We went to Avec last night (Saturday) at 5:45 and there were plenty of seats available. By 6 it was filling up, and by 6:15 it looked as though there was starting to be a wait, though parties of 2 could still be seated. It seemed that a lot of people go with groups of 4-6, which is fun, but harder to get seated. They seated odd numbered parties at the end of tables whenever possible, with one person seated at the end. At least one odd-numbered party was very put off by this, though I'm not sure why, since the seat on the end is the same chair used on the outside of the tables.

The only thing I didn't like about the evening was the airconditioning. It's wildly inefficient when the front doors are open and it's about 100% humidity outside, and pours cold, clammy air down onto the benches seated along the wall. The women next to us switched seats, because they also found it uncomfortable. I put my rain jacket around my neck, and kept putting it on and taking it off as the AC switched on and off. It would be better, I think, if they had a bit of a diffuser on it so that it went more into the center of the room rather than directly down.

Went to Avec last night for the first time and came away mixed. I recently moved to the neighborhood and wanted to love this place and while the food was decent I felt the staff was completely overwhelmed.

The restaurant was packed as I am told is usual, along with ~15 folks enjoying beverages outside, and there were only three servers on. I think it is odd that such a highly esteemed restaurant would under-staff so badly. It definitely affected our experience.

I was also perplexed by the very heavy menu. For a hot mid-summer evening, I was hoping for updated fare.
And I also thought the menu was lacking cohesion. "Mediterranean" is a big catch all for a restaurant hoping to be taken seriously.

As far as the dishes that we tried.

+Foccacia w/ ricotta and truffle oil (this was great but that is to be expected)
+Poached salmon w/ Lard. This was a cruise ship fave taken to the next level. Very rich. Big portion too.
+Green Pea Crostini- these felt like summer
+Prosciutto/ Asparagus salad. This was well plated and large (it was a main) However, a heavy hand on the parsley perplexed me.
-Spinach Salad w/ duck vinaigrette. This was a spinach salad w/ beans, haricot verts and duck lardons. Not so summery...but maybe just a bad choice on my part.

As I live in the neighborhood I will give Avec another try. I thought the food was pretty well executed but maybe not ideally conceived for my tastes, and that the experience and especially the service was lacking. I enjoy crowded places, like sitting at bars and counters but don't enjoy waiting 15 minutes to order drinks, ask for a check, etc....we would have been able to be turned in 1:15 or less and were there for about 2 hours- something that a savvy restaurateur with guests patiently waiting would abhor.

My closest comparison tp the experience would be Momofuku SSAM in NYC which turns out more inspired fare, in an equally as hyped and crowded space, but does so with such effective service that it is a pleasure.

See you at Blackbird next time!

Chico

My girlfriend and I dined at Avec on Thursday, 7-24-08, after flying into Chicago that evening. Arrived at the restaurant at around 10:15pm, had a drink, and got a seat at the bar at around 10:30 or so. We had one small plate and two large.


Our first large plate was the deluxe focaccia with taleggio cheese, truffle oil, and fresh herbs. Simply wonderful.



Our "small" plate consisted of the chorizo-stuffed medjool dates with smoked bacon and piquillo pepper-tomato sauce. Thanks to LTHForum, I knew I was ordering these. The rave reviews on this dish are well warranted. A must if you visit Avec.




Our last large plate was the wood oven-roasted pork shoulder with dried apricots, prunes, slab bacon, and apricot mustard. This dish could literally be eaten with a spoon. Be sure to ask for more bread to soak up the broth/juices. My LDC bowed out early leaving me with the lion's share of this dish (thank you, LDC). Very, very good.

This was a full meal for two hungry individuals with decent appetites. Also, as stated previously, there are no reservations and it can be noisy due to the communal seating (I personally don't find these to be negatives). However, I think it is well worth the effort to try Avec. The food quality/price ratio cannot be beaten.

Went on Thursday - just posting as a data point for crowdedness. At 6:30 it was still possible to get seated in parties of 2-3, not sure about 4. By 6:50 when all of our party was there (they don't seat incompletes) we had an hour wait.

