Conscious Choice: Avec Draws Eclectic Crowd, Dishes Up Delicious Food

January 2005 | Conscious Dining

Avec Draws Eclectic Crowd, Dishes Up Delicious Food

by Janine MacLachlan

Avec is stylishly casual, convivial, crowded. Painstaking attention has been paid to every detail at this Randolph Street spot brought to us by the same forces behind the posh Blackbird, located next door.

And the food is excellent. Chef/partner Paul Kahan embraces my favorite food philosophy: Get good ingredients and get out of the way. It’s his talented palate that combines those ingredients for an experience that satisfies in the cedar-paneled Avec.

Handmade Salumi Celebrates Italy’s Cured Meats

Kahan is known for cooking locally and seasonally, and has even said that he loses sleep over his winter menus as he worries about giving guests a variety of delicious dishes that show respect to the unfolding of the seasons. He shouldn’t be so concerned, because the food at Avec celebrates the cold weather with delicious aplomb.

Chef de cuisine Koren Grieveson was Kahan’s second in command at Blackbird for a number of years. Here at Avec, she divides her menu between small and large plates, cheeses and salumi (the family of Italian cured meats, which includes the commonly known salami). The salumi (assortment of five $15), are made on site to Kahan’s specifications, many from organically raised pork, and smoked on site. Grieveson and her team spend a good 20 hours a week making the salumi with embellishments such as paprika, garlic and spicy fennel, which is then cured for weeks and sometimes months in Avec’s humidity-controlled lower level. For the finale, it’s presented with a flourish, thinly sliced on a footed wooden board with a little pot of mustard and tiny gherkin pickles.

Vegetarians will feel well cared for at Avec. The apple and celery salad ($7) with toasted almonds, shaved manchego cheese and apple cider vinaigrette is a delight, as is Kahan’s signature shell bean crostini ($7) with baby arugula, reggiano cheese, lemon and olive oil. Fish enthusiasts can start with the whipped brandade ($7), a traditional codfish spread from France — it’s great on the crusty bread, although I’d happily eat it with a spoon.

For those insisting on large plates, try the pissaladiere ($13), a sort-of French pizza with caramelized onion, fennel, anchovies and olives, or the pork shoulder ($19) roasted in a wood oven.

But for my money, I go straight for the cheeses. The impressive list (three for $14) represents a veritable feast, offering cow, sheep and goat milk cheeses from Italy, Spain, Portugal and France (although my wish is for some world-class cheeses from the Midwest that might help educate diners that some of the best food in the world comes from nearby). That said, a cheese plate with the accompaniment ($6) of quince paste, date cake, marcona almonds and fig mostarda (preserved in syrup with mustard seed), along with a glass of wine or madiera, makes a perfect repast any time.

The wines also hail from Italy, Spain, Portugal and France, and include some nice rosés as well as fortified wines such as sherry, port and madiera, which are lovely with the cheese, or as a transition to dessert. I counted 34 wines by the glass ($9-$25) and 10 European beers ($4 to $9 for a single bottle; $18 for a 750 ml bottle of Belgian ale).

Three desserts ($6), made by Tara Lane, Blackbird’s pastry chef, change daily. My dining companion and I wanted seconds of the sensational ginger stout spiced cake served with poached pear and glazed pumpkin. And the brown sugar panna cotta and cranberry sorbet further illustrated that seasonal ingredients make for the most satisfying eating.

The final word

Lined with horizontal cedar paneling, the room reminds me of a Scandinavian spa, initially somewhat spartan, yet warm and inviting at the same time.

The crowd at Avec is as varied as the menu. On one early visit, the diners included a couple visiting from Washington, D.C., to see the opera, a family of four with pre-teen daughters, several groups of friends and couples on dates, all gathered around convivial picnic-style tables and chatting about the best things to order. Crowd is the operative word. Visit Avec either early or late for the most relaxed experience. It gets so busy during prime dining hours that I’m told guests feel shoehorned into the space. If you’re looking for an intimate date, you’ll want to go someplace else. But for well-prepared food from carefully selected ingredients, Avec hits the spot.

Avec, 615 W. Randolph St., Chicago, 312-377-2002. Kitchen open daily at 3:30 p.m., until 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday, midnight Monday through Thursday, 10 p.m. Sunday. Bar open daily at 3:30 p.m., until 2 a.m. Monday through Saturday, midnight Sunday. Smoke free.

Janine MacLachlan is a freelance writer, cooking school owner and food enthusiast whose search for well-raised food is a passion. Her Web site is www.rustickitchen.com.

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