Avero Craft Pizzeria
821 West Lancaster Avenue
Wayne (Devon), Pennsylvania
(484) 580-6455
Since this review, Avero Craft Pizzeria has changed its name to Avero Bar Italiano, changed chefs, menu, and wine list. The Artful Diner will return for an update in the very near future.
No question about it… The preopening publicity blitz had Main Line foodies – this writer included – salivating in anticipation. Avero looked like a sure winner. The former Wine & Spirits shop in the Whole Foods Shopping Center seemed the perfect location. And although co-owner Vince Schiavone was a newbie to the restaurant game, his partner, Scott Morrison, was a seasoned veteran, currently owning two dining establishments in Wilmington, Delaware, and a part interest in Berwyn’s popular Nectar.
And the boys were adamant right from the outset… Avero wasn’t going to be your ordinary pizza joint. No, no… “Craft” and “Artisan” are the key words here with regard to pizza and pasta, respectively. In an interview posted June 27, 2013, on the Radnor Patch, general manager Pete Raffetto elaborated: “All food is made from scratch. All fresh pasta, fresh meatballs, salads tossed at the table… It’s high end food, high end service with a casual feel.” And to quote Patch editor Natalie Daher: “With buzz words (sic) like ‘eat,’ ‘love,’ and ‘laugh’ printed on the outdoor awnings, the Italian eatery is sure to splash some more trendy cuisine onto the Main Line.”
As I mentioned in my “First Impressions” review of Avero: When enthusiastic restaurateurs begin throwing around often misused culinary terms like “Craft” and “Artisan” – and local journalists begin waxing eloquent about “Trendy Cuisine,” – diners’ expectations begin to rise at the speed of light… which is fine, so long as the restaurant in question can deliver the goods.
And there’s the rub… Avero’s food, in my opinion, has simply not lived up to all the hype. I had high hopes that as the kitchen got its act together the cuisine would improve… Unfortunately, this has not been the case. In point of fact, it seems to have progressively degenerated with each subsequent visit.
One of the most common restaurant mistakes, I believe, is that a kitchen attempts to do too much. Better to execute a limited menu extremely well rather than turn out a host of mediocre fare. From a reviewer’s point of view, that is precisely what I found attractive about Avero’s menu: It is decidedly selective and focused, listing a limited number of possibilities.
On the other hand, that is also what is so positively maddening about it. In the ultimate culinary scheme of things, items like pizza, pasta, meatballs, and salads are relatively simple to prepare – and yet, for the most part, the kitchen just can’t seem to get them right.
Take the so-called “craft” pizza, for example. The first encounter with the spinach version – organic house ricotta sauce, pine nuts, over-roasted tomato, and fresh mozzarella – was something of a disaster. Sounded wonderful… but the crust was inordinately doughy, and the spinach was awash with enough chopped raw garlic so as to render it nearly inedible. The gorgonzola – crumbled bacon, caramelized onion, and fennel – was a good deal better; but the Margherita – pomodoro sauce, fresh mozzarella, and basil – was rather dry and generic at best.
Both my wife and I have sampled infinitely better pizza for less money at numerous other restaurants. Those proffered at Avero are certainly nothing to get excited about… As if to add insult to injury, given what I consider slightly elevated prices, the various toppings are rather penuriously applied.
And the “artisan” pastas are really no better… perhaps even a step below. The first pasta sampled was the Kobe Bolognese with spaghetti, which was overcooked, mushy, and suffered from a surfeit of rosemary. Without doubt, the most bizarre rendition of Bolognese it has ever been my displeasure to ingest.
But while the Bolognese was horrendously over seasoned, other pastas were in desperate need of a good deal more zip. An evening special, for instance, featured pappardelle combined with chicken, sugar snap peas, green beans, red pepper, and enoki mushrooms. The morsels of chicken were tender enough… but tasteless. The entire presentation lacked anything even approximating flavor… And the pappardelle with Alfredo sauce suffered a similar fate.
Among the starters, an antipasti special was definitely the highpoint of three visits. Green and yellow heirloom beefsteak tomatoes were combined with sharp provolone cheese, fresh mozzarella, capers, caper berries, and balsamic onions in an artful presentation. Despite its numerous faux pas, this dish is, I believe, positive proof that the Avero’s kitchen does have potential.
