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This Issue 04/05/2007

Also in this issue

• Navigating locust walk
• Left of Center
• Ice ice (cream), baby
• Word on the Street
• Ego of the week
• Catch Me If you can

While the last thing Philadelphia needs is another bar, Zot - open since March 7th - is not simply another pub with pub food. With an ever-growing list of 175 beers and a staggering menu of exotic meats, mussels and sauces, Zot is an elegant, eccentric experience for the beer aficionado and spirited gourmand.

If eating begins with the eyes, Zot will leave you satiated. The space is gorgeous, with a contradictory m‚lange of polished and unrefined details. A copper bar and tables with crisp white linens sit next to stunning exposed brick walls under rustic farmwood rafters, complete with rusty nails and old fire marks. The elegant glassware (from off-kilter water glasses to oversized cone flutes for beer) and silverware (long, spaghetti-like utensils) are conversation starters alone.

Belgian-born chef/owner Bernard Dehaene and his British partner Tim Trevan run a tight ship, with nearly invisible service that refills beer glasses and reappears to answer questions about the menu without hesitation.

The idealistic Dehaene mixes 25 years of Belgian cooking experience with great ambition. The appetizers - which rely heavily on their sauces and tend to be on the garlicky side - include escargots with Duvel ($8), wild mushrooms on brioche ($8.50) and for the more adventuresome, herb-roasted bone marrow ($8.50). All Belgian bars serve mussels with fries, but only Zot cooks them 30 different ways (albeit more expensively than Philadelphia's other Belgian pubs like Monk's and Eulogy), from Bruxelles (bacon, beer, goat cheese, leeks) to Jamaican (coconut milk, curry, Red Stripe) to Snob (lobster bisque, cream, cognac).

Zot's menu is dominated by meat and potatoes, but the common man's fare is transformed into a refined mix-and-match dish. Diners pair one of 22 meats or seven fish with one starch and one sauce. Prepare to ask questions, as the entrees come with an overwhelming choice of 19 sauces - from Bearnaise to Provencal to Archiduc.

The steak frites crowd can happily choose filet mignon ($19), New York strip ($18) or other cuts of beef. Bold eaters can take pleasure in kangaroo, ostrich, bison or blood sausage. Ostrich ($18) - red meat rather than poultry - is leaner (and drier) than steak; it is overwhelmed with pepper but paired well with the red wine and shallot Bordelaise sauce. The bison ($18.50) is rough and pungent, with some flavor masked by charcoal. The lamb ($18.50), tender and sweet, couples wonderfully with the creamy Choron (egg, shallot, tarragon, butter, tomato) sauce.

Potatoes are a Belgian staple, and the starch menu boasts ten different kinds including classic frites, croquettes and gnocchi. The pommes gratin (potatoes with cheese and cream) are warm and delectable, while the stoemp (almost-mashed potatoes with bacon or leeks) are the ultimate Belgian comfort food.