We can't fight this feeling - '80s food is back in style

IN THE '80s, quiche, crab cakes, carrot cake and blackened anything were chichi. So were Salad Alley, Chinese chicken salad, chicken Marsala and chicken Marbella. Southwest was in vogue. Nachos were novel.

Now, somewhat suddenly, if not surprisingly, like Naomi Campbell and those creepy ghosties in "Poltergeist II," '80s food favorites, well, they're back.

Philly's most obvious example of the resurrection of "Dancin' on Air"-era fare comes from "Top Chef" Kevin Sbraga. Juniper Commons, Sbraga's third restaurant, debuted mid-December.

Chef's inspiration? Soft rock.

How's that for retro?

Sbraga's 140-seat eatery, at Broad and South, has tartan banquettes, amber ashtrays (function: to hold candles) and Caesar salads mixed tableside.

In the bar, pages copied from decades-old editions of the Daily News, Inquirer and Evening Bulletin serve as wallpaper. During a recent visit, "Back to the Future" played on the bar TV.

The sound system features Air Supply, REO Speedwagon, David Bowie, Run DMC and LL Cool J.

There are obvious nods to today's trends - open kitchen, roasted Brussels sprouts, ginormous gin selection. But 36-year-old Sbraga's certainly channeling the heyday of Eagle's Eye, Dick Vermeil and his own childhood.

In the decade when most of us chowed down on Cool Ranch Doritos, Sbraga was having his dad, Harvey's, cheesecakes, made in the family's bakeries in the Pennsauken Mart and Willingboro. Meals at home meant "good old American food," Kevin said. "Spaghetti and meatballs, ham and cheese sandwiches, scrambled eggs, collard greens, baked chicken, spaghetti and clams."

Few of Sbraga's childhood eats appear on Juniper Commons' menu (though the kids' menu has grilled cheese). The place is casual, but a little more upscale.

Simple refinement makes sense, said Michael McNally, who took over Fairmount's London Grill, in 1991, with then-wife, Terry. Philly restaurants in the '80s practiced "pretty clean cooking," he recalled. "Chefs were interested in exploring and being a little bit more casual about food."

This month, London is feting 24 years under the McNallys with throwback dishes such as "Chili Elizabeth Taylor," an all-meat, no-bean stew with a corn-bread crust and side of pickled veggies and black beans. He got the recipe from a chef in California who'd served it to Taylor on the set of "Cleopatra." The dish hails from the '60s. But those green onions on top? All '80s.

Later this month, McNally will bring back horseradish-crusted salmon and resurrect veggie quiche. "Sooner or later, everything comes back around," he said.

Then again, some things never go away. Friday Saturday Sunday has made the same mushroom soup since 1976, when it opened. Center City's oldest-operating restaurant continues to crank out its early hits.

Said owner Weaver Lilley, "We still do a filet au poivre, still do a roast duck, still do a crab cake and also do a chicken dish that dates way back: breaded and baked chicken breast done with a Bearnaise, only now we do it with a Dijon cream sauce.

For dessert, it's "carrot cake, coconut cream, banana cream sometimes. There's always a cheesecake, always a creme."

Fri-Sat-Sun chef Sam Orskog called the dishes "very classic '80s." "Our regulars want the things they had when they first started coming," she said. "It has to be done exactly right for people to recognize it as it is," and she called the restaurant "a museum of food."

Orskog can't rely much on personal memory. She was born in 1988.

Juniper Commons isn't trying to preserve a time. Instead, said executive chef Greg Garbacz, "we throw some modern touches in there."

The beef-fat fries that go with a country clubby roast beef aim to suit a millennial palate. The "salad bar" arrives to you - a tray of small plates of vegetables, chopped egg, croutons, etc.

The kitchen, however, aims at age-appropriate authenticity. "We don't use circulators or water baths or any kind of powders," said Garbacz. "We brought it back to the basics: wood-fired grilling, sauteing, roasting, frying - what everybody's comfortable with."

Prime rib and mustard-cream-sauced salmon are the two most popular entrees. The cheesecake is Sbraga's dad's recipe. Although the wine coolers are house made and bottled (and even though the cocktail list compares them to Zima, which Coors didn't sell until 2003), they aim to please.

Sbraga drew the line, however, at Jell-O salad. Said he can't go for that. No can do.