Avenue M

Has anyone heard anything about this new opening? It says opening March 2006. I was just wondering if any of you had any clues as to what type of food they are going to have.

I am following this one with higher than normal interest because it is a few blocks from my home.

Metromix says "the focus will be on dining in the early evening and will move more towards lounging as the night wears on. Look for steaks, chops and seafood, plus a late-night menu. We have high hopes for better-than-average grub since they've recruited Daniel Kelly (D. Kelly) to handle executive chef duties."

The whole lounge thing and the proximity to downtown makes me worried it will be more of a "scene" place, but there are certainly some "scene" places with great food.

Centerstage says to expect "a high-end steak and chop house serving dishes such as lobster-stuffed chicken breasts and 12 kinds of prime steak." (Looks like Centerstage cribbed from the Dish; see below.)

Finally, here is part of the blurb from the Dish a while back: "'It’s going to be a high-end steak and chop house,' says [one of the owners]. “But not something with a bunch of old men smoking cigars.” [Daniel] Kelly, who will be exec chef, will pepper the menu with his contemporary American favorites, such as a lobster-stuffed chicken breast ($25), plus 12 prime steaks (a 32-ounce porterhouse will be $35). The space, which boasts two balconies and a 2,000-square-foot patio, is currently undergoing a major renovation."

Obviously, each of those sources has its own shortcomings, but it should give you a high-level flavor of what it's going to be like.

Yes, but will they have HIV+, singing orange puppets serving up the lobster-stuffed chicken breast? Wait, Avenue M?? I guess that would be octegenarian, Russian-Jewish, HIV+ singing orange puppets.

Matt wrote:(Looks like Centerstage cribbed from the Dish; see below.)

More likely they're both working from the same press release.

hungryrabbi wrote:Yes, but will they have HIV+, singing orange puppets serving up the lobster-stuffed chicken breast? Wait, Avenue M?? I guess that would be octegenarian, Russian-Jewish, HIV+ singing orange puppets.

Oh Rebbi, I kept looking at this & thinking about an Avenue Q joke and I am both dispappointed and pleased that you did it for me.

Now can you do some RKelly/DKelly jokes? But remember to keep it PG-rated!

Has anyone ventured yet?? I have reservations for tonite and wanted to know if anyone had an "in" on menu recommendations.

[quote="Epoisses"]Has anyone ventured yet?? I have reservations for tonite and wanted to know if anyone had an "in" on menu recommendations.[/quote]

What did you think?

Took me a while to find this thread since "avenue" and "m" are such ambiguous terms to search on.

Any recent experiences?

Yeah, it actually won't search on one and two-letter words. You're better off searching for Avenue plus a street name or some other term likely to turn up in the thread.

I dined at Avenue M a couple of weeks ago for a birthday party. It was a while ago, so I don't remember everything. (In fact, my memory is pretty hazy)

High points:
Broiled whitefish with lemon caper sauce
Hummos appetizer
The service for this large party.

Ehh:
Bone in Cowboy rib-eye.
Cocktails.

The fish was really exceptional and the steak was absolutely not.

Best,

Veeral

A serious lack of professionalism at Avenue M. From the host reading the newspaper as we entered, to bumbling service, it just felt like the crew was a bunch of kids who had no babysitter. Food was unmemorable.

Plus they marking champagne up by 400%...Mumm's Cordon Rouge, which retails for $27.99 at Sam's Wine and Spirits goes for $115 at Avenue M

Went for dinner w/ a party of 5 Saturday. Had reservation for 8:30, got there at 8:30, sat in the courtyard while waiting for the table, didn't get to our table until 9:15, annoying, but I'll excuse it for a Saturday.

Service was on the point once we sat down, but nothing more. Through the entire evening, no one was rude, but proficient? Not quite. Had some questions about various items and deserts, waiter basically fumbled through the answers.

Amongst the party, we had short rib, crabcake, cowboy steak, some kind of fish, and the mixed grill special for the day (half lobster, sirloin and rack of lamb). Short rib was OK, but rather blend for my liking (I really enjoyed my short rib at Cuatro last month, much more flavorful). Crabcake to me was sub-par (but I just spent mutiple trips to Baltimore in the last couple of months, so I'm prob spoiled at the moment), while the mixed grill was a great value at $40. I asked for medium for my lamb, and medium rare for my sirloin, very specifically to the waiter, but still got both them back medium to medium well.

