MacGregor Mann has opened a new restaurant called Junto in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. Drawing on his experience at top Philadelphia restaurants and a stint in Copenhagen, Mann's menu focuses on local and seasonal ingredients with influences from Pennsylvania Dutch cooking. Reviews praise Mann's talents and techniques, and call Junto one of the best new restaurants in the suburbs. Dishes include house charcuterie, beef cheek, and egg yolk ravioli. Junto offers an inspired chef-driven menu in a simple but elegant setting.

1. Junto: One of the suburbs' top new restaurants
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MacGregor Mann lands in Chadds Ford and delivers one of the suburbs' best new
restaurants.
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Slow-cooked beef cheek, meltingly tender over lima beans, heirloom tomato, sorrel, and saffron potato chips. DAVID M
WARREN / Staff Photographer
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2. GALLERY: Junto
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VIDEO: Junto
About the restaurant
Junto
100 Ridge Road, Suite 31
Chadds Ford, PA 19317
484-574-8041
 www.JuntoByob.com
RATING:
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NEIGHBORHOOD: Chadds Ford
 View map
 Get directions
PARKING: Free parking.
HANDICAP ACCESS: Wheelchair accessible.
HOURS: Dinner Tuesday through Thursday, 5-9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, until 10 p.m. Brunch Saturday and Sunday, 9:30
a.m.-2 p.m. Closed Mondays.
MAKE A RESERVATION
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PRICES: $$$$
PAYMENT NOTES: Visa, MasterCard, AMEX, Discover
PAYMENT METHODS:
American Express
MasterCard
Visa

3. CUISINE TYPE: New American
STYLE: Former Amada chef-de-cuisine MacGregor Mann turns to his Pennsylvania Dutch roots for an inspired chef -ow ner
debut at this Chadds Ford BYOB. Experiences w ith Jose Garces and a stint at Copenhagen’s forage-centric Noma are clear
influences, but Mann’s menu show s a personal vision that channels seasonality and updated traditional local flavors better
than most. The focus on w ell-crafted flavors and professional service transcends the simple strip- mall space for w hat is the
best new restaurant in the Pennsylvania suburbs I’ve visited in a long time.
SPECIALTIES: House charcuterie (mortadella; chicken liver mousse); heirloom tomato-melon salad; the roots; harvest salad;
gazpacho; steamed clams; egg yolk ravioli; beef cheek w ith limas; corn tempura-fried scallops; apple snitz choucroute; corn-
crab fritters; black bass; sturgeon; chicken w ith birch jus; dry-aged ribeye for tw o; sheep’s-milk panna cotta.
ALCOHOL: BYOB.
WEEKEND NOISE: A reasonable 82 decibels (though room w as not completely full). Ideal is 75 decibels or less.
We had arrived at the edge of suburban civilization as w e know it. On one side w as a Whole Foods Market. On the other
side of Wilmington Pike w as a herd of deer munching across the rolling Delaw are County fields of recently cut alfalfa, their
hungry eyes ablaze w ith the setting sun.
Was that fresh sturgeon I smelled, smoking sw eetly on a grill somew here behind Junto, the restaurant prettily lit w ith strings
of w hite lights, attached to a strip mall here? Is that the gypsy guitar of Django Reinhardt beckoning me inside the simple
elegance of this airy "modern farmhouse," w here a vintage Speed Queen w ashtub in the corner brims w ith ice and chilling
BYO w ines?
Indeed it w as, and I w as heading in. Because w hat came next w as one of the best meals I've eaten in the Pennsylvania
suburbs in a very long time.
Pink rounds of springy mortadella, house-made w ith hazelnuts, came on a plank w ith pungent dabs of root-beer mustard,
house-baked fig bread, and chunks of glossy Thumbelina goat cheese. Warm crab fritters w ere fluffy at the center, w here
corn kernels popped w ith September sw eetness over pickled okra and a spicy-sw eet pepper relish made from Anaheims
and Hungarian w ax hot chiles. Meltingly tender beef cheeks, pan-crisped to finish, perched atop snappy green lima beans
tossed in silky, piquant tomato puree.
MORE COVERAGE
 Treemont mystery: Good food, few eaters
 Little Lolita, all grown up
 Bringing the restaurant to the farm
And those w ere just the openers of a $55 tasting that certified this tasty fact: MacGregor Mann is a name to remember.
This bucolic corner of Chadds Ford, 40 minutes from Center City, may seem a curious place for a cook of Mann's talent and
pedigree to land in his chef-ow ner debut. Then again, for the 33-year-old w ho rose through the Garces ranks to become
chef de cuisine at Amada, then jetted off to Copenhagen for a stint at w orld-famous Noma, it made plenty of sense. The
suburban rents are friendly, for one.
But those Whole Foods shoppers are exactly the demographic that just might get the hyper-seasonal, kohlrabi root-pickling,
house-smoking, kraut-curing, raw -sheep's-milk-ricotta-making ethos that drives the menus in Mann's ambitious kitchen,
served by a w ell-prepared staff w ith a professional tone (captain Amy Shelden is a vet of Susanna Foo and Lacroix).
And w hile that field across the road does not produce the reindeer moss that Mann w as charged w ith tw eezering clean for
consumption at Noma, he and his crew at Junto (JUN-toe) have foraged more than enough w ine berries, w ood sorrel, and
w ild asparagus there to get their specials-board juices pumping. Some of the area's better farm stands - SIW Vegetables
and Pete's Produce - have provided the rest of the seasonal inspiration, as Mann w orks to connect local bounty w ith the
Pennsylvania Dutch flavors he grew up w ith in York.
The toasty cornbread sticks that w elcome diners w ith silky dabs of clove-scented apple butter are the first clue of his back-
to-roots mission, and among the many family recipes scattered here. A steel crock of sauerkraut - cabbage cured for a
month to bright tartness, then w armed w ith sw eet sparks of brandy-soaked dried-apple snitz and porky chunks of summer
sausage - arrived w ith such a heady aroma of smoke and tang, I could travel to Lancaster on its fumes.

