Philadelphia Weekly

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What do you call a restaurant that serves pâté de campagne, lemongrass mussels and grilled street corn dressed in cotija, lime and chili mayo? Confused? Transitioning? Coquette. When Sansom Street Oyster House owner Cary Neff ignited Philly’s French bistro boomlet with this Queen Village charmer in summer 2007, there was no uncertainly about its identity. From the butcher paper-covered tables to the Mason jars full of duck rillettes and gold-stippled mirrors backing the sweet little raw bar, Coquette was unmistakably Parisian. 


But restaurants age in dog years, and a lot can change in 24 months. While Edith Piaf still croons over the speakers, these days Southeast Asian and Latino heartbeats are setting a new tempo in the kitchen. Chefs (David Gilberg, Jeremy
Nolan) came and went (Ugly American, Brauhaus Schmitz); the most recent of them, Thien Ngo, vanished before the ink had dried on his new Southeast Asian-accented menus.


Ngo and Neff are—er, were—personal friends, having worked together at Neff’s old restaurant, Cary, in the ’90s. Last the exec chef at Fork, Ngo had come out of retirement à la Brett Favre to cook at Coquette. Less than a month later, he was gone. 


Enter Ngo’s sous chef, Jose Leon. He’d come to Philly four years ago from Mexico City, cooking his way up the ladder at Davio’s, Branzino and Fork. Coquette is the 21-year-old’s first executive role, and considering the circumstances, he’s doing a decent job, even adding Mexican dishes to the kitchen’s already-
multilingual vocabulary. But success depends on Leon getting his overcooked, candy-sweet, maple-and-
balsamic-glazed duck breasts in a row.


That duck wasn’t totally without merit. Despite being cooked past my guest’s medium request, each slice offered surprising tenderness, and the accompanying snap peas packed a fresh crunch. Accentuated with parmigiano and rosemary, the warm, golden polenta over which the poultry arrived was a hopeful glimmer. 


But you’d be right to say that dish sounds about as Latin as tuna casserole, as do most of the entrees. It’s unfortunate that Leon’s heritage is the least represented, since he’s deftest with chilies, cilantro and lime as his sous chefs. Take the aforementioned corn—a sweet, grill-charred yellow ear that’ll get even better as summer wears on, and the albondigas, a pair of mini Mex beef-and-pork meatballs simmered in fragrant tomato sauce smoldering with smoke-tipped chipotle heat.


The juicy albondigas are one of a handful of $2.50 bar snacks, as is the shrimp ceviche—two tender crustaceans entwined in a tropic tide pool of lime, cilantro and coconut under an afterthought of crunchy julienned carrots. Hardly a firecracker, but good in a chaste way and certainly livelier than the lame raw-bar menu, home to boring bluepoints and lonely topnecks. Etched into the bar’s mirrored wall in faux-gold filigree, prices for East and West Coast oysters and grand iced seafood plateaus serve as vestiges of a different restaurant.


Neff cites the meager winter as the cause, but seems to recognize it’s not an excuse (“I can’t call my restaurant Coquette Bistro & Raw Bar and not have a raw bar.”) Fortunately, the plateaus have been resurrected, and just last week Pacific oysters appeared for the first time in months. When Alaska
fisherman (and owner of hydro-
conscious seafood market Otolith) 
Murat Aritan came calling with a sustainable species from the 49th state, Neff listened.


Oysters are a buck a shuck all day,
every day­—part of Coquette’s new bear-market pricing strategy. The $16.50 tag on the huge, glistening rainbow trout was certainly palatable—not to mention its cornmeal-crusted skin pan-seared into a crisp, brittle, fish-flavored cracker. For just under $8 there was a bountiful orange/avocado/beet salad I enjoyed, even if the vegetables betrayed clumsy knife work; the passion fruit vinaigrette lacked a trademark tang; and the promised tuft of tender 
mache was actually naked, cantankerous frisée.


I saved money on dessert too, since the unadorned verbal menu (“bread pudding,” “crème brûlée”) didn’t quite inspire my sweet tooth. Coquette will have to do better than that to convince me to pass up Phileo or La Golosa, both within walking distance. Neff and Leon may have the French-Mexican-Thai bistro market cornered, but sweets are another story. ■

Coquette Bistro & Raw Bar


700 S. Fifth St. 215.238.9000. 
coquettephilly.com


Cuisine: French, Mexican and Thai.


Hours: Tues.-Sat., 5-10pm; Sun., 11am-3pm and 5-10pm. 


Prices: $1-$16.50.


Atmosphere: Chic bistro that lacks the energy its charming Parisian décor nails.


Service: Vanilla, neither enhancing nor impairing the experience.


Food: Rough around the edges.