The Bistro Offspring of a Regional Favorite

Often, when a great, beloved restaurant opens an offshoot, the sense of reverence among the guests trumps any sense of fun. So the 360-degrees of conversation, the waiters swirling around, all of it punctuated with the pop of a cork, were evidence that Blue Pear Bistro at Dilworthtown Inn has already become a favorite neighborhood destination.

It’s easy to understand why. The atmosphere is charming in a sophisticated farmhouse sort of way, and the preparations are easy to like.

The menu is divided into small- and medium-plate portions, and the slightly larger than usual appetizer-type dishes are easy to share and the just barely miniaturized entrees won’t send you home in a food-induced coma.

There’s a sly sense of humor among the small plates. Chicken nuggets ($9) arrived eight to the order, each perched atop a slim wooden skewer planted in a flowerpot filled with uncooked black beans. The breast and thigh meat was tender and rich, and their fried panko crust, attached to the meat not with the standard egg wash but instead with an ingenious combination of chicken mousse, egg whites, and cream, was crispy and well seasoned. The dipping sauce, a white truffle honey mustard with just the slightest hint of thyme and shallots, made this take on a fast-food classic a highlight.

Bacon and egg salad ($9) reminded me of a cleverly deconstructed riff on the French salade lyonnaise. Here, the egg was battered and gently fried whole, and the role of the bacon was played by a little brick of pork belly, whose jus helped to anchor the tarragon vinaigrette. The addition of five types of beans in place of potatoes—pinto, great northern, and cranberry beans, black-eyed peas and edamame—added an even greater sense of heartiness.

Mushroom crepe ($12.50), a wonderfully thin homemade pancake, was filled with a ragu of swiss chard, oyster, and shiitake mushrooms. It was spruced up with a soul-warming sauce of pureed butternut squash and squash stock. What saved these hearty flavors from being weighed down was the unexpectedly piquant scattering of chanterelles, whose pickled acidity sliced through the richness.

Entrées were a bit less consistent. The orange-scented tomato broth in which a generous portion of mussels ($14) arrived just missed the mark, overplaying subtlety when the dish needed some lust. And the pan-roasted salmon ($15), which was plated with an underwhelming, unexpectedly thin Madeira mustard sauce, was a bit on the dry side. Still, it was almost redeemed by the handpicked Brussels sprout leaves (yes, there is a cook in the kitchen whose daily duties include picking individual leaves from the sprouts; and yes, it is more than worth the effort), gold raisins, and toasted pistachios, which gave the dish a sense of weight and depth.

The buttery textured pan-roasted striped bass ($22) was an exceptional special accompanied by tender cockles, mussels, mushrooms, shallots and bay leaf-scented fingerling potatoes, tied together by a delicate pinot noir sauce.

On the more bistro-y end of the spectrum was the cheeseburger ($9), a simple, well-executed classic, unmarred by any “of the moment ingredients” or off-the-wall cooking methods. The meat was tender and very well seasoned, and the accompanying fries were appropriately thin and crispy. Fabulously nutty sharp cheddar from Lancaster and caramelized onions, a sweet tangle that perked up the entire plate, were smart, simple additions.

The kitchen’s few missteps are the right ones to be making at this stage of the game, more the result of a few hiccups in execution than of anything fundamentally flawed in the underlying conception. The service glitches, however, were more difficult to forgive.

Dining at the sister restaurant of the respected Dilworthtown Inn, after all, brings with it a set of expectations. So waiting 10 minutes for the first round of wine, or having to ask for bread and butter before it was brought out barely a few minutes before the small plates were delivered, or having the runners auction off the dishes (“Okay, who got the salmon?”), is not something fans of the Dilworthtown Inn expect.

Still, once the sweeteners were brought to the table to accompany our coffee and tea, we were able to tuck into the desserts, the highlights of which were a poached pear crumb ($6), tender and gently fragrant from its time in a bath of white wine, lemon juice, and sugar, and a berry cheesecake flan ($6) whose nutty graham cracker crust literally and figuratively anchored the lighter flavors and textures of the cream-cheese-spiked custard. Only the Valrhona chocolate brownie ($6) was less than stellar. The red wine-poached orange segments surrounding it lent the chocolate an overwhelming piquancy that detracted from the richness.

Looking around Blue Pear, I couldn’t help but notice how downright happy everyone seemed. This is a casual, grown-up bistro that provides exactly what the area needs: a good, thoughtful, modern meal in a quietly sophisticated atmosphere.

The Blue Pear Bistro is located at 275 Brintons Bridge Road in West Chester, and can be reached by phone at (610) 399-9812 or visited online at www.bluepearbistro.com.