The buzz about Maia, an ambitious, even groundbreaking, partnership between chef brothers Patrick and Terence Feury and operating partner Scott Morrison, began nearly two years ago.

We heard stories and rumors about the planned offerings: a lavish European restaurant focusing on local, organic ingredients; a swanky bar where ice troughs would run down the centers of long tables; a casual bistro; and even a gourmet market, complete with an organic juice bar and a pastry shop.

And we waited … and waited some more.

But this past spring, Maia’s doors finally opened—and proved that good things do, in fact, come to those who wait.

The three partners have transformed a 5,000-square-foot building, tucked incongruously next to a Staples on Lancaster Avenue in Villanova, into an unprecedented dining experience. The upscale seafood restaurant on the second floor is the true gastro-destination at this two-story wonder, but the bistro, café and monstrous bar on the first floor are quickly becoming a see-and-be-seen locus for Mainliners. (Alas, from the grandiosity of the effort comes Maia’s main—and perhaps only—misstep: a sort of multiple personality disorder that has already engendered confusion among a number of newcomers. One local A-lister told us he recently walked in and beat a quick retreat, ill prepared to navigate the bustling bar and unaware that he could access the fine dining restaurant through a separate back entrance).

Still, the décor is gorgeous, the work of Studio A Design, which is behind some of the hippest new nightclubs, lounges and hotels from South Beach to Manhattan. They’ve constructed a space that moves from bold, bright and modern in the airy market cafe, to casual and inviting in the brick-lined bistro, to sleek and romantic in the bar, and rich and dramatic in the restaurant, using organic elements—glass, stone, wood, brick and metal—to bring a feeling of nature to the space.

But it’s the food, not the ambiance, that stars here. The Feury brothers—whose combined resumes include Susanna Foo, Striped Bass, Le Cirque and Le Bernardin—don’t let the outsize scale of the place detract from their attention to detail, focusing on classical preparations and extremely fresh, local ingredients to assemble one of the most exciting menus in the region. They proudly list their producers: vegetables from Perkasie’s Branch Creek Farms, Chester County’s Windy Acres Farm and Bucks County’s Blue Moon Farm, and seafood from producers like New Jersey’s Viking Village Farms, plus locally raised, organic meats and cheeses. The charcuterie and breads are all crafted in-house, where old world techniques meet modern flourishes. The brothers are known as devout Slow Food adherents, and they showcase the power of that movement on the menu here.

On a recent Friday night, we found ourselves seated in the upstairs seafood restaurant, at a table adjacent to a prominent Main Line venture capitalist who was obviously already a regular and a fan. There’s plenty of reason to become a regular here: Not only does the dinner menu change daily, but the wine and spirits list also rotates every few days, courtesy of Melissa Monosoff, the Marnie Old protégé and Striped Bass alum who is transforming Maia’s bar into one of the more cutting edge nightspots in the ’burbs. Monosoff was experimenting with old-fashioned liqueurs like St. Germain and Aperol, so we started with cocktails that showcased these unusual flavors.

After our unfailingly cordial waitress brought over a basket of house-made breads—explaining each one in minute detail—we launched into a tasting menu.

We started with selections from Maia’s extensive offerings of raw fish and seafood: some of the freshest oysters we can remember ever sampling, served on ice with a tangy frozen cider vinegar mignonette and wedges of lemon. As well, we tried a checkerboard mosaic of fish: artistically presented squares of yellowtail, salmon and tuna lightly seasoned with a house-made Maldon celery salt and citrus gelée.

More appetizers included the chilled gazpacho, a mildly spicy, smoothly blended and perfectly chilled puree of tomato with avocado and cilantro, poured at the table over fresh chunks of lobster meat and served in a teacup. A dish of eel and foie gras was expertly executed, the slices of eel barbecued and crisp on the outside, and the foie gras torchon creamy and melting over toasted brioche slices. Even better was the bouillabaisse, a flawless take on the classic dish. The broth was pungent and rich with enormous, meaty Texas head-on shrimp, garlic croutons and a heap of creamy crab aioli.

We wondered if the entrées could live up to the imaginative and perfectly updated appetizers. They did. We sampled the Viking Village scallops, which were very fresh and simply but expertly seared in a flavorful marinade, alongside a timbale of peekytoe crab meat mixed with bright green asparagus. And the American red snapper was a hearty but elegant entrée, topped with a calamari confit and crisp chorizo and served over a pistou fragrant with basil and summer vegetables. The pan-roasted lobster, though, even upstaged the snapper: a symphony of color and flavor on the plate, the meat of a tail and a gorgeous red claw contrasted with white asparagus, purple potatoes and an incredibly savory, creamy truffle mousseline. We also ventured outside of the chefs’ seafood focus to try the evening’s “tasting of lamb,” a sort of ode to the meat that included a slow-roasted chop served red, juicy and tender, alongside a leg confit salad and a Moroccan-style merguez sausage over a disk of roasted zucchini and summer squash.

For dessert, we sampled a few offerings. Maia’s enticing version of Linzer torte encompassed layers of fluffy pastry loaded with sweet raspberry filling and powdered sugar. There was also a refreshing square of mint chocolate chip ice cream—homemade, and loaded with fresh mint rather than sugar—topped with a chocolate-covered pretzel.
Since we were too full to contemplate the European-style cookies infused with almonds and pignoli that Maia normally sends out, our waitress brought them out in a take-away container. It was the perfect souvenir from this one-meal European vacation.

789 E. Lancaster Ave., Villanova; 610-527-4888; tastemaia.com.