Restaurant Details

Note: Since the publication of The 76, Rosemary has significantly changed direction; its new culinary approach is no longer reflective of the restaurant when it was selected for the list. With more than 100 seats between its blond wood dining room, greenhouse, and outdoor tables, Philip Breen’s stylish makeover of an old-school Ridley Park tavern has become a draw for southern Delaware County, where there are too few options for ambitious date-night destinations. Current chef George Sabatino has refined the modern American menu with airy house focaccia and dishes that burst with seasonal produce: Summer’s bounty resulted in perfect gazpacho with shrimp and gem salad in Green Goddess dressing; fall’s harvest brought butternut squash and sage brown butter for the gnudi, short rib with lentils and “pot roast root veggies,” and semifreddo for dessert with apples and amaranth. Excellent pastas recall Sabatino’s history at Barbuzzo, including a cauliflower-creamed bucatini and rigatoni with soulful pork sugo, while the rum old fashioned with Zacapa 23 is another good reason to linger there any night.