Reviewing Rick Bayless' Tortas Frontera in University City
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
During my four years at Penn, I subsisted on MexiCali sweet potato burritos, Cosi Signature Salads (with chicken) and bowls of customized Rice Krispies at Cereality, the short-lived, pimp-my-cereal restaurant. I thought I had it good. But these kids today … If I had a cane, I’d wag it at their spoiled PENN sweatpant-ensconced asses.
The Class of 2015 and beyond now feast on the likes of Rival Bros. coffee, Southern a la Sbraga, Bobby Flay’s “crunchified” burgers, Pitruco pizza and more — not to mention coZara, Zavino, Joe coffee and Shake Shack at nearby Drexel. One newcomer is an outpost of Chicago chef Rick Bayless’ Tortas Frontera, housed on Penn’s bucolic main thoroughfare.
With the school year wrapped, the campus is downright ghostly, and there are plenty of open tables surrounding a circa-1920 fireplace in Tortas’ loungey dining room. I still had to wait, partially because most of the food here is made to order, partially because of the staff, which has slow-mo down to an art form. There were so many employees standing around doing little to nothing, I felt like I was at a union construction site. (Scared to see how they’ll handle the crowds in September.)
Bayless’ menu is mostly the same as the Tortas’ in Chicago, but modified for Philly with local farms and producers, something I appreciate. The attention to flavor and textural contrast in the tortas, the menu’s beefiest section, is something I appreciate more. Purple laces of pickled onion lent crunch and brightness to the conchinita pibil, slow-braised pork on a soft, griddled roll dressed with black-bean spread and habanero salsa. The warming red chile caldo brought to mind posole with its heady broth, hominy, avocado, cotija and hunks of melting short rib; I’ve got it earmarked for fall.
There are three styles of molletes, a Mexican breakfast staple featuring black beans smeared on an open-faced roll. I tried the one with bacon and Chihuahua cheese, but the queso had the over-crisp texture of an Ellio’s pizza left in the toaster oven too long. Squeaky dog toy-rubbery cubes of bacon in the loaded guacamole made bacon 0-2 here, but it was nothing a long pull of coconut horchata couldn’t cure.
TORTAS FRONTERA | 301 Locust Walk, rickbayless.com/restaurants/tortas-frontera. Mon.-Thurs., 11 a.m.-7 p.m. $1.95-$8.95.
