Alice

In some ways, Alice in the Italian Market follows the standard operating procedure of a seasonal American restaurant. Oysters get dressed up for prom on a marble bar. People eat dry-aged beef next to monstera plants. Produce-heavy dishes act like seasonal highlight reels from Old McDonald’s farm. What makes this place stand out from every other Philly small plates paradise is its charcoal oven. Follow the smoke when you're ordering and you’ll have a perfectly nice meal at a perfectly nice restaurant in a neighborhood people visit all the time.

photo credit: GAB BONGHI

Even Alice's room feels familiar: dimly lit, with the mechanical chattiness of an office Christmas party. The quiet couple in the tan booth next to yours may break their silence to agree in unison that “the salad is good.” And they'll be right. The salad is good. As the night goes on and the oversized rum-cava cocktails flow, Alice's atmosphere usually loosens up. Dates and groups of friends stare at the action in the open kitchen, where pots gurgle with onion consomme and steaks flip and char.

Alice’s best dishes touch the fire. There's a very good octopus coated in chiles and bits of preserved lemon. Coal-roasted beets with sunflower butter briefly stop time. A burger on a challah bun soaks up all the drip from a dry-aged patty and melty cheddar. No matter how simple a dish may sound, Alice attempts big flavors in everything it does. Sometimes that works, like with the mushrooms glazed in almond miso or the crunchy fried chicken with caraflex cabbage and homemade hot sauce—admittedly not a grilled dish but still one of our favorites here.  

photo credit: NICOLE GUGLIELMO

photo credit: GAB BONGHI

photo credit: GAB BONGHI

photo credit: GAB BONGHI

photo credit: GAB BONGHI

Other times, Alice’s flavor swings will leave you like Avril Lavigne, wondering why they had to go and make things complicated. For every herby chermoula adding some needed zip to grilled prawns, there’s a hazelnut vinaigrette doing nothing more for broccoli than readying it for picture day. And, with multiple cuisine nods on the menu, you're likely to get whiplash jumping from grilled naan to foie gras to fried chicken to wagyu beef.

If you’re not sure what your dining mood is, it’s easy to get lost in Alice's 22-item menu. That variety and ambition might work if every dish hit, but not every dish does. Instead, come to Alice with a plan to eat smoky, grilled food (and the fried chicken and the salad). That way you'll be set for date night or a group dinner featuring more char than you typically get at home.

Food Rundown

photo credit: GAB BONGHI

Cocktails

Alice makes notably giant cocktails. We're not against this, for the record. We could sip the cava and rum-based Love Fool all day. But then we’d spend all of dinner in the bathroom and couldn't do this job.

photo credit: GAB BONGHI

Naan With Anchovy

Although Alice's menu changes frequently, there are always a few naan options. They’re warm and fluffy, like your winter blanket fresh out of the dryer. Go for the version with anchovy, leeks, and some subtle aleppo.

photo credit: GAB BONGHI

Green Salad

A salad with crispy artichokes, buttermilk dressing that's creamy without getting into "too thick" territory, and a snow pile of grana padano. Order it.

Soft Shell Crab

This dish from the summer/fall menu has a random scattering of avocado, watercress, sautéed onions, and little flowers on top. Despite all of these elements, it's still missing a key one: seasoning.

photo credit: GAB BONGHI

Dry-Aged Burger

The combination of aged beef, smoky vidalia onions, and melty cheddar will take you to a better, cheesier place than where you are currently. And the fact that it’s served on a challah bun sized exactly to fit the patty, well, that just makes things better.

photo credit: GAB BONGHI

Fried Chicken

Alice could make a franchise based on this fried chicken. It comes with two big thigh pieces on top of soft, sauteed cabbage. You could easily split the dish with a group of friends when you want a main with serious crunch.

photo credit: GAB BONGHI

Wagyu Beef

What’s a seasonal American restaurant without a steak on the menu? This wagyu lands somewhere between unremarkable and fine. It’s expertly cooked, but the sweetness of the huckleberry glaze dominates the rest of the plate.

photo credit: GAB BONGHI

Ice Cream

Round out the meal with this cocktail glass full of absinthe chocolate chunk ice cream. The subtle licorice flavor keeps the whipped topping and pops of chocolate from feeling too sweet. We'd eat this straight from the storage freezer if they'd let us.