of traditional reservations and ordering a la carte from a menu, at Volver you buy a ticket, pre-paying for your meal (including a 20 percent gratuity), and sit down for a 14-course dinner with optional wine pairings (you can buy a wine ticket separately or buy wine and drinks a la carte and pay during the meal). And though all sales finals, you are free to transfer your ticket to someone else, you just have to give the restaurant notice.
Right now, tickets are $150 plus the optional $95 wine pairing. That's a hefty sum to spend on dinner for one, and as Easter points out, if there are two of you (and there probably will be), you're looking at a $600 dinner tab. So the big question is: is it worth it?
Our good friends at Eater had the chance to sit down for the Performance Tasting (as it's called) and their answer is: yes. The menu is seasonal and ever changing, the techniques are new but balanced out by familiar sounding dishes. There are plenty of foams, duck skin crumble, and goat cheese dirt but also a stellar carrot cake for dessert. And all that with an amazing view into the kitchen and out onto Philly streets. Garces is easing the city into fine dining. And apparently, doing it well.
But if dropping hefty hundreds for dinner isn't your thing, good news. At Bar Volver, you can order a la carte from the very limited menu. Enjoy.