Philadelphia’s dining scene is built on great neighborhood restaurants. But how do you create one when the neighborhood in question is essentially new?
That’s the case with five-month-old Corio, situated within uCitySquare, a tabula rasa development now rising at 37th & Market in University City on the site of a former public high school. The 14-acre “innovation district” of shiny glass towers is being built by Drexel and partner Wexford Science + Technology.
If the owners of Corio are correct, you start with two of America’s most popular foods — pizza and pasta — and then immediately start challenging expectations. Yes, there’s one traditional Italian pie here, a Margherita with a sunny San Marzano base and milky clouds of buffalo mozzarella. But a more memorable pizza comes topped with tender braised rabbit in pizzaiola sauce dotted with ricotta turned green with oregano. Another showcases the salty crackle of guanciale against sweet peaches and the funky ooze of Taleggio cheese.
Corio’s biggest pasta hit, meanwhile, is the chicken riggies, a hearty mound of pasta tubes in a zesty ragù of braised chicken thighs and blush sauce spiked with cherry peppers, mushrooms, and olives. This regional classic is a bat signal to expats from Upstate New York, chef-parter David Feola’s native home. It also teases the sneaky spice that unexpectedly pervades so much of Corio’s menu.
There’s a steady boldness I admire about Feola’s food, even if he sometimes overcomplicates things or takes dishes in odd directions — like the sesame gemelli, whose peppercorn- and seed-speckled strands taste like the love child of Italian cacio e pepe and Szechuan sesame noodles.
But there are also enough familiar moves on this something-for-everyone menu that this bright, contemporary space from three Vernick veterans can remain inviting to the broad and diverse audience that surrounds it.
Wedged between two college campuses, multiple medical complexes, and the residential neighborhoods of Powelton Village and Mantua to the north, Corio is evolving into a multipurpose hub for people from all those groups, as well as the 15,000-plus employees Wexford says already work inside its new corporate buildings.
A crew of Penn nurses have locked onto Corio’s early happy hour (from 3 to 6 p.m.), when Aperol spritzes and La Pelosas boosted with pineapple and Campari are among the rotating $10 cocktails that make perfect quenchers for the fiery chicken wings. (My lips are still ringing from the honeyed heat of their Calabrian chili-and-smoked paprika coating.) An older couple from nearby Powelton are steady customers for the roast chicken dinners, while a researcher from the Monell Center one block east regularly lunches on the risotto, whose Acquerello rice is currently flavored with sweet corn and lemongrass butter, an elegant combo Feola acquired in his early days working at Manhattan’s Jean-Georges.
“The clientele to come through our doors in the first few months has been so varied,” says managing partner and general manager James Smith, who left the same role at Vernick Food & Drink to join forces with Feola and principal partner Ryan Mulholland. Mulholland, another former Vernick GM, named the restaurant after a lounge in Boston where he met his wife, Dani. He has also managed to remain in his busy role as director of operations for CookNSolo’s restaurants while his partners run Corio’s day-to-day.
Considering the space in this new building off Market Street was an empty box (besides the nearly two-year-oldTwo Locals Brewing), some questionable design decisions have dictated an awkward flow to the 46-seat space. An oversized front room without seating was created to accommodate traffic for takeout pizzas and sandwiches (with a retail wine and pasta market to come), while the main room’s long bar necessitates most of the seating there be high-top tables and metal-gridded stools that have all the appeal of sitting on an egg chopper.
“They’re more comfortable than they look!” promised manager Dawn Lee as she cheerfully led us to our wiry perches. And she was right. Once we dug into our quinoa radicchio salad and a beautiful pizza topped with yellow and green zucchini rounds over sun-dried tomato sauce, goat cheese, and mint, we were fully focused on the food at hand.
Little wonder most diners on my visits gravitated toward the small private dining room, where carpeting and standard-height tables and chairs offer a touch of coziness to the concrete floors and white walls that frame Corio’s space.
There’s nothing but warm hospitality from the professional service Smith oversees. His early career in radio as a voice-over actor accounts for the sonorous baritone that narrates the wine list, divided between Italian finds (try the Aglianico or Trebbiano orange wine) and local bottles (I recommend Pray Tell’s Memory Lane), or cocktails that deliver crisp flavors without getting overcomplicated. The Bitter Giuseppe with Cynar and vermouth and One Last Thing’s herbal citrus riff on a martini were great. A brisk espresso tonic and an orangey Italian spritz from Azzenta were two fine non-alcoholic options.
