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During the past 20 years, the author has watch China move from being a developing country into an industrial superpower
Money Moves, 5/24: Chocomize Co-Founder Fabian Kaempfer talks with Bloomberg’s Deirdre Bolton about the business of customizing chocolate
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The Italian automaker and others are adding hybrid technology to elite cars
The storied bridge that links San Francisco and Marin County changed the face of California
Schools cultivate ties with startups before they're big successes
Dave McClure's traveling venture capital show scours the world for promising startups
Get Four
|  | NOVEMBER 4, 2003
By Thane Peterson A Heartening Trend for Heartland Food [Page 2 of 2] WITH CONVIVIALITY. Chicago's Avec is arguably the hottest new eatery in the city, which has a well-deserved reputation for great restaurants. The chef is South African born-Koren Grieveson, 32. Avec (French for "with"), is an offshoot of Blackbird, the restaurant next door, which Gourmet has ranked among the nation's top 50 (see BW Online, 11/06/01, "And America's Best Restaurant Is..."). Greiveson spent four-and-a-half years working as a sous chef under Blackbird's chef Paul Kahan, who is backing her restaurant. Greiveson is an exuberant lover of hearty food, fine wine, and good company, and she wants diners to share her enthusiasms. The Mediterranean-style Avec is set in a long room sparely furnished in blond wood. You can eat at a bar that runs the length of the room or at long tables along the opposite wall where several parties are seated together shoulder to shoulder, European-style. The idea is to foster a convivial atmosphere in which people from different parties talk to one another and try each other's food. The menu and the wine list are also designed to encourage experimentation. You can choose from either a half-dozen conventional, full-size entrees, or from a 18 "small" dishes, as you might in a tapas restaurant. The difference is that at Avec the food is a mélange of French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese cuisines. Similarly, Avec has a huge and wonderful wine list consisting of offerings from small, little-known French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish producers. To encourage sampling, many of the wines are available by the glass. HOMEMADE SAUSAGE. We ordered seven small dishes for three people, which was more than enough food. The variety of tastes and smells is spectacular. I loved the heartier dishes, including pan-fried sardines in an olive tapenade, and spicy homemade meatballs with chard and chickpeas. One of Avec's specialities is that it makes its own sausage (Grieveson was busily stuffing sausage casings as I interviewed her over the phone). To finish the meal, we had a plate of tiny portions of French and Italian cheeses served with quince paste, a little date cake, and almonds. Avec's hardwood seats and high decibel level are tough going for me -- an aging baby boomer with a bad back and less-than-perfect hearing. But if you get into the spirit of things, the food is wonderful. Our waiter did a great job helping us choose the wines and shaping our choices into a three-course meal. The twenty- and thirtysomething diners at the tables around me all seemed to love the whole experience. None of these restaurants is hugely expensive. Our tab was only about $120 for three people (before tip) at Avec and about $100 for two at R Bistro. Andiamo!, which is a much more formal restaurant, was upward of $150 for two before tip. This trio of ambitious newcomers proves my theory that the quality of U.S. cooking is dramatically higher than it was 15 years ago and that you can now find terrific restaurants in just about any American city you visit. Contact information for the restaurants: • Andiamo!: 3235 Madison Rd., Cincinnati, 513 321-4155 • R Bistro: 888 Massachusetts Av., Indianapolis 317 423-0312 • Avec: 615 W. Randolph, Chicago 312 377-2002
 Peterson is a contributing editor at BusinessWeek Online. Follow his weekly Moveable Feast column, only on BusinessWeek Online Edited by Patricia O'Connell Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | |
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