I strongly support this renewal. Avec, in my book, actually gets the prize for being the most consistently excellent restaurant in Chicago. Sometimes a creature of habit, this year I designated Avec as my pre-Lyric season stop, and I visit often for other occasions--have been there four times in the last two weeks--and have had splendid meals and service without exception. More than food, Avec is a GNR for me because I can go there and have a great time by myself, with family, friends, on dates, for happy hour, for late afternoon snacks and to watch the Super Bowl (if I watched the Super Bowl).

I go to this restaurant more than any other in Chicago. For my money, some of the most interesting and delicious food to be found in town. Unique ingredient pairings with top notch product executed well. Occasional lapses aside (everyone has them) Avec resonates on many GNR levels to me.

A 10 min bike ride from my apt, open late, great food, knowledgeable wait staff... I find it reasonably priced and a good value. Plus, my favorite olive oil in the city (ask for it w/the bread).

As an aside, last week I brought a James Beard award winning chef there for dinner. He was blown away by it and thought it was the best of Kahan's places.

I agree.

I also vote for renewal. Every time I've been there it's been really good. Yes, the dates the last time were a caricature of themselves, but other than that, everything we've had has been fully excellent.

I hadn't been to Avec in a couple of months, and was saddened to hear about its apparent decline. So, in the interests of science, we went there for dinner before tonight's Bulls game.

I gotta say, I enjoyed it as much tonight as I ever have. We did 5 dishes between the 2 of us and there wasn't a clunker among them. I'll put more detail in the main thread, but based on this most recent meal (and all the others I've ever had there) I fully support renewal.

I've been to Avec several times since the GNR; it remains in my rotation of restaurants I hit at 3:30. Although I've noticed that, lately, the food is not quite as vibrant as it once was (as leek says, the chorizo dates are a caricature of their former selves), I think you can still have a good meal there. Also, there seems to be a certain incongruence in refusing to renew a GNR for a restaurant like Avec, whose chef was recently nominated for a Beard award, and renewing it for a hot dog place. Now, I realize we're not the Beards, and there's a certain fun in the rebellion inherent in handing out awards to shacks slinging hot dogs, but, the reality is, the vision, the execution, the skill, and the ability inherent in putting out a more complete dining experience at the level Avec has for years now, is not even in the same plane as a hot dog stand. So, to ding Avec for having, in essence, their popularity catch up with them, in the same way we don't ding Kuma's for their popularity catching up with them (or Hot Doug's, or Jimmy's, or name a gazillion GNRs), seems shortsighted on our part. Because the reality is, it's a lot easier to satisfy people with a hot dog (and I'm only using this an example) that requires little preparation and costs only $5 (with fries and a drink), than to do what Avec does day in and day out. I think we should consider that during renewals and make sure we're not holding them to a higher standard than we would other GNRs.

I heartily support renewal.

Edited to fix typo.

aschie30 wrote:I've been to Avec several times since the GNR; it remains in my rotation of restaurants I hit at 3:30. Although I've noticed that, lately, the food is not quite as vibrant as it once was (as leek says, the chorizo dates are a caricature of their former selves), I think you can still have a good meal there. Also, there seems to be a certain incongruence in refusing to renew a GNR for a restaurant like Avec, whose chef was recently nominated for a Beard award, and renewing it for a hot dog place. Now, I realize we're not the Beards, and there's a certain fun in the rebellion inherent in handing out awards to shacks slinging hot dogs, but, the reality is, the vision, the execution, the skill, and the ability inherent in putting out a more complete dining experience at the level Avec has for years now, is not even in the same plane as a hot dog stand. So, to ding Avec for having, in essence, their popularity catch up with them, in the same way we don't ding Kuma's for their popularity catching up with them (or Hot Doug's, or Jimmy's, or name a gazillion GNRs), seems shortsided on our part. Because the reality is, it's a lot easier to satisfy people with a hot dog (and I'm only using this an example) that requires little preparation and costs only $5 (with fries and a drink), than to do what Avec does day in and day out. I think we should consider that during renewals and make sure we're not holding them to a higher standard than we would other GNRs.

I heartily support renewal.

Given the number of GNR's where you're only supposed to order 1 thing (and the GNR where you're only supposed to go at certain times), I couldn't agree with you more.

aschie30's post might make for an interesting sidebar discussion about what the renewal criteria should be next cycle. For this cycle though, I assume we're working with the existing criteria, which state:

primary criteria for renewal are that the GNR has continued to operate at the same, or a higher level, retaining its same magic.

If we operate on that criterion, it sounds pretty clear that Wendy agrees Avec should not be renewed. If the criteria have changed, I hope the committee will clarify.

Kennyz wrote:If we operate on that criterion, it sounds pretty clear that Wendy agrees Avec should not be renewed.

