Since Jansen closed its doors in West Mt. Airy last September, some local foodies have lamented the paucity of fine dining options in Northwest Philadelphia. Coincidentally, though, that same month a small but intriguing upscale restaurant, dohō (a portmanteau combining the word “dough” with Hortter) opened in a building at 18 W. Hortter St. shared with the popular catering firm, Catering by Design (CBD).

Peter Loevy, founder of CBD, a firm that has been catering more than 100 weddings a year and other events that have fed from two to 2,000 people at a time, also owns dohō. It includes a dining area seating about 40 people and a seven-seat bar area with a short selection of craft cocktails, unpretentious wines and locally brewed beers. If there’s a wine you’d like to try before purchasing, they allow you to sample.

Executive chef Roth Perelman, a graduate of the prestigious Culinary Institute of America, previously worked as a chef at upscale restaurants such as Blackfish in Conshohocken and for the legendary Jean-Georges Vongerichten, who has a very upscale eponymous restaurant in the Four Seasons Hotel in Center City.

Perelman, who knows his true north and orbits in a galaxy all his own, for many years had a dream of opening a Mexican and Asian fusion restaurant, he told the Local in an earlier interview. He has achieved his goal on the first floor of their massive Mt. Airy property, across the street from a five-story apartment complex.

Perelman created the signature “dohō,” a taco shell made by running soft bao bun dough through a pasta machine, then fusing it with Latin-style meats cooked very slowly at a low temperature with East Asian toppings. The concept of dohō is a Center City-quality bistro setting that merges European kitchen techniques with multicultural ingredients.

We have had midweek dinners at dohō twice in recent weeks, and both times they were quite full, so obviously the word is getting around in the community. Servers Doug and Iyana could not have been more pleasant and professional.

A dish of “Rad” noodles with shrimp, coconut red curry and Thai basil ($24) swims far from the mainstream with just the right combination of spice and flavor. An entree of skate was very spicy, although there was no warning of that on the menu. But its accompanying combination of panang curry, peanuts and Thai basil ($34) was sin-sational.

A vegetarian dish of masa gnocchi salsa verde, crema, queso fresco and corn crunch ($22) had every element singing in harmony. Another interesting dish was lumache (snail-shaped pasta) rigate consisting of mushroom, truffle, ramps and lapsang furikake, a dry versatile Japanese seasoning that added savory flavor and texture. The pasta ridges in this dish trap sauces and hold onto seasonings better than smooth pasta varieties ($22).

For dessert, the chocolate chip cookie baked in a clay dish with brown sugar butter crumbs and served with a dollop of ice cream reverberated in waves of pleasure ($14). Like an increasing number of restaurants these days, dohō is charging for bread, as restaurants in Europe have been doing for many years, although the wonderful toasted milk bread was worth the $6 price tag.

Online reviews by customers have been almost all raves. A typical one was from Yasmine K., of Chestnut Hill, on May 10: “Stellar. I went twice in four days, and I had to stop myself from going again the next day! It was beyond in every way!”

“Nobody knows how it will work,” Loevy told the Local before opening dohō when it was still a pop-up called Doho Taqueria, “but we are crazy that way, or we wouldn’t be caterers. Mt. Airy is a great area that Mt. Airy people are passionate about, but it has been underserved when it comes to restaurants.”

Loevy, a 1979 graduate of the Philadelphia Restaurant School who worked in 16 restaurants before starting his catering firm, had employed more than 100 part-time employees and 25 full-time employees before the pandemic. He was able to keep 14 of them working by starting a philanthropic program called Step Up to the Plate from April 2020 until December 2021, distributing 900,000 free meals at sites in Kensington and South Philadelphia.

Parking for customers is available in the Catering by Design parking lot, which is marked by two signs: one on Hortter Street and one on Germantown Avenue.

For more information, visit dohorestaurant.com. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.