I feel compelled to contribute a follow-up to my lukewarm/good Avec review about month ago. After a few more visits to Avec and to Blackbird I am enjoying Avec more and wishing for a bit better cuisine out of Blackbird.

Avec can still have service issues, and just a few days ago I was again stupefied by the lack of staffing. It is painful to not be able to get the attention of your server for multiple long stretches of time in such a tiny place. This is not for poor service, they just need another person working if they want to serve drinks to the gallery outside (which I think they should to keep the prices reasonable for everyone.)

I have no problems with the seating or lack of reserving, and I have come to grips with the overly-heavy menu despite wishing to see some August tomatoes on the menu as opposed to a special of heavy fish stew or apples and carrots. Avec has a heavy hand so I will deal with it! In recent visits the pork shoulder and its replacement, crispy duck legs were both scrumptious with the duck bordering on amazing. The prosciutto entree is very well plated, and the baccala was extremely bright and pungent and evoked the streets of Barcelona. (Of course the dates and foccacia are still there as they should be.) I feel fortunate to have Avec as a neighborhood go to, and will continue to report back.

Blackbird I have now decided is just as good as Avec. Much better service but I can’t help but wish the food was slightly better. I have been dazzled by the soft shells this summer but found my “crispy fried chicken” last week very underwhelming and felt that a seared foie course a few weeks back could have been prepared with greater care. Blackbird straddles the line between two and three stars, and I keep wanting a tiny bit more zip out of the food.

Chico

My wife and I had a very nice meal at Avec last night. The star of the night was bucatini with housemade sausage and a veal ragu of sorts that was just delicious. Also had a really wonderful curry-braised pork shoulder with rutabagas, turnips and chickpeas. I think Avec's menu lists towards the heavy at times, but this is perfect weather for that type of food (although between the bucatini and the pork shoulder, we were bordering on too much rich food for us last night). The fact that there was a Bears game last night (and perhaps the economic conditions generally) also meant that for the entire time we were there (7:30 - 9:00 or so), there was no more than a 5 minute wait.

I also learned that Avec is now accepting reservations for a four course, New Years Eve wild boar dinner. No info on the restaurant's website, but here is some information from Metromix.

Had a nice meal at Avec last Saturday night. Two seats at the bar, 7pm, no wait. Though, for the first time, there were a few dishes that I wasn't terribly impressed with.

We started with octopus braised in tomatoes and olive oil. This didn't hit the mark - it just didn't have much flavor, and seemed especially mediocre after having the excellent braised/then seared octopus appetizer at Sepia. We also had roasted cauliflower, which was a special. I commented to my friend that even though "roasted cauliflower" seems simple, I couldn't wait to see the twist Avec would put on it. Well, there was no twist. I love roasted cauliflower - I make it at home often. I guess Avec is somewhat a victim of their success because I expected them to take this to another level. Their version was good, but no different than the "Tuesday night" version I make at home.

The two stars of the evening were the house-made pheasant sausage over lentils, candied bacon, and perfectly cooked brussel sprouts; and the curry-braised pork shoulder. These were spectacular.

We finished with a chocolate creme-type dessert with fruit on top (I didn't catch the description when my friend ordered it). It was fair - I wouldn't order it again.

Overall, an excellent meal in one of my favorite restaurants - but not as close to perfection as some of my past visits.

Matt wrote:I also learned that Avec is now accepting reservations for a four course, New Years Eve wild boar dinner. No info on the restaurant's website, but here is some information from Metromix.

We were at Avec on New Year's Eve for the prix fixe boar menu. Our reservation was on the early side, and the kitchen and waitstaff seemed to be a little confused about how proceed with a set menu. While the service regained its normally efficient footing and the meal had its highlights, I would have to say that "disappointment" was the primary emotion.

* Boar sausage with farro salad & fried egg. This was delicious, albeit fairly close to what Avec does on a regular basis - a perfectly spiced link of roasted sausage, topped with a sunny-side up egg over a grain salad strewn with guanciale.