We stayed behind after the dinner to hang at the lounge upstairs, it was so smoky and crowded we had to leave and move to the bar after 10 minutes. There were a lot "beautiful" people there, which sort of help offset the dullness of the food, at least for me. Doutful I'll be going back again for food.

For those wondering:

Avenue M
695 N. Milwaukee Ave.
312-243-1133

This ties in with the “trend towards appetizers not entrees” discussion (based on the recent NYT article) going on in the LTH media domination thread, because our party-of-eight dinner Saturday night at Avenue M got off to a promising start with a variety of good appetizers. If only it had ended there.

Starting with the good news...We were greeted genially; seated at a very nice table; our friendly waitress was right there to take a drink order of cocktails, wines-by-the-glass and sparkling waters; all drinks showed up promptly and as specified; and after some sips, the ordering of appetizers proceeded at a comfortable pace. Raw oysters were very fresh, the little hand-held “lollilpop” lambchops were quite special (nicely rare and flavorful), the sea scallops good, the tuna sashimi fine.

But things started going off the rails when I placed an order from the wine list, one of the 2004 cabernets from the Napa Valley that the restaurant listed. After a bit our waitress returned apologetically, saying the restaurant didn’t actually have that bottle. No problem. I picked another cabernet of the same vintage. She nodded affirmatively as if to say, “Good choice. I know we have that one.” A few minutes later she returned, saying, “Strike two.” Now I was a little irritated, but made a third selection. When she returned, chagrined, it was with a different bottle which she said the restaurant was comping us—since, it turned out, the restaurant had now swung and missed for strike three. Clearly embarrassed by the restaurant's failure, she said something apologetic along the lines of, “the restaurant is in the process of changing its wine list.” If that’s the case, I wonder why Avenue M is handing customers this wine list?

The management's gesture would have felt more sincere and fully satisfactory had the bottle it comped been of similar quality to any of the three I ordered, but it wasn't. No matter. We accepted the offering--it was free, after all. Onward and upward. We weren’t letting this get in the way of our good time.

But with the entree course, the derailment became a full-on train-wreck. Four of us ordered the sliced duck breast. Mine, and one of our friends’, arrived so underdone as to be verging on raw--as in, "what are they thinking." I'm no stranger to rarish when it comes to duck (and, as witness the appetizers, will eat other foods raw), but I’m not ready for poultry sushi. We sent these orders back, and they returned after some more cooking acceptably done.

The entrees of two others in our party never arrived at all. Or rather, after repeated inquiries, they did, finally—when the six of our party who had received their entrees were finished with them.

While this foul-up was in progress, a managerial type (the owner? I don't know) stopped by the table harriedly to assure us he knew of it and was working to correct it. I replied, not unpleasantly, “That’s good…and I expect there will be an appropriate adjustment in the check.” He nodded grudgingly; graciously would have been better, given the situation.

In the end, the adjustment Avenue M made was to comp one of the other bottles of wine we had ordered (in addition to the earlier bottle of substitute wine that we hadn’t), and the two desserts we ordered. We judged the gesture sufficient.

Happily, the eight of us had a fantastic time throughout the meal despite the snafus. Friendship transcends all. And the lowered amount of the check did take away whatever residual sting from the restaurant's performance we might have walked away feeling. I would have liked to sense that Avenue M was sincerely regretful and looking forward to a chance to demonstrate its skill to us on some future occasion, rather than feeling that the restaurant was simply eager to close the chapter on our evening there, but you can't have everything.

This was the first time at Avenue M for all of us, but based on just this experience, it could be that Avenue M should transform itself into a "small plates and wines by the glass" place, since it seems able to do those things with a high degree of competence. On the other hand, the restaurant was bustling, and I'm sure many of the other people there were repeat customers, and so I have to believe that our overall-meal experience was fairly atypical.

Good riddance to Avenue M, sorry but it was horrible. I am hoping a really cool and wonderful place opens up in its spot. I see in your blog where you say we should support our local restuarants, I am all for that, but Avenue M didn't make it easy, especially with that pretentious wine list.

nicinchic wrote:Good riddance to Avenue M, sorry but it was horrible.

I was resisting saying that.