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For many of the city’s post-college, pre-marriage crowd, Manayunk is a prime spot to spend a Friday or Saturday night on the town. Main Street is full of bars — from sophisticated and swank to simple to even somewhat grungy — but also hosts shops, boutiques and restaurants.
Last month, chef Bruce Cooper opened Cooper’s Brick Oven Wine Bar, adjacent to his first restaurant, Jake’s at 4367 Main St., that opened in 1987. The new establishment is a more-affordable sibling of its neighbor, offering pizzas, artisanal cheeses, snacks and small plates.
The interior is modern, yet warm, with leather banquettes and high-top tables. The front is completely open to Main, where several tables pepper the sidewalk. Seeing as it was a cool, autumn evening, my boyfriend, Ru, and I decided to dine outdoors to take in the passersby.
Our waiter, Jonathan, was at our table within minutes. Cooper’s has an extensive wine and beer menu and Jonathan was very concise at answering my questions and giving a recommendation. He suggested a glass of Gaffel ($7), a light German draft. Although he offered to bring a menu with the full description of the two dozen craft and European beers, I trusted his instincts and was not disappointed. Ru stuck to the local brew and had two draft stouts of Yards Ale ($4.50 each). Although we weren’t in the mood, Cooper’s has an extensive wine list as well, with more than 30 selections.
A specialty is the smaller entrees, which the chef refers to as "in-between plates," allowing diners to sample many flavors. We started off with Cooper’s Caprese ($12) and boneless BBQ chicken wings with blue cheese ($7). The former consisted of mozzarella with warm, oven-roasted cherry tomatoes stacked on top — a stark, yet welcoming, contrast from the chilled cheese. The red tomatoes were juicy and some were still on the vine. The cheese was fresh, but became a bit runny as the tomatoes cooled. The five wings arrived sizzling on an iron plate surrounding a dollop of blue cheese. Upon first bite, I was surprised to find such a spicy seasoning rather than a hint of sweetness often found in barbecue sauce. I’m not one for spice, so I wouldn’t order it again.
For appetizers, I chose the three-cheese pizza ($12) with sottocenere, mozzarella and fontina with crisped sage. while Ru ordered the chicken caesar sandwich ($10). Arriving open-faced, his sandwich was plated beautifully with a fan of chicken atop romaine with a pepper relish and Parmesan snow sprinkled on top. One bite was enough, he said, as the chicken tasted dry even with the relish and Caesar dressing and the large roll was too hard. Jonathan offered to bring him something else, but Ru declined and helped me with my pizza, which was cut into eight slices. The pie arrived fresh from the oven with perfectly melted cheese atop a thin, crispy, cracker-like crust.
Each dish arrived when done in the kitchen rather than waiting for us to wrap up with our appetizers and small plates. It saved the dishes from coming out at varied temperatures.
We finished dinner with dessert and agreed it was the best part of the meal. Ru chose the caramel ice cream ($8) and I went with the cookie taco ($11). The presentation of the latter alone was worthy of a magazine photo. It almost made it too hard to delve in. Almost. Ru had two scoops of appetizing ice cream drizzled with caramel syrup in a simple but elegant presentation, but it was the taco that had eye-appeal. The cinnamon-crusted fried shell was filled with vanilla ice cream drizzled with fruit sauce and scattered with fresh blackberries, strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. Both sides of the plate were decorated with caramel and raspberry sauce, providing a medley of flavors as the ice cream melted.
Jonathan checked back during every course and was quick to offer refills of water and beer and take away empty dishes. Service was excellent and the food, for the most part, fresh and up to par for our tastes.
Two tips of the toque to Cooper’s Brick Oven Wine Bar.
Cooper’s Brick Oven Wine Bar
4367 Main St.
215-483-2750
Credit cards accepted