* Pappardelle with boar ragout & olives. The homemade pasta noodles were superlative; the ragout not so much. It was a "white" ragout, made with stock and white wine and herbs. It had been left to stew too long, so the meat was mushy and a little stringy (reminding me of leftover turkey soup that had been on the stove too long). Cerignola olives were similarly mushy and failed to add any emphasis.

* Leg of boar with rapini gremolata and polenta. Now, I am the first to respect that a boar is a wild animal and that normal standards of industrial meat should not apply; if you want "buttery" steak, go to Ruth Chris. But parts of this leg were downright inedible - so tough as to require long periods of chewing before giving up. The center of the leg, where it was pinkest, was more palatable and at points quite tasty, but this dish was a struggle from start to finish (large lumps of uncooked instant polenta didn't help). As Chef Koren was wandering by I almost thought of flagging her down and asking her honest opinion of this dish. Did it turn out the way she had envisioned? Or was she trying to make a point, and that our response should have been to suck it up and ponder the moral significance of eating off the grid?

* Crepes with kumquat, orange ricotta and hazelnuts. Amazing. A little pocket of warm crepe, stuffed with orange-scented ricotta and served with toasted hazlenuts and intense confit of kumquat. Probably the first dessert I've eaten at Avec (we normally opt for cheese), but certainly primed me for more.


I appreciated the experiment, and certainly even the failures confirmed that Avec is producing some of the more interesting food in Chicago. But the price tag left a certain *ouch* factor that has been hard to shake.

- Fillay

I took my friends from Louisville to Avec last night and we were impressed, as usual. The place was totally packed and we had to wait for about 30 minutes, which didn't bother any of us at all. We found four spots at the bar at Blackbird and had a great bottle of Jigsaw Pinot Noir before the feast. Good deal as well, because we got about 8 glasses for 49 bucks. The bar service at blackbird was stellar and comforting.

We then moved over and had the usual dates and "deluxe" foccacia. Then we finished up with an amazing hangar steak with pinenuts and grilled escarole, Escargot with ham and mushrooms, a side of creamy spinach polenta, and the bucatini pasta with veal ragout. Avec does great pasta dishes that they serve in larger family-style bowls that I've always enjoyed.

We drank a very interesting an inexpensive bottle of Rioja (sorry, vintage skips me) that was extremely smooth and went great with the pasta and steak among other things.

We even had a delicous duo of chocolates at the end to go with our espresso/cognac nightcaps.

This is my favorite restaurant in Chicago and perhaps the whole country. As a chef, I love Koren's use of technique and tradition while still being creative and on the tip of what guys and girls like me wish we had thought of first. Kudos to Paul Kahan, Donnie Madea, Koren Greiveson, Justin Large, et al, who continue to do such a great job for the foodies and friends of Chicago.


Cary Taylor
"Sweet T"
Executive Chef
The Restaurant at Chaise Lounge

Another stellar dinner at Avec tonight (due to the weather there was pretty much no wait the entire time we were there).

Started with white asparagus with truffle butter and the deluxe focaccia. Next moved on to the hangar steak described by Sweet T along with La Querica prosciutto served with pink grapefruit, mint and cucumber (fantastic combination).

Finished off with a cheese plate, the highlight of which was a nice and stinky epoisses. Add a couple quartinos of wine and it was a great, snowy Friday night.

A group of 4 of us went last night around 11:00pm. It was our first time there, so we wanted to try a little bit of everything. I enjoyed the small plate concept, and we ended up ordering over half of the menu.

Highlights: Bacon wrapped dates, focaccia with truffle oil (you could actually taste and smell the truffles!) and the pheasant stuffed sausage.

Everything else was good. The Avec salad was a little too overdressed with oil and not enough acidity and the same with the Proscuitto. We also had the white aspargus spears with truffles. Once again, we appreciated the shaved black truffles, but the actually aspargus were a little underdone and fiberous.

Overall a good experience. I will definately go back for the dates.

