Stephen Starr's newest Center City hot spot, Manifesto, is his most innovative dining concept to date. The diner is fully immersed in the communist theme the moment he enters the dining area, intimidating with its deep red walls, red carpeting and authentic propaganda of leaders from Lenin to Mao to Fidel adorning the walls. Looming above it all is a magnificent, gleaming 10-foot gold statue of Karl Marx, towering over a central communal table, which can be reserved for large parties and special occasions.
Main liners and Center City professionals, leave your bourgeois lifestyles at the door. Starr's careful approach to communist fusion cuisine starts when you make a reservation. Diners must pre-pay the $50 prix-fixe in advance by credit card, and vouchers are presented at the door, in keeping with the authenticity of the experience. Each voucher entitles a diner to a three-course meal with appetizer, main course and dessert. However, one accustomed to long menus and plenty of choices must take his chances when dining in a Communist setting such as this. In keeping with the theme, there are no individual choices, as everyone in the restaurant is served exactly the same dishes on a given night. And Starr has downsized his typically overzealous portions to emphasize the anti-bourgeois vision of Manifesto.
The most unique aspect of Manifesto is the rigid rules involved in the serving of the meal. Portions are served "family style," in typical Starr fashion. However, plates are compartmentalized to ensure that each diner receives an exactly equal portion of each dish. Since each diner, regardless of appetite, pays the same $50 prix-fixe, Starr feels that this rigid system must be implemented so as no one at the table is exploited. Those who serve themselves excessively at the expense of others will be charged extra, a sign forewarns.
The food itself is ambitious, tapping into various Communist cuisines and incorporating Starr's signature fusion touch. On a recent visit, the chef's "Bolshevik" menu included a dill-infused borscht garnished with sour cream, a main course of cabbage and potatoes with a sour cream emulsion, and a blini filled with apple-spiced sour cream for dessert. The borscht arrived steaming with the heavenly aroma of beets, and the fresh sour cream provided an ideal contrast in flavor and temperature. My only regret was having been served such a meager cup.
The main course was delightful in its rustic earthiness. While the inclusion of meat would have made for a more substantial dish, Starr refuses to include meat in main courses regularly, saving it for unannounced "special days" to replicate the authentic experience of the bread lines.
Dessert at Manifesto is served assembly-line style. Each diner may take one blini from a tray of these optimally thin, delicate pancakes. This is then topped with a precise tablespoon full of filling, and rolled by the diner himself, to the exact specifications of the restaurant's 'foreman." Once my blini and those of my fellow diners were approved, we were instructed to proceed in eating them. I finished the delicious morsel in seconds, then eyed my fellow diners suspiciously, to make sure no one had received a bigger portion than my own. By this point in the meal, I was truly absorbed in the spirit of Communism.
I left culturally satiated but calorically lacking, glad that I could leave the communist confines and indulge my gluttonous capitalism at the pizza place around the corner. Yes, I WILL have extra cheese because I'm the Penn president and I CAN, godammit!
