Review: Illata proves small is big when it comes to Philly’s neighborhood BYOB scene

The cod at Illata does not look like much. Not at first. It’s just a hunk of pearlescent white fish draped in a single cabbage leaf over a puddle of chicken broth. But as I begin to eat, intriguing details unfold.

The delicacy of fish cooked just enough that it melts off the fork. The tender snap of the green leaf. It’s lightly charred from the binchotan coal-fired grill and painted with a lacquer of sherry vinegar and fish sauce that’s caramelized into subtle layers of sweetness, tang, sea, and smoke.

And then, a new discovery. A warm mound of sautéed oyster mushrooms is hiding under that cabbage, bringing an umami depth charge to the crystalline broth tinged with citrus and soy. It’s big flavor in a spare package built on stark contrasts, and resonates with surprising earthiness.

Illata is a lot like that plate of cod. Chef-owner Aaron Randi’s Philly debut restaurant is austere at first glance but warm and engaging when you venture inside, with more moves from its small seasonal menu than you’d expect from a 24-seat BYOB.

Set inside the narrow storefront of a former grocery on Grays Ferry Avenue, the space has minimalist décor that glows with soft lighting, rattan screens, fresh flowers, and wood. A long walnut banquette leads back to the semi-open kitchen and a small corner counter where a handful of walk-ins sit each night, largely from the Graduate Hospital neighborhood, where devoted locals simultaneously brag about their local pocket bistro and beg you to keep Illata their little secret. Good luck.

The attachment has been cultivated in part no doubt by the personable service overseen by general manager Sophie Wieber and charming servers like Maggie O’Brien, who have committed an impressive number of details about returning customers to memory. She made a point, for example, of telling my ice water-obsessed wife that Illata had acquired larger water glasses since our previous visit two months earlier, with the added bonus that they’re made by a local artisan, Remark Glass, who upcycles the BYOB’s empty bottles into fresh glassware.

Wieber, who moved here from Brooklyn where she worked at Leo, a sourdough pizza-natural wine spot where Randi was the chef, is responsible for the crusty loaves of sourdough baked daily from fresh-ground Lancaster whole wheat, spelt, and rye flours. Laced with toasted sesame seeds inside, they have a wonderful crust, well-developed elastic crumb, and vibrant nutty savor that’s perfect for sopping up Illata’s saucier dishes.

A plate of ricotta gnudi, whose fluffy ricotta-sweet dumplings are shaded with the rustic tang of rye, comes with a lemony hazelnut brown-butter emulsion that’s ideal for the task, and, along with that cod, is one of the highlights on a fall menu where Randi and his collaborative kitchen crew, including sous-chef Gabe Borges, have begun to hone a distinctive voice for Illata’s kitchen.

It’s been a somewhat uneven process in my view of three distinct menus over its first six months, as Randi has worked to calibrate the balance of accessible comfort and cheffy flourishes his audience would embrace. Having moved here from New York just over two years ago with his girlfriend, former Philly Mag food editor Hannah Albertine, the Connecticut native is just the latest out-of-town talent to discover Philly is a land of affordable opportunities, especially its vibrant scene of small-scale restaurants, many BYOBs, that offers a relatively low financial barrier to entry.

Another Connecticut transplant — Amanda Shulman of Her Place Supper Club and My Loup — has been an inspiration for Randi in showing how small restaurants can be special without being overly precious, by channeling the personal touch of a dinner party.

“Illata” means “occasion” in Latin, and when it’s at its best, it exudes the intimate hum of a date-night hideaway where the food is both accessible but also interesting enough to be worthy of conversation.

The early menus were anchored by the safe comfort of a hit chicken schnitzel with shaved fennel salad and Dijon mustard spiked with seasonal fruit. Copious shavings of Comté cheese over the chicory treviso salad add an Alpine savor to a Caesar-ish dressing tweaked with miso and buttermilk. A handful of pastas offered solid takes on familiar sauces with subtle touches, like an emerald green pesto made with almonds, an oregano-scented eggplant Norma, or the spaghetti alla Nerano inspired by Stanley Tucci, made from fried zucchini, my favorite of the summer noodle options.

But Illata is not really an Italian restaurant. The spaghetti with clams on the current menu is too dry and overwhelmed by garlic for my tastes. And the pastas, even when they’re perfect, are not distinctive enough to be the reason to come here so much as they are easy ballast to carb-buffer the rest of the menu, whose more interesting plates can often seem minimalist — though not always in a bad way.

I admire the focus and playfulness of Randi’s best dishes, where surprises frequently hide beneath tufts of greens, like the summer salad of asparagus spears and dates that came beneath a fistful of herbs dressed in a green puree of more asparagus. The fall counterpart to that veg-two-ways template is even more intriguing for the sheer unlikeliness of its star. A nest of juicy shaved celery, the latest frumpy ingredient now having a makeover moment, tangled over a creamy celery root puree sparked by the earthy crunch of puffed buckwheat.

Randi’s twist on classic trout amandine was also superb, with silvery trout fillets concealing mounds of minced almonds and blanched peas in a stack that obliges interaction of the plate’s prime elements before they’re swabbed through the pale green cream of watercress sauce.

There’s nothing to hide behind with such a minimalist approach, but sometimes that worked against Illata’s kitchen — ironically in summer, when ingredients by nature are so ripe they require a light touch. In this case, they simply could also have benefited from more compelling or refined concepts. A simple dish of sliced Persian cucumbers set beside alternating batons of sweet Crenshaw melon was so understated it was boring, something anyone could have made at home. A potentially delightful take on a deconstructed oyster po’boy (Borges is from New Orleans) was layered to its detriment, the peekaboo-effect of thin-sliced heirloom tomatoes covering the plate dripping so much juiciness, they made the fried oysters hiding below too soggy. The perfectly sweet cured scallops brushed with yuzu kosho should have stopped one flourish short of the sea lettuce placed on top that was so tattered and soggy, it looked to have been salvaged for garnish by mistake.

By our most recent October meal, however, Illata’s focus had improved, with deeper autumnal flavors and an almost New Nordic aesthetic to plating dishes that is distinctive in Philly. The fryer for the schnitzel (and Randi’s delicious Connecticut-style fried clams) had been packed away to make room in this small kitchen for the binchotan grill and some more adventurous dishes. Among them was a grilled N.Y. strip steak, which only looked small because half of it, true to Randi’s style, had been hidden under peppery leaves of hakurei turnips. Once revealed, the perfectly medium-rare grass-fed beef was satisfying against the bright contrast of a tangy peppadew jam layered below and the richness of a vin jaune cream sparked with fish sauce.

We admittedly missed the easy comfort of that schnitzel. But this is the moment Randi has begun to feel empowered to “elevate” his vision for what Illata can be — and the recent returns have been promising.

There are still homey sweets to finish the meal, from chocolate cream puffs to a chewy brown-butter tart crust glazed with the drippy seasonal fruit jams, most recently Concord grape for a hint of maximum PB&J nostalgia. And the outgoing staff also assures this gem will hopefully never lose its secret weapon — an intimate neighborhood warmth built on genuine hospitality, no matter what big things this tiny BYOB continues to grow into.

2241 Grays Ferry Ave., no phone so contact info@illataphl.com

Dinner Thursday through Monday, 5-10 p.m.

BYOB

Dining room is wheelchair accessible, but bathroom is too narrow to accommodate.

There are gluten-free options, including alternatives for the pasta dishes.