I went to Avec with four work colleagues last night. Great food, wine, and service. Our water glasses were regularly filled, we were given clean plates and flatware twice.

One problem I have at Avec is selecting wine. I'm unfamiliar with nearly all the Mediterranean bottles on offer. So, this time, I thought I'd be smart and do a bit of research beforehand. Of course, I arrive, only to learn that the online wine menu is out-of-date and that the bottles I'd pre-selected are no longer available. We went with our server's suggestion and found it to be wonderful enough to order a second bottle: a 2003 Verdus "Cotes de Thongue," a Southern Rhone blend, at $41/bottle. Big fruit, a bit of spice, and a nice finish. A good food wine.

Food highlights were the flatbread and the pork. The wood-fired flatbread was topped with housemade merguez sausage, white anchovies, feta, roasted garlic puree, chili flake and fried orange chips. The anchovies and sausage made this dish. Really wonderful. And, the pork. Wow. Apparently, they cook the pork slowly overnight in the wood-fired oven. While it was described as "curry-braised," I noticed the mustard more than the curry. Whatever the dominant flavor, it was delicious. I told one server that I was sure to be craving the pork within a few days and she responded that she often dreams of the dish - - it's that good.

The whole fish, striped bass (I think), was okay. But, at $36 and with plenty of bones to contend with despite having had them fillet it, I'll probably take a pass next time. The brandade was disappointing - - thin and oily. It wasn't bad, but was the only dish we didn't lick clean. The salumi was good, but pretty standard (genoa, saucisson sec, coppa, and finnochiona). None of the salumi was memorable, but I happily ate it with their tasty red wine mustard. Finally, we had the rapini and cauliflower as sides, which were both perfectly fine.

Just a note - - they no longer are offering escargot as a starter (even though it's still on the menu), and have replaced it with a beef heart dish (that my group was not eager to sample).

All in all, an enjoyable meal. A reminder of just how good Avec is. Can't wait to go back!

Ronna

Just when I think Avec cannot get any better. Last night, I tried a dish which must be new and must have replaced the curry braised pork shoulder. It was a braised pork, beef tongue and a sausage (I cannot recall the type) in a broth with celery, carrots, potatoes and a horseradish mostarda. It was served in a pot and the pork and tongue were so flavorful and could not have been any more tender. Needless to say, I found myself guzzling the broth as if I came upon a lake in the middle of the Sahara.

Tried Avec for the first time a couple of weeks ago and absolutely loved it! The small plates were awesome - each intense in its own clique of flavors and each different from the next. The place was exciting and fun, the prices were totally manageable - I really don't know why people go to other restaurants in this city.

hungryinchicago wrote:Tried Avec for the first time a couple of weeks ago and absolutely loved it! The small plates were awesome - each intense in its own clique of flavors and each different from the next. The place was exciting and fun, the prices were totally manageable - I really don't know why people go to other restaurants in this city.

I'm shocked - you actually liked something? Perhaps you can enlighten us a bit more about what you enjoyed about Avec? As you can see, many of the posters here contribute details about their experiences, dishes, drinks, prices, etc, and coming from someone that has a blog dedicated to critiquing Chicago restaurants; I don't think this request is a stretch.

For instance - what exactly was "awesome" about the "small plates?" What "clique of flavors" did you find intense and unique from the dishes you experienced. "Exciting and fun-" more detail please - does this refer to the communal tables? Did you actually have a conversation with other diners about their choices? Were there board games? What do you consider "manageable" in regard to the prices?

Any additional info would be helpful. Thanks.

I have a great friend coming in town this weekend and the one place she wants to go is Avec. Great, I love it, but I'm a little weary because she'll only be here for Saturday evening. It will only be the two of us, my question is what time would you suggest that we go to get a seat? I know they do not take reservations and we are willing to wait if we could get a drink or few at the bar.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Shaggywillis wrote:I have a great friend coming in town this weekend and the one place she wants to go is Avec. Great, I love it, but I'm a little weary because she'll only be here for Saturday evening. It will only be the two of us, my question is what time would you suggest that we go to get a seat? I know they do not take reservations and we are willing to wait if we could get a drink or few at the bar.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Based on tomorrow's weather forecast, you could probably go whenever and get seats pretty easily.

