Sushi comes to East P'unk

On a recent Wednesday evening beyond the Roman fountain that spouts (and sings Sinatra) on East Passyunk Avenue, you could behold the miracle of the fishes. A hip sushi cafe called Izumi had flung open its big, inviting windows, creating a gawker delay on the sidewalks after work: sushi on East P'unk?!

Old-timers on the block - where East Passyunk meets Tasker - are getting used to change. At the Sicilian social club across from Paradiso, an upscale eatery of the Center City stripe, one graying denizen wasn't startled so much that sushi had migrated south of South Street. He was shaking his head that, once again, another restaurant had opened at all: "They're everywhere!"

And so they are, though in some cases not for long: In the five years that a revival has taken tentative root on "The Avenue" south of the Italian Market and east of Broad, a few pioneers have died along the trail - Trattoria Luca is gone, and Albertino's Ristorante Italiano, and its brief successor, Clementine's.

But time marches on. A new Mediterranean place is staking a claim. And two gastropubs - or

restro

-pubs - are about to join the lineup, both from experienced South Philly hands.

And on these blocks, "downtown" to generations of Italians before the malls and big-box stores sapped its life 30 years ago, you could feel in the October twilight the pulse rising. The new wave of settlers - bike-riding, eat-outing 25-year-olds - hunkered at the counter at B2 Cafe, and spilled onto the sidewalk from the recesses of Cantina los Cabalitis, home of the braised goat taco, Mexican beer, and tequila flights.

Here and there, aging natives gathered under streetlights, their Italian accents still thick as Sunday gravy. Locals say more older residents are strolling after dark, emboldened by the street life of the nascent hipster scene.

Its latest manifestation, of course, is month-old Izumi, Japanese for "fountain," its window frames lipsticked with red lacquer, the interior - on full view from the street - stylishly dim and contemporary, the music that ubiquitous techno-house that thumps on a mindless loop.

The model is more Buddakan than serene teahouse. And indeed, Corey Baver, the chef and part-owner (with Paradiso's Lynn Rinaldi), spent eight years in the kitchens of the Starr galaxy, among them Buddakan, Pod and, very briefly, Morimoto. (You quickly note, in the plating and the sensibility, echoes of those spots, with a hint, too, of suburban Teikoku, a former haunt of the sushi chef, Agus Lukito.)

I have had amazingly bright curls of raw striped bass in spicy miso sauce there, and an exquisite piece of daily-special mackerel on sushi rice. The sashimi sampler, served on a long wooden tray, was less successful, the squares of tuna uninspired, the salmon carpaccio chewy, though the fluke (or white sea bass, it was hard to tell) with tataki sauce, and the light squid with lemon oil were tasty enough.

There is an elegant little sashimi salad, and a tart-sized patty of yellowtail tartare. And an odd, but sort-of-fun seared scallop set on a mild wasabi crepe with melted buffalo mozzarella; cashew-herb butter; and sweet, mirin-soaked shiitake mushroom - the only (thankfully) Asian-Italian fusion offering I noticed.

There is a satisfying snake of a maki roll, too, named in honor of its new habitat the Passyunk Avenue Roll, its rice-cloaked center a mix of shrimp tempura and spicy crabmeat.

That such a critter would someday make landfall here, in this wraparound corner space once occupied by the Riviera Dry Cleaners, a few yards from where Frankie's Italiano once held sway, on a P'unk Avenue (as some newbies call it) that has its own scooter shop, a half-dozen Italian places, and not one but two Mexican joints facing each other, well, it's proof that wonders - even on left-for-dead avenues of South Philadelphia - never cease.

1601 E. Passyunk

Ave. (at Tasker)

215-271-1222

» READ MORE: www.izumiphilly.com