Adam Erace visits Sonata and if he has one bit of advice for chef Mark Tropea,  it’s go easy on the sauce.

At times during my dinner at Sonata, it was like Tropea couldn’t help himself, that add-more reflex that afflicts lots of young chefs. It’s a real shame, since mostly he’s doing fresh things with quality ingredients at friendly prices. His pan-crisped pork belly, brined for 24 hours and cooked sous-vide for 12 more, came correct with opposing textures, and I loved the little spheres of compressed Fuji apple and the deeply autumnal calvados molasses—even if the latter tattooed the plate in passé diner-dessert squiggles.

Sonata [Philadelphia Weekly]

One last thing before we leave your for the weekend. Michael Klein is reporting Restaurant School alum Mark Tropea will be opening Sonata where Swallow was on Liberties Walk. The restaurant will have seating for 45 and 37.4″ of leg room in the rear.

Tough act to Swallow [Philly.com]
Sonata [Hyundai USA]

Deuce, the first restaurant to open up in Liberties Walk, shut its doors last night.

Drew Lazor has the whole story over at the Clog and it’s shaping up to be a juicy one.

Laura Vernola, the owner, in a particularly classy move, is admonishing her defenders (and there are many over on the angry-on-the-inside NoLibs message board) to take it easy on Liberties Walk developer Bart Blatstein. While it’s easy to hate Blatstein on the basis of his hideous aesthetic sense alone, Deuce has been through at least three good chefs (Scott Schroeder, Greg Ling, Todd Lean) in two-and-a-half years. Staff turnover is usually a sign that something is awry – something that has nothing to do with the landlord.