On a normal Saturday night, I would say if you got there by 5:30 you would have either no wait or a minimal wait. Anything after that you're rolling the dice. I've heard wait times of 3 hours quoted as early as 7pm. In any event, call first and they'll be happy to give you the current wait time (although they won't allow you to put your name on the list until you get there).

My wife and I hit Avec tonight for a belated birthday dinner. Arrived around 6:30pm, no wait for a party of two, had a choice of the bar or communal table (our choice). Started with the artichoke crostini and the stuffed dates; I picked the dates, but loved the crostini. Followed that with the hanger steak and our only large plate, the "la quercia" prosciutto with marinated ruby red grapefruit, cucumber, mint, red onion and gin vinaigrette (this was my wife's favorite). Finished off with a cheese plate.

We really enjoyed our food, but the meal was marred a bit due to the lengthy delay for the cheese plate. It took close to 30 minutes from the time we ordered it (after we finished the rest of our food) to the time it arrived. After 20 minutes we asked our server who said that "it hadn't been an inordinate amount of time" but she would check. Maybe I'm off here, but how long does it take to slice a few pieces of cheese? About 5 minutes later my wife made a crack to someone sitting next to her that they must be milking the cows, and the server called out my wife, asking what she could do to make her more comfortable during her wait, etc. This episode had the effect of removing any sense of relaxation we had going, and we left as soon as we could after the cheese arrived.

The space was also far noisier than we had expected, even with the previous comments. My wife has hearing loss in one ear, and I had a hard time getting her attention a few times.

I'd love to go back to try additional menu items, but I'm not sure I'll be able to convince my wife, despite the fact she loved the food. If we do go, I'll look to get a different waiter.

The last time I was at Avec we also had some issues with food taking an unusually long time to come out, along with a pretty flippant attitude from the servers about the issue.

That being said, I still love the place. Any issues I've had with service there are far outweighed by how much I love the food.

wizzy wrote:My wife and I hit Avec tonight for a belated birthday dinner. Arrived around 6:30pm, no wait for a party of two, had a choice of the bar or communal table (our choice). Started with the artichoke crostini and the stuffed dates; I picked the dates, but loved the crostini. Followed that with the hanger steak and our only large plate, the "la quercia" prosciutto with marinated ruby red grapefruit, cucumber, mint, red onion and gin vinaigrette (this was my wife's favorite). Finished off with a cheese plate.

We really enjoyed our food, but the meal was marred a bit due to the lengthy delay for the cheese plate. It took close to 30 minutes from the time we ordered it (after we finished the rest of our food) to the time it arrived. After 20 minutes we asked our server who said that "it hadn't been an inordinate amount of time" but she would check. Maybe I'm off here, but how long does it take to slice a few pieces of cheese? About 5 minutes later my wife made a crack to someone sitting next to her that they must be milking the cows, and the server called out my wife, asking what she could do to make her more comfortable during her wait, etc. This episode had the effect of removing any sense of relaxation we had going, and we left as soon as we could after the cheese arrived.

The space was also far noisier than we had expected, even with the previous comments. My wife has hearing loss in one ear, and I had a hard time getting her attention a few times.

I'd love to go back to try additional menu items, but I'm not sure I'll be able to convince my wife, despite the fact she loved the food. If we do go, I'll look to get a different waiter.

wizzy,

Avec surely isn't everyone's cup of tea, and I appreciate your detailed description of what turned you and your wife off about it. In similar situations, many people just write something like, "loved the food, but the service was terrible," which I don't find particularly helpful. I think your account, on the other hand, provides a fairly accurate description of what one is in for when dining at Avec. Quiet and relaxing are definitely not terms I would use to describe the place.

