Avanzare: A great idea for dinner, early or late
Sorry, Fresh Market. See you in the fall, Publix! It is becoming more obvious to me with each passing week that buying fresh food at the market and preparing dinners at home this summer is not one of the world’s great ideas.
The latest restaurant to drive this point home was Avanzare, our favorite Tuscan trattoria in Vero’s old downtown, which is serving a three-course Summer Menu to diners seated before 5:45 for an amazing $15.
During the years we lived in Europe, we generally dined around 8 or 8:30, and still tend to have dinner each night between 7 and 8. But the deals being offered this summer by fine restaurants like Avanzare to those willing to dine at absurd hours could turn even the late-diners of Madrid and Milan into early-birds.
On a visit to Avanzare last week, we were shown to a comfortable booth in the front room at a hard-to-believe 5:30, and were presented with the 3 Course Early Summer Menu.
This was not one of those small house salad, choice of three entrées, and piece of chocolate cake menus. This offered a selection of six from the antipasto list, soup or one of three salads, and your pick of eight entrées that included a rib-eye steak.
For starters, our party of three had the baked clams oreganato, the stuffed mushrooms, and the fire grilled flat bread.
The mushrooms were stuffed with Italian sausage, and topped with a fresh mozzarella and tomato sauce. Yum.
The nice, small clams were baked with garlic and oregano bread crumbs, and topped with scampi butter. The flat bread was topped with roasted peppers and fresh mozzarella, and was not only tasty but arguably too large for an appetizer.
Then I ordered the house salad, while my husband and our companion went for the romaine gorgonzola.
The house salad was a medley of mixed greens together with tomato, red onion, gorgonzola with a house vinaigrette dressing. Very nice. The romaine salads were almost like a wedge salad in appearance, with tomatoes, red onion, and a creamy gorgonzola dressing. Highly rated.
For entrees, I chose the Bolognese Avanzare pappardelle, my husband opted for the Italian sausage, mushroom penne, and our companion had the eggplant parmiagina.
The pappardelle was slightly overcooked, but topped by a delicious Bolognese sauce of ground veal, beef, pancetta, and San Marzano tomatoes.
The eggplant parmiagina was an excellent rendition of this classic dish, topped with a fresh mozzarella and tomato sauce.
The best of the three dishes was my husband’s penne with Italian sausage, served in a white wine, tomato and cream sauce with parmigano-reggiano. Sumptuous.
While not included in the Early Summer Menu special, we concluded with espressos and a sinful piece of chocolate layer cake.
If you stick with the three courses and skip the dessert (which we surely did not need; the entrée portions are generous), you can have a wonderful three-course repast here for $15 plus the cost of whatever wine you may choose from a very reasonable list.
So how can they do this?
Well, as our normal dining hour rolled around, the tables around us were filling rapidly as we were preparing to leave. If Avanzare can attract some new customers during the traditionally slow summer months, and turn the early tables over so they can host a regular seating, it’s probably a good deal for everyone.
We found it very hard, incidentally, to stick with the early menu and skip some of our favorites like the braised short-rib lasagna ($21), which my husband enjoyed on a visit to Avanzare a couple of weeks before. This is absolutely to die for – short-ribs braised for five hours, shredded and folded into homemade lasagna, and served with the juices from the short-ribs in place of the customary tomato sauce.
Bottom line, Roger and Terry Lenzi have turned Avanzare into one of the two best
Italian restaurants in a community with a lot of Italian choices. And now, like a number of Vero restaurants, they are doing amazing things to get through the summer.
If you dine late, you get – as always -- a great meal. And if you dine really early, you get a great meal at an unbelievable price.
I welcome your comments, and encourage you to send feedback to me at tina@verobeach32963.com.
The reviewer is a beachside resident who dines anonymously at restaurants at the expense of Vero Beach 32963.
Hours
5-9 pm, Monday through Saturday
Bar
Full Bar
Address (MAP)
1932 14th Avenue, Vero Beach, 32960, Telephone: (772) 978-9789
