It’s surely the most atmospheric restaurant all over.
Ava MediterrAegean, the new Park Avenue restaurant from Miami’s Mila Group, didn’t just consider in excess of the Luma On Park space, it reworked it. The design, by Olya Volkova of OV & Co., characteristics substantial archways of sunwashed Venetian plaster, geometric wall sculptures, wood slats over the nonetheless-open up kitchen, and upholstered furnishings and table lamps that invoke a homey emotion.
The bar that utilized to be confined to the entrance of the space has doubled in sizing and flows to the front of the main dining region. The liquor cage about the bar is steadied with a weave of tough nautical rope. You will also locate wharf-like ropes utilized decoratively as velvet cordons. And that load-bearing column that bisected the old bar? Volkova experienced the fantastic remedy: If you cannot get rid of it – and you can not if you don’t want the higher flooring to arrive crashing down – make it more substantial. And she eventually obtained rid of the plywood-like ceiling panels that looked so chintzy. It is, merely, a drop-useless lovely cafe.
If all you want is a place to folks watch and be viewed, to sip a cocktail or 3 and commune, you’ll be really happy.
And if you are on the lookout for a restaurant with food stuff that can live up to the atmosphere, you will be satisfied, as well.
The food items is underneath the supervision of Keith Bombaugh, whose resume includes a stint at Grant Achatz’s Alinea in Chicago. Luckily, Bombaugh’s menu doesn’t dwell in the globe of micro gastronomy but alternatively pays homage to the cuisine of the restaurant’s portmanteaunic name.
My dinner companion and I begun with the potato millefeuille, which wasn’t just about anything like I thought it would be but was ultimately far more pleasurable than what I experienced been expecting. The potatoes might very properly have started out as thin layers (even if not the thousand that the identify suggests) but they had melded in the cooking. They had been slash into batons, fried and served upright, on the lookout like wooden shims. Though the exterior had a crispness, the within was tender with creamy potatoes and cheese.
For my entree I chose the bouillabaisse, which had all the components that you’d expect from a single in Marseille but introduced in another way. The seafood – clams, mussels, scallops, branzino – had been served independent from the broth, which is why the fish was equipped to have a beautifully crisped skin (and also points out why the shrimp had been a tad neat). The tomato and fish stock broth was poured over the seafood by the server. It was all delicious, and I particularly favored the scallops, which had been like sashimi. The dish was accompanied by sourdough crostini and saffron rouille.
My close friend had the prime flank steak, cooked to a stunning medium uncommon, sliced and fanned in excess of a pulpy harissa, garnished with eggplant caviar and a reduction sauce.
There were enough servers to make the area’s personnel-starved dining establishments jealous and all appeared to be very well properly trained and experienced very good menu know-how. Take note that an 18 % gratuity is included to the test. (The way the examine is offered would make it seem as although the tax is calculated right after the gratuity is added but it is not only the food and drinks are taxed.)
The list of wine by the glass is a bit anemic you’ll have much more enjoyable with the list of cocktails. I can propose the Poire Française, a vodka and St. Germain drink with pear juice and tarragon served in a coupe.
Be on detect that with all the really hard surfaces a whole cafe can be pretty loud. At periods I could only make out the pulsing bass of whichever music was playing. Users of the management stroll about donning ear parts, which I at initially imagined was to make it glance Miami clubbish, but it might be the only way they could listen to each individual other. You might want to take into account headsets for you and your dining companions.
Ava MediterrAgean is at 290 S. Park Ave., Wintertime Park (map). It is open for evening meal each day and brunch Sunday 407-794-9896.