That said, Avec is one of my favorite restaurants in Chicago, mostly because the food is consistently outstanding. I've also really enjoyed the service, which I agree sometimes seems harried, and perhaps unintentionally brash. Servers at Avec rotate responsibility: tending bar one day, helping in the kitchen the next, and then onto the floor to wait on tables. To me, that gives them a deep sense of knowledge about the food and wine, which I've always appreciated. I'd also note that I wish more restaurants served cheese properly, as they do at Avec. It's not as simple as you imply above. Serving cheese at the proper temperature is very important to the taste and texture, and I'd always rather wait a little while for it to be right, than have the cheese brought to me straight from the icebox, as it so often is at lesser restaurants than Avec.

Kennyz

Kennyz wrote: Serving cheese at the proper temperature is very important to the taste and texture, and I'd always rather wait a little while for it to be right, than have the cheese brought to me straight from the icebox, as it so often is at lesser restaurants than Avec.

Kennyz

A 30 min wait for cheese to come up to serving temp is not acceptable. The cheese should be at serving temp & ready for ordering at the start of dinner service.

mhill95149 wrote:A 30 min wait for cheese to come up to serving temp is not acceptable. The cheese should be at serving temp & ready for ordering at the start of dinner service.

Absolutely, and doors with a handle should pull, not push; slow drivers should stay out of the left lane; and potholes should be filled within 24 hours! Oh that life were always the way it's ordained to be!

Better to bring it out cold than 30 minutes late. Say somebody moved the cheese and they can't find it. anything.

I'll also note that although this rule is sometimes ignored at high end restaurants, it is absolutely against health code regs to store cheese at room temperature throughout the entire dinner service. You can serve it room temperature, but the only way to do that without risking a health department shut-down is to temper the cheese to order.

I would submit that (for whatever reason) they are having timing issues that are not limited to cheese. On my last visit I think it took us about an hour to get 2 dishes, one was the prosciutto dish described above the other was something I can't remember (but it wasn't the pork shoulder which always takes longer than anything else or the cheese...maybe it was a salumi plate).

Kennyz wrote:I'll also note that although this rule is sometimes ignored at high end restaurants, it is absolutely against health code regs to store cheese at room temperature throughout the entire dinner service. You can serve it room temperature, but the only way to do that without risking a health department shut-down is to temper the cheese to order.

simple solution: add a note to the menu that says cheese plate takes 30 minutes -- order ahead of time.

Hot review right off the press...

Overall: B

The service was attentive and the waters were always filled and I drink as much as Al Roker used to eat. The general crowd and staff were all very welcoming and cheerful and it made for a great time. Now onto what matters...

Dishes:
chorizo-stuffed medjool dates with smoked bacon and piquillo pepper-tomato sauce- By far the best dish we ordered for the night. All the flavors worked great together, the texture was good, and it was filling for what it was. The dates and sauce had just enough heat to get to you while not making you bead up in sweat. Overall a success.

roasted cumin-spiced chicken wings with frisee, celery, pumpkin seeds and chilis- This dish just didn't stand out to me. The flavors were there but didn't particularly stand out or enhance each other like I thought they would have. The wings were good yet I thought they'd come somewhat crispy. And I never saw the pumpkin seeds....but I won't put that on them since I didn't put detail into digging through the dish to find them. Decent but not memorable.

roasted monkfish on the bone with tomato braised chickpeas, cavolo nero, cumin and fideo- What may be a good dish to others just didn't stand out to me. The fish and vegetable/sauce medley had a lot of acidity and the fideo was surprising since I didn't know what it'd be. It turns out that fideo is spanish for noodle and they basically serve cracked up raw linguini over the dish for texture, weird. Like I said before, maybe a great dish to some but not my kinda meal.

marinated hanger steak with escarole, radicchio, pine nut-orange gremolata and golden raisin sauce- A good dish by my standards. The escarole and radicchio didn't play much of a role but the steak was delicious and the sauce really complimented it well. I liked the pine nuts yet didn't see the orange gremolata half of it...it may have been chopped too fine for me to pick it up dusted on the steak. Overall a hit with us.

wood-oven braised pork shoulder "bolito miso" with garlic sausage, beef tongue, ginger and horseradish mostarda- This may be our second favorite dish but it left me confused. I don't know how or what they used to make the mostarda but it was potent. A little went a long way and really gave a kick to the dish. The pork shoulder couldn't have been anymore tender than it was, the garlic sausage had a great sting, and the beef tongue was loaded with flavor. On top of all that the mirepoix of carrots, celery, and pearl onions were perfectly cooked and still had a bite to them. At the end of the dish our waiter asked if we'd like some bread to sop up the rest of the juices...yes please! A great dish that will have me coming back for more pork.

