Dinner at the Club

Starred review from October 21, 2019
Chef Baldino and Erace (coauthor of Laurel) open the doors to Philadelphia’s members-only Palizzi Social Club, with nearly 70 hearty Italian recipes, 13 cocktails, and numerous options for a Feast of the Seven Fishes. The club, founded in 1918 as a gathering place for male immigrants from the Abruzzo region, served a cuisine inspired by family traditions and the blue-collar joie de vivre of its neighborhood. Tomato and cinnamon-braised tripe is a mainstay not because it is often ordered, but because it represents the “community’s past.” One popular dish is macaroni and crab gravy—intended to bring to mind summer vacations in South Jersey, the dish’s tomato sauce is packed with blue crab, anchovy, and clam juice, balanced by white wine and brandy. Conversely, tagliatelle with lemon and bottarga employs a simple sauce of lemon juice and spices, but the noodles are golden thanks to a 20-yolk pasta dough recipe (it results in a pound and half of pasta, and the leftover egg whites can be used for a dessert, hazelnut torrone). The cocktail list includes the Bozzelli, a daiquiri-like quaff with habanero tincture, and Cocchi Americano, an aperitif wine with a history back to 1891. Old-world flavors and heartfelt presentation make for a delicious mix in this rare look inside a South Philly institution.