4. But Mann avoids any overly forced thematic cliches w ith a repertoire that seamlessly incorporates his full range of
experiences. Zesty pink shooters of tomato-melon gazpacho come w ith a crab salad that zings w ith horseradish-pepper
spice, evoking meals of Amada past.
Similarly, there are naturalistic nods to the New Nordic style of Noma - like the birchw ood shavings through w hich he strains
chicken stock, adding a subliminal forest savor to the glaze over a sublimely moist chicken breast, fanned beside a corn
porridge topped w ith a summer succotash threaded w ith morsels of smoked leg meat. Or the butter shot through w ith tender
green spring spruce tips that melts atop an epic 28-day-aged rib eye. That 20-ounce slice of prime-grade Berks County
Hereford beef w as amazingly tender and complex, w ith a pile of tiny roast heirloom potatoes and smoked turnips on the side
that made it a w orthy centerpiece for sharing at $65.
The tasting-menu option is a great w ay to experience a cross section of a menu that had few w eakpoints. Though there
w ere a couple, like a corn-chicken soup w ith less-than-crispy fried corn nuts that lodged in my teeth (and dumplings too tiny
to convey much of their huitlacoche flavor). A handful of desserts show ed creativity but lacked finesse, w ith too much gelatin
in the sheep's-milk panna cotta, and less-than-delicate buckw heat profiteroles.
But there w ere so many highlights, especially w ith seafood, that my quibbles w ere minor. Huge scallops w ere perfectly fried
in a sheer tempura crust made from sw eet corn, amped by an intense brow n chip of dehydrated scallop and a creamy
remoulade of pureed mussels and lovage. Tart sorrel granita and shavings of fresh horseradish enlivened briny raw Cape
May Salt oysters. Beautifully steamed black bass fillets basked in anise-scented froth over poached fennel. A lemon verbena
w hite w ine butter glaze added a subtle herbaceousness to that juicy fillet of smoked sturgeon.
Mann also has his w ay w ith pasta, spinning fettuccine from black garlic for a rustic entree tossed w ith creamy dabs of house
ricotta, hen-of-the-w oods mushrooms, tomato w ater, and summer beans. A giant ravioli, though, delivered a surprise. Cut
into its silky ricotta filling, and a golden egg yolk oozes out, enriching a contrasting tumble of sw eet peaches, peppery kale
leaves, and richly smoked nuggets of pork shoulder glossed w ith sassafras-infused jus and - my favorite touch - a subtle
dusting of shaved w alnuts.
Rarely has eating on the suburban frontier been as rew arding as this.
INQUIRER.COM
Chef/ow ner MacGregor Mann introduces Junto at w ww.inquirer.com/labanreview s. Chat online w ith Craig LaBan 2 p.m.
Tuesdays at w ww.inquirer.com/labanchats.
Read more at
http://w w w.philly.com/philly/food/20140921_Junto_Chadds_Ford_Macgregor_Mann.html#xTBZTsc36Fxhw RqK.99