And desserts....well I don't really remember them because I never pay much attention to this part of the meal but they did their job. One was something like a polenta cake with cherries and some sauce and the other was a citrusy sorbet, tasted like a mixture between orange and grapefruit. They were each good and the others enjoyed them.

Overall we had a good time and I'd recommend it to others. I favor Blackbird and The Publican over Avec but at the same time they're my two favorite places that I've tried recently.

Living a few block from Avec I try to visit once every 2-3 weeks. As far as recent menu additions, I really like the cumin wings and the rouget, and wasn't such a big fan of the monkfish. And of course I love the pork shoulder- which I was told they braise overnight at blackbird and then finish in the wood oven at Avec.

I used to have problems with cheese taking FOREVER. After it happened on back to back visits, I came up with my own solution- don't order cheese! Never had a problem again.

chico

Ah, Koren's food--so few people in town cook as good as she does. So few things are worth such waits and uncomfortable seating as Avec.

Ironically, we ordered no cooked dishes--I had hoped to get the frog's legs or octopus, but the online menu is somewhat outdated--but everything we had was "best thing you've eaten lately"-worthy, including:

-Shaved brussel sprout salad: this was a play on 'slaw, with raw slivers of 'sprouts interspersed with fennel and red onion, heightened by a tangy and salty interplay of the parmesan shards and brown butter vinaigrette. A great starter to share.

-Artichoke Crostini: above the bread was a puree of roasted artichoke, which was then topped with caramelized onion and artichoke bits. Texturally luscious.

-La Quercia Prosciutto with grapefruit, mint, cucumber, onion, and gin vinaigrette: if not the most out-and-out delicious bite of the evening, certainly the most playful dish on the menu right now: I can't tell if it's riffing on crudos, smoked salmon, or even cocktails--probably all of the above, right? The Prosciutto was silky and, yes, lox-like, and the accompaniments added sweet and herbaceous notes; I loved how the gin in the marinade was just visible, adding depth and background to the whole flavor profile. Genius and novel. Worth the $21 just to think about it the day after.

-A nice and simple polenta cake with dried sour cherries and mascarpone to finish. I've had variations on this dessert for a couple of years now, and I appreciate the modesty of this version, which tasted like high-end cinnamon raisin toast.

I see you, Allison.

I have lauded Avec countless times, and often describe the cooking as "the best in Chicago." I stand by that, but had one dish tonight that's on my "avoid" list. It was a flank steak that had been rolled and stuffed with some sausage, chopped egg, and peppers, and placed on a plate adorned with pickled carrots.

One of the things I love about Avec is that the food always seemed designed with eating rather than picture-taking in mind. Dishes tend to be presented humbly, in a way that says "dig in" rather than "wait and admire". In this particular exception, the rolling of the flank steak around the stuffing might have been a visual success, but it was a gustatory detraction. The way it was presented, the natural way to eat it was cut into the thin pieces with the grain rather than across it. I know this may sound like a minor quibble, but really, the way one slices a flank steak makes a tremendous difference. Cut across the grain, it can have a pleasant, slightly-chewy but totally accessible mouthfeel. Try to cut into it the way Avec presents it, however, and you get a rubbery piece of difficult-to-swallow beef.

Textural problems aside, the flavors didn't work for me either. The pickled carrots were so vinegary, they completely overwhelmed everything else on the plate, including the housemade sausage, which in itself would have overwhelmed the beef.

Unsuccessful as this dish was for me, I'll be back to Avec as many times as possible anyway. I love the place.