Cream of the crop

RICH LANDAU and Kate Jacoby are not trying to overturn stereotypes, shake up the Philly restaurant scene, or convert local diners to vegetarianism.

But while their goal is simply to open Philadelphia's "signature vegetarian restaurant," all of the above may result from this move.

Horizons, a new eatery on 7th Street right off South, which is due to open Feb. 22, is a new incarnation of their wildly successful Horizons Cafe in Willow Grove.

But as with its predecessor, this Horizons will be anything but your typical veggie spot.

"There will be no granola, alfalfa sprouts or wheat germ anywhere on the menu," promised Landau, a hard-core vegetarian since the 1980s.

Instead, they'll be serving pecan and sage baked seitan with dijon glaze and wild mushroom stuffing, spicy red chile cauliflower rolls, tamarind rum-glazed tempeh, roasted oyster mushrooms, creamy horseradish butter and roasted red pepper tapenade, and Caribbean udon with caramelized chayote and hearts of palm.

Also available: Plenty of vegan wine and beer.

"We're going to have a selection of alcohol for people who want to drink alcohol but want to drink quality - who want to feel good the next day," explained Landau, quickly adding with a grin, "well, fairly good. "

It's a measure of how seriously Landau and Jacoby take their restaurant: They've spent almost as much energy on the booze as they have on the building renovation and menu plan. "We're going to be one of just a handful of restaurants in the country that are doing [all vegan wines]," said Landau.

"It's a lot of homework," he added.

But for the husband and wife duo, it is rewarding to know they're also raising the consciousness of some winemakers just by asking about this. He and Jacoby also have found kindred spirits: "To talk to these winemakers and brewmasters who are running these very small, almost micro operations, we connect with them," he said. "They're doing what we're doing - staying small, focusing on quality. "

Landau, 38, travels as often as he can to Europe and South America in search of new flavors and ingredients to incorporate into his cooking style. He has a candid enthusiasm about food that makes his dropping phrases like "serious dining adventure" in casual conversation seem totally appropriate.

While the new Horizons isn't due to formally open for a few weeks, the couple toured their in-progress second-floor dining room last week.

A roomy 10-table area under A-frame beams has a "rainforest lodge" feel. Landau said, "a lot of people think that if you go out for vegetarian food it's very casual, it's laid-back, just a bunch of hippies making vegan chili. But this is going to be a serious dining adventure up here. "

How do they do it?

It's that sense of adventure that has put Horizons on the map for many Delaware Valley diners. The vegetarian cuisine ranges from French to Tex-Mex to Creole to tropical and beyond. For the past few years, Landau has changed the menu every month, restlessly trying out new combinations and new versions, usually creating dishes whose "vegetarianism" is almost an afterthought.

Huntingdon Valley resident Pete Wilder, a non-vegetarian, said that the food is so good that "whenever I eat at Horizons I find myself asking . . . 'now, why is it I need to eat meat, again? ' " This is something Landau and Jacoby hear a lot, and in a sense that's what they're going for.

Landau admitted he likes "very hearty meat-and-potatoes-type portions, something that makes you say, yeah, now THAT was a MEAL! " In fact, he offered that from childhood, "I always loved the taste of meat. Hey, I'd love nothing better than to go to a steakhouse right now" if it weren't for his antipathy to killing animals.

He stresses that vegan cooking is "not about reinventing the way we cook - it's about adapting. " He sees his mission as "cleaning up" the great cooking styles of the world by leaving out the animal products, but obtaining similarly rich, delicious flavors. With one of his signature creations such as holiday portabella or seitan steak marsala, "until I add tofu or vegan butter, I haven't done anything different than a French chef would do: It's all deep layers of flavors - caramelizing the vegetables, sauteing onions, deglazing, adding wine, all classic techniques. "

Landau and Jacoby gathered some of those techniques into the Horizons Cookbook, which came out in 2003, featuring the "home version" of many of the restaurant's best-loved dishes. The cookbook proved very popular with Horizons' clientele; a second edition was put on hold while Landau and Jacoby concentrate on the move downtown - easily the biggest step in the 13-year history of the restaurant.

Old Horizons, new Horizons

In the early 90s, Landau, a self-taught cook, was working at Sonoma in Manayunk as a bartender. He would hang out in the kitchen picking up tips from the cooks, then apply them to his own small-scale veggie catering operation. Soon he felt confident enough to pursue his dream of opening a cafe inside a health food store.

He thought he found the perfect spot: a store on Ridge Pike, which as it turned out, was just about to close. But the owner had a friend who ran a different store up in Willow Grove, and he was looking for someone to run their tiny cafe. So Horizons Cafe was born inside Nature's Harvest, expanding over the years first to a real restaurant next door, then again to a larger space a couple of doors down as business continued to pick up.

A few years back, devoted Horizons customer Kate Jacoby began working a kitchen shift there while preparing for graduate school. When the pastry chef left, Jacoby stepped in and began perfecting her amazing vegan versions of dairy-based desserts like creme brulee, pushing the restaurant as a whole more in the direction of her own veganism (while vegetarians eschew meat, vegans also avoid eggs and dairy).

Jacoby also began to fall for Landau - and the feeling was mutual. The two were married in September 2004 - at a wedding they catered.

Since sealing their partnership, they've traveled together, including several trips to Florida, where they especially enjoy light, tropical, "sunny" dishes. On one recent trip, Landau and Jacoby even toyed with the idea of moving their operation to sunnier climes. But after some soul-searching, they decided instead to take the plunge and move into downtown Philadelphia.

"We were so close to moving to Florida," Landau admitted, "but we're born and raised in Philadelphia - and we've made a name here. And Philadelphia's dining experience right now is at such a great new level, gets better year after year - and yet after all this time there's no signature vegetarian restaurant in Philadelphia. "

That restaurant will be Horizons - if Landau and Jacoby can make their dream work in the high-pressure Philly restaurant scene. Their track record and their contagious passion for good food speaks well for their chances - as do the demographics: Vegetarian and vegan food, a marginal boutique item just a decade ago, is now found in mainstream food venues all over, even Burger King.

"The awareness is out there now," Jacoby continued. "Back when Rich opened Horizons Cafe he didn't want to advertise that it was a 'vegetarian' place because he figured so many people would be, you know, resistant - but on our business cards we're now printing 'New Vegan Cuisine' because we feel like the climate has changed so much. We're sort of pioneering it with going vegan, not just vegetarian, but I think people are ready for it. *

Horizons, 611 S. 7th St., 215-923-6117.