DaVinci & Yu is a chef’s ‘epiphany’ that fuses Asian and Italian food
In Rome, chef Marc Grika tried black cod in a Taleggio cream sauce. It prompted him to transform his South Philadelphia spot, Flannel, into the Italian-Asian fusion DaVinci & Yu.
Marc Grika has seen a lot in his four decades in the restaurant business, working as a chef and manager in the Garces, Starr, and Perrier orbits after running the kitchen at Spring Garden’s long-ago gem Mezzanotte.
Grika was on vacation in Rome last year from Flannel, the Southern-theme restaurant he opened in 2019 on East Passyunk Avenue, when he had what he called “the dish that changed my whole dynamic.”
At Zuma, the chichi Japanese restaurant in Palazzo Fendi, he was served a first course of black cod napped in a slightly funky Taleggio cream sauce. “As a chef, this was a combination I would never have put together, and it was an epiphany,” Grika said. Other Italian-Asian flavor pairings convinced him that “the synergy of the two cuisines makes it a greater cuisine.”
Japanese Italian cuisine has a lengthy history, going back at least a century, though its modern fusion form became especially popular in the 1990s in Japan, where it’s known as itameshi (which is also just what Italian food is called). It’s typically the province of Japanese chefs cooking Italian food, as at New York City’s 35-year-old Basta Pasta, a classic of the genre, rather than the other way around.
Grika flew home and decided to reboot Flannel into an Italian-Asian hybrid called DaVinci & Yu. It opens Thursday at 1819 E. Passyunk Ave. and serves dinner Wednesday to Sunday. (Weekend brunch is on the way with two Flannel signatures carrying over: chicken and waffles and chicken waffle Benedict.)
The space was redecorated in January, and Grika traded the homespun hanging lights and plaid accents for colorful lanterns and bold graphics. He’s set up a full bar selling cocktails with Pennsylvania spirits, through a partnership with Bald Birds Brewing.
Grika is working with Lee Richards, a kitchen alum of Cheu in Philadelphia and Brickette Lounge in West Chester.
The first appetizer listed on DaVinci & Yu’s menu is a riff on Grika’s life-changing dish: dumplings filled with black cod marinated in sake, mirin, soy, and ginger, and pan-seared with Taleggio cream sauce ($17).
Grika is also offering aran-sushi, which resembles nigiri — except crispy arancini subs for the traditional vinegared rice. They’re three for $14: Philly roll, barbecue eel, and spicy tuna. The bao buns ($14-$17 for two) include pan-seared octopus cakes with pickled daikon and carrots, and Sriracha-Kewpie sauce. Among the pizzas is a smoked mackerel ($21) topped with shishito peppers and mustard seeds that are pickled for nearly a week in a sweet and sour agrodolce; there’s red onion sriracha-kewpie and shaved Parmagiano-Reggiano on top.
On the pasta list is cacio e pepe e miso ($21), which gets its kick from toasted Sichuan pepper instead of black pepper and its umami from South River Miso Co.’s dandelion-leek miso. There is a lot going on in the Italian-Asian wedding ramen ($23): shrimp dumplings, shaved brisket, scallions, shiitake mushrooms, fish cake, wagyu meatballs, long-hots, Parmigiano, roasted tomato, and egg. The Italian-style brisket ($31) comes out with soba noodles sautéed with roasted tomatoes. There’s teriyaki cauliflower ($21) with giardiniera black rice.
The cannoli is listed on the menu as “Leave the Gun” — his attempt at dad humor.
“One of my new servers asked, ‘What does that mean — leave the gun?’ Are you serious? Could you not have seen The Godfather? It’s only on TV every other day.”