November 6, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

From Ukraine to refugee camp to Mt. Airy
Acclaimed artist opens tasty new restaurant
by LEN LEAR

From upper left, clockwise: Irina Datsko (right) and her daughter, Anita, run the new Italian BYOB, Langostini. (Photo by Len Lear); To make her award-winning collages, Irina uses her photographs, like this one of a beautiful orchid in Longwood Gardens, and then employs digital brushes, textures, color palettes, etc.; When Irina was awarded top honors by a national artists’ orgaization for her stunning collages, her face was flashed up on a huge screen at the Javits Center in New York, as if she were a movie star; Irina and her daughter are seen in 1983 in Lvov, Ukraine, long before either one ever knew how to speak English or cook Italian.

Everybody’s trying to get the most bang for his/her buck these days, thanks to the disastrous economy fueled by unscrupulous banking practices and a Congress and administration asleep at the wheel. Well, for a big bang, buck-wise, it would be hard to top Langostini, an Italian BYOB that opened six months ago at Front and Morris Streets, just a few blocks from the I-95 Washington Avenue exit.

Now, we all know that Italian restaurants are about as common in South Philly as Chinese restaurants in Beijing, but Langostini stands out by any criteria. First of all, every entree but one, the eponymous langostini, is under $20. (And I would not order the langostini anyway, simply because there is not enough edible meat on the bones.)

Secondly, the owner/chef, Irina Datsko, may not be Italian, but her cooking is spectacular. (You can hardly blame her for not cooking the food from her motherland. After all, do you know of any Ukrainian restaurants in the Philadelphia area?)

According to Christine Pirello, cookbook author and celebrity chef with her own TV cooking show, “This is a lovely, intimate dining experience. The food at Langostini is consistently great. I eat here often, and I can tell you that it is delicate and authentically Italian.”

Prior to 2001, the building at Front and Morris (southwest corner) in South Philadelphia housed Ground Floor Café, a coffee shop. In January of 2001, it was opened as Langostino’s by Carlos Calderone, who had previously worked at several center city restaurants. The sparkling jewel of a restaurant, which seats about 36 inside and another 12 or so outside, has changed hands twice since then. Datsko, 47, a native of Lvov, Ukraine, reopened it in late April of this year as Langostini. (The name was changed very slightly for legal reasons.)

Irina, also a graphic artist who trained extensively in the fine arts in her native land, graduated from the University of the Arts in center city, where she advanced rapidly into the digital medium. Although running a restaurant in definitely a 24/7 undertaking, Irina also somehow finds the time to be senior graphic designer and creative lead for GraphosArt, a graphic and Web site design studio in center city.

“Art … is about organization of color, lines, forms, rhythm and compositions,” said Datsko. “After being inspired, I choose the elements for the future composition. Retouching and adding graphics works like painting on canvas.”

Using her own photography along with software to enhance and alter elements of each work, Irina created a “Philadelphia Collection” of pieces reflecting the city’s history and heritage, as well as a series on orchids, many of which she photographed at Longwood Gardens. “I have been drawn to orchids because of their static, long-lasting quality,” said Irina. “There’s the sense of the eternal that surrounds them. Orchids have fascinated people since early times. They’re a symbol of love, luxury and beauty.”

Datsko was named “Best Artist of the Year” in 2005 by ARTV, a nationwide artists’ organization, during a nationally televised program at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. (ARTV, which was founded by Audrey Roberts, who created the first art TV show in southwest Florida in the 1990s, brings art collectors and artists together through high-definition video and TV.)

Irina, whose works have been exhibited at many venues in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, explained that she “always liked to entertain and feed people in my house and art studio (at 13th and Locust Streets). Once I cooked for two days to prepare food for 50 people. Everybody seemed to love the food, so I figured if I could do that, I could run a restaurant.”

Irina left Ukraine with her daughter, Anita (now 26, a server at Langostini), when the Soviet Union imploded in 1989. They spent one year in a refugee camp near Rome before getting sponsors in Philadelphia through a church, enabling them to come here. Irina learned to speak Italian while in Rome (and become a terrific Italian cook) and learned to speak English after coming to Philadelphia.

She finally settled in Mt. Airy, which she loves “because of the diversity, how nice and welcoming most of the people are, the beauty of the architecture and the closeness of that spectacular park. When you walk to Valley Green Inn, you feel like you’re in the middle of a national park. It’s so wonderful to have that right in a big city.”

With a 21-carat smile and a voice that sounds lived-in, Irina is the jumper cable who gets the electricity started, managing to chat it up with customers in between cooking stints in the kitchen. Irina is clearly capable of delivering the warhorses like Caesar salad, pasta primavera, linguini with clams and chicken parmigiana, but she also creates elegant presentations that leave quality ingredients (mostly from the Italian Market) to the solitude of an artfully crafted sauce.

The alchemy of the homemade potato gnocchi ($14.95), for example, married to fresh tomato sauce and Italian cheeses, is a union no one in his/her right mind would want to end in divorce. We’ve had gnocchi at other restaurants in recent months that were too doughy, probably from the use of cheaper potatoes that produce too much water, and then flour is added to reduce the water, causing the doughy effect. Irina’s gnocchi, however, were soft, light pillows of heaven.

And with the bracing richness of fresh seafood like the tilapia ($17.95), the chef is plumbing sublime flavors from seemingly simple combinations. The piquant white wine sauce in which the fork-tender triangle of fish rested will hum in your culinary memory for days to come. And for dessert we split a slice of homemade triple chocolate “Amore” cake ($5.95) with mascarpone and cream — decadent!

Another reason to rhapsodize about this enticing BYOB is that unlike almost all other center city and South Philly restaurants, there is plenty of free, available parking on nearby streets and in large parking areas between Front Street and I-95. Langostini is open for dinner only Tuesday through Sunday.

For more information, call 215-551-7709 or visit www.langostinosrestaurant.com.