The steady heatwaves coming from Feola’s spice-forward kitchen is something they might consider easing up on just a bit. I expect it with Calabrian chili wings and a dish like chicken riggies, but Feola too rarely steps off the gas. He even made a take on chiles en nogada, a Mexican pepper dish, hotter by swapping out the traditional poblanos for significantly more potent long hots.
I still enjoyed this loose riff on the Puebla classic, here stuffed with mozzarella cheese and preserved lemons over a creamy walnut sauce scattered with pomegranate seeds. But on a menu that aims to offer variety with wide appeal, it begins to feel redundant when so many things — from an arrabiata-sauced Bolognese pizza dotted with meatballs to a hazelnut pesto pizza (with poblanos in the mix) and a porchetta sandwich lathered with Calabrian chili aioli — radiate spice as a default seasoning.
The sandwich had other issues. Its steak-thick hunk of roasted pork roulade was piled so high with pickled red onions, bitter turnip tops, and creamy burrata that it all threatened to soak through and dissolve the house focaccia. Reimagined with different proportions (and the pork sliced thinner), this sandwich could become an endearingly delicious mess, rather than a frustratingly unwieldy one. A cluttered imbalance also dimmed an intriguing white seafood pizza, whose garlicky minced clams and whole mussels were completely overwhelmed by the sulfurous whiff of roasted broccoli.
I wouldn’t want to stifle Feola’s sense of playful adventure too much, because it pays off frequently elsewhere on the menu. One of his most memorable dishes was a “hoagie wedge” salad whose crisp iceberg peak is filled with Castelvetrano olives at the core, then shingled with slices of pepperoni, salami, and provolone, and dressed with oregano vinaigrette and a dab of pepper relish. A rustic hand-crushed tomato sauce enlivened with fresh fish stock and a fistful of sweet crab lends a coastal savor to a plate of bucatini dusted with crunchy breadcrumbs and chili oil (“just a touch!” concedes the chef).
A toasty long roll stuffed with chopped mushroom duxelles, tomato sauce, and Cooper Sharp was one of moistest veggie cheesesteaks I’ve had in a while. It was an even better choice for lunch than the braised short rib sandwich, which was cruising to meaty satisfaction until a potent dose of anchovies entered the picture — a cheffy tribute to vitello tonnato that was an unnecessary flourish.
Feola’s considerable culinary chops, also honed at Mesa Grill, Hearthside, and Ember & Ash (where he was a founding co-owner), paid off nicely when it came to the challenge of crafting his own gluten-free pizza dough. It’s a just-added alternative to the standard pies, produced with celiac-safe protocols, limited to a handful every night.
The smattering of ambitious larger plates for dinner are also excellent. He makes an outstanding pork Milanese, ringed by crunchy bitter greens and a spicy-sweet swipe of mustard infused with seasonal fruit (currently apricot). A fillet of crisply seared sea bream with herbed quinoa and orange oil is the kind of light yet flavorful dish you might find at, well, Vernick — without having to cross the Schuylkill River to Center City.
Though Corio does not present itself as a special-occasion destination, Feola’s big steak — a 30-ounce bone-in N.Y. strip of certified Angus — is worth considering. Roasted in a cast-iron pan with garlic butter and served with fantastically crisp (yet fluffy) ripped potatoes and a charred scallion ranch dip for some fun, it can compete with some of the Philly’s better chops, especially at $82 — a large-format steak price that feels like a genuine University City discount.
Corio no doubt is still in the process of forging its identity. But in this dynamic slice of West Philly, being able to be many things at once without sacrificing its spirit of true hospitality, whether it’s as a takeout pizza corner, happy hour hangout, steak-night splurge — or all of those in one — makes it a valuable asset for any neighborhood.
Corio
3675 Market St., 267-969-5359, coriophilly.com
Open Monday through Friday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday 4 to 9 p.m.
Entrees, $17-$32.
Wheelchair accessible.
Virtually everything can be made gluten-free, including pastas (subbed with gluten-free Rusticella di Abruzzo) and pizza, for which a gluten-free alternative is made in-house.