A block or so back from Sundance Square, on the quiet pedestrian plaza between the City Place towers, sits Fort Worth’s own Avanti Ristorante.
For more than a quarter-century, Dallas’s original Avanti has anchored Uptown from its perch on the McKinney Avenue streetcar line. To Fort Worthians, that kind of longevity is respectable –– in the ouroboros of Dallas development, it is nothing short of remarkable. Amid the ups, downs and ever-changing trends of a most unsentimental neighborhood, Avanti has held a steady course, serving contemporary Italian classics and live jazz to generations of urban sophisticates.
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Avanti Ristorante
150 Throckmorton St Ste 140, FW. 817-991-6455. 11am-2pm Mon-Fri, 5pm-10pm Mon-Wed, 5pm-11pm Thu-Sat. Closed Sunday. All major credit cards accepted.
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The Fort Worth spot reflects the sensibilities that have made the Dallas location a success — understated elegance, continental professionalism, and consistent quality — while taking full advantage of the openness of the new space. Floor-to-ceiling glass separates the warm wood of the dining room from the bright red patio umbrellas, giving the place a pleasant vim and a nice view of downtown.
Executive Chef Mario Sanchez’s menu leans conservative. You’ll find beef bourguignon and grilled king salmon with a tarragon beurre blanc. You will not find bacon jam, dandelion greens, or quail eggs. Though Avanti’s kitchen isn’t out to set any new trends, the quality is so precise (and the food cooked so well), I would never think to call the fare old-fashioned. Rather, there’s a timelessness to the preparation that is carried by a sense of confidence. They already know what works.
Avanti feels like a place to which you could invite just about anyone for any occasion — your grandmother for her birthday, your boyfriend for an anniversary, a coworker to celebrate a promotion — knowing everyone will find a favorite dish on the menu, and leave satisfied, feeling like they had a great meal. If you bring them for dinner, though, that satisfaction comes with a price. A number of entrées cost upwards of $30, with wines to match.
The weekday lunch service is more modest while still offering the elegance of cloth napkins and cut flowers. More importantly to my guest and me, a recent visit clocked in at exactly 55 minutes from being seated to signing the check, a consideration that will surely be appreciated by the downtown clientele.
The lunch menu features a number of shareable appetizers, including a quartet of plump mushroom caps generously stuffed with prosciutto and spinach, brightened with a zesty béchamel and teased with a hint of nutmeg. The calamari was even better, lightly coated in a crisp cornstarch batter and perfectly tender. The seasoning was so well-balanced, the accompanying marinara wasn’t necessary.
If you find yourself in the mood for vegetable soup, the kitchen serves a version as good as any and better than most. Fresh and chunky, the soup would make an excellent starter in cooler weather. For the North Texas spring, however, the Greek salad was more refreshing. I hadn’t noticed how accustomed I’d become to my Greek salads getting stink-bombed with garlic, vinegar, and feta until I tried Chef Sanchez’s take: torn leafs of romaine lettuce delicately dressed with lemon juice and oil, a few cherry tomatoes, a handful of Kalamata olives, and a faint dusting of feta. Instead of heavier herbs and spices, sprigs of fresh dill gave this cheerful dish plenty of pep without ruining the palate for a good bottle of wine.
For a lunch special, the kitchen offered a chicken parmigiana. It’s a dish I’ve had a hundred times but usually as the lesser of other evils. Better than not eating at all, it typically has all the charm of a school lunchroom, its most redeeming quality being that it tastes a bit like pizza. Not so at Avanti, where the crisp chicken cutlet arrived as thin as a whisper, tender, neither over-sauced nor over-cheesed, and served on a bed of al dente pasta that could write its own check. Broccoli, blanched and tossed in garlic oil, was fresh enough to tingle on the tongue.
The other special of the day was a grilled, bone-in pork chop with a mushroom marsala sauce. Sure, it sounds familiar, and the kitchen (once again) didn’t try to bring anything new to the dish — they just cooked it beautifully. The chop had a candy-like sear on the edges that played with the sweetness of the marsala wine the way bacon plays with maple syrup. It’s another old-school classic but served at Avanti with a level of respect and execution that simply isn’t common.
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Calamari $7
Stuffed mushrooms $7
Chicken parmigiana lunch special $17
Grilled pork chop lunch special $17[/box_info]