Please don't put words in my mouth; I can speak for myself. As I said, I think it should be renewed. I think Avec is same great place, although I acknowledge that it has experienced some pains since the Publican opened, no doubt due to its continued popularity in the face of the same restaurant empire growing (and taking some of its staff). I have every confidence that Avec will return to the its prior greatness (as defined subjectively by me), and recent reports indicate that it has. It would be a knee-jerk reaction to take away a GNR because, in the course of a short period time, a handful of people had so-so meals. Not only does that show a lack of an understanding of the restaurant business (wherein there are ebbs and flows), but would only consign LTH to more GNRs that are churning out simple food or food at a cheap price, where expectations for both categories of restaurants are already low going in.

aschie30 wrote:

Kennyz wrote:If we operate on that criterion, it sounds pretty clear that Wendy agrees Avec should not be renewed.

Please don't put words in my mouth; I can speak for myself. As I said, I think it should be renewed. I think Avec is same great place, although I acknowledge that it has experienced some pains since the Publican opened, no doubt due to its continued popularity in the face of the same restaurant empire growing (and taking some of its staff). I have every confidence that Avec will return to the its prior greatness (as defined subjectively by me), and recent reports indicate that it has. It would be a knee-jerk reaction to take away a GNR because, in the course of a short period time, a handful of people had so-so meals. Not only does that show a lack of an understanding of the restaurant business (wherein there are ebbs and flows), but would only consign LTH to more GNRs that are churning out simple food or food at a cheap price, where expectations for both categories of restaurants are already low going in.

All I'm sayin' is that the the LTHForum GNR Czar has spelled out pretty clear criteria for renewal - the place is to be operating at or above the level it was when it initially got the award. In your post, you wrote, "the food is not quite as vibrant as it once was..." That's not me putting words in your mouth.

Kennyz wrote:

aschie30 wrote:

Kennyz wrote:If we operate on that criterion, it sounds pretty clear that Wendy agrees Avec should not be renewed.

Please don't put words in my mouth; I can speak for myself. As I said, I think it should be renewed. I think Avec is same great place, although I acknowledge that it has experienced some pains since the Publican opened, no doubt due to its continued popularity in the face of the same restaurant empire growing (and taking some of its staff). I have every confidence that Avec will return to the its prior greatness (as defined subjectively by me), and recent reports indicate that it has. It would be a knee-jerk reaction to take away a GNR because, in the course of a short period time, a handful of people had so-so meals. Not only does that show a lack of an understanding of the restaurant business (wherein there are ebbs and flows), but would only consign LTH to more GNRs that are churning out simple food or food at a cheap price, where expectations for both categories of restaurants are already low going in.

All I'm sayin' is that the the LTHForum GNR Czar has spelled out pretty clear criteria for renewal - the place is to be operating at or above the level it was when it initially got the award. In your post, you wrote, "the food is not quite as vibrant as it once was..." That's not me putting words in your mouth.

Quoting me out of context, and using my phrase to justify your position is, in fact, putting words in my mouth. Now, I don't know exactly what that phrase you quoted about the GNR's criteria means, but I don't agree that Avec has slipped to the point wherein yanking its GNR is justified. Can you just accept my opinion (you've already made yours clear upthread), and move on? Thanks.

Sure Wendy - opinion accepted.

I guess I'm looking for clarification from the GNR Committee, because I might actually be on your side here. Avec is a still a good restaurant. Maybe even very good. If that's enough to keep it as a GNR, then lets do it. But the criteria- at least how I read them - make it sound pretty clear that the place has to be operating at at least the same level it was when it got the award. Based on that, I could not support it. Am I being overly literal in interpreting the criteria?

If the criteria is as Kenny defines it, then the GNR should not be renewed, because the cooking, while still very good, is definitely south of where it was in the spring of 2009.

Question: has the restaurant always maintained the same dish concepts, just rotating out the ingredients depending on the season? I don't seem to recall them having set crostini, prosciutto, pork shoulder, et al. dishes in the years prior to 2009. It's an interesting conceit, but I found it tiresome when I was at Avec two weeks ago.

chezbrad wrote:If the criteria is as Kenny defines it, then the GNR should not be renewed, because the cooking, while still very good, is definitely south of where it was in the spring of 2009.

Question: has the restaurant always maintained the same dish concepts, just rotating out the ingredients depending on the season? I don't seem to recall them having set crostini, prosciutto, pork shoulder, et al. dishes in the years prior to 2009. It's an interesting conceit, but I found it tiresome when I was at Avec two weeks ago.

[quote="chezbrad"]

i disagree. when i want good food, no exceptions, i go to avec. and while i love all of their offerings from meats to cheese to vegetables and beyond, it's really only for one dish. their whole fish, whether it's red snapper with butter and herbs or, in its latest incarnation, dorade, with perfectly wilted escarole beneath and blood orange at its perfectly sweet/tart apex above, this standard cements GNR status; a perfect meal is always there and always delicious, in comfortable surroundings (and with excellent vino "libre").

sailingfanblues most certainly support renewal.

LTH,

While not an Avec regular, a little too crowded and the seating is uncomfortable for my body style (overweight) I always enjoy Avec and regularly recommend it to out of town visitors. My most recent meal there, post Publican, pre Big Star, was as good, if not better, than always and Avec is one of the few places I am always eager to go.

More telling, at least to me, the person I know who goes to Avec the most often, Jazzfood, continues to be exuberant about the food, including a number of post Big Star meals. Jazzfood's GNR renewal post is 5-6 posts upthread.

Avec, count me a fan.

Enjoy,
Gary