On the other hand, another starter special, the spicy chicken lettuce wraps, was an ill-conceived horror. These were basically over-breaded, over-spiced, and overcooked chicken fingers plopped onto tiny torn romaine leaves accompanied by a less than edifying gorgonzola dipping sauce. Definitely pass on this one.
If you like to start things off with greenery, be advised that the salads are something of a mixed bag. The very best of the lot, sampled during our first visit, is the arugula. Peppery leaves are combined with shredded strips of radicchio, shaved parmesan cheese, and appropriately crunchy croutons all propelled into orbit via an excellent blood orange aged sherry vinaigrette. And, as the menu noted, this was, indeed, hand-tossed tableside. During subsequent visits, however, the salads emerged from the kitchen already prepared. The Avero broken Caesar wasn’t bad… but there was entirely too much anchovy in the Caesar vinaigrette. The spinach salad, on the other hand, looked somewhat tired; and the promised gorgonzola buttermilk dressing was just barely discernible.
The highly-touted “smashballs” (read here, “meatballs”) come in three varieties. Recently ordered was the Kobe beef & scallion with pomodoro sauce. They’re passable, but certainly nothing spectacular… and they simply can’t hold a candle to homemade. But let me give you another comparison. Occasionally, when my wife and I don’t have time to make our own, I’ll get the readymade package of 12 from Whole Foods meat department. You just pop them in the oven at 350 degrees for 35 minutes – and they have infinitely more flavor than what Avero turns out.
But there are a number of other issues here in addition to the food… Prices, for example, come immediately to mind. I don’t think they’re totally out of line for the area; but given the kitchen’s failings and the hit or miss service, they do seem a tad elevated. And when you factor in several of the downright horrific wine markups, this fact becomes more and more obvious. Take the 2009 Monte Faliesi Aglianico, a no more than serviceable Italian red, for instance. I’ve seen this wine on sale for as low as $10.00 and change. At Avero it will set you back $15.50 per glass and $62.00 per bottle. Likewise, the 2011 Ricossa Cortese (Gavi) often retails in the $12.00 – $14.00 range. At this restaurant you’ll be shelling out a whopping $15.00 and $60.00, respectively…
And during our last visit, the menu was expanded to include a list of wines – several extremely high-end – which are only available by the bottle. Tell me, would you part with $195.00 for a Silver Oak Cabernet or $275.00 for a 2007 Gaja Barolo while shoveling in so-so-pizza and pasta…? I seriously doubt it. This is nothing more than an exercise in egoistic oenological futility.
All of the above being said, however, undoubtedly the most important issue clouding Avero’s debut is the noise level. When the restaurant is empty or sparsely populated, a pin dropping sounds like a thunderclap; when the restaurant is filled, the decibel level is so daunting it is impossible to carry on a normal conversation. Do I exaggerate…? But of course… although not a great deal. The polished concrete floor, black, unfinished ceiling, bare tables, and other hard surfaces all combine to turn the restaurant into an acoustical nightmare.
From what I’ve gleaned perusing preopening articles & publicity, and also what I’ve experienced firsthand while dining at Avero, I don’t think it’s any big secret that Messrs. Morrison and Schiavone had visions of a discriminating, upscale clientele munching away happily on their designer pizzas. However, the restaurant usually appears to be awash with large, boisterous parties and young couples who are quite content to let their rambunctious progeny run amuck at will… And when one unruly, screaming child is quite capable of transforming the dining area into an unholy bedlam, this is hardly the type of atmosphere that is likely to attract the crème de la crème of Main Line gastronomy.
Dining at Avero is an exceedingly frustrating as well a very disappointing experience. Why? Because despite its shortcomings, it has the potential of becoming a very good restaurant. It has a lot going for it… a primo location for one thing… and foods nearly everyone enjoys eating – namely pizza & pasta – for another. Unfortunately, the place has stumbled right from the outset.
… And if it is to survive – and I would certainly like to see it do so – some major retooling is mandatory. The first order of business, it seems to me, is to do something to mitigate the atrocious noise level. This may not be easy, but if the situation isn’t remedied, it will succeed in driving away the very clientele the proprietors wish to attract. Secondly, the food has tremendously appealing possibilities, but it has not been well executed; and major improvements in this area should also be high on the owners’ agenda.
One can only hope that these changes will be forthcoming… In the meantime, if you plan to pay a visit to Avero, I would strongly suggest a late weekday lunch and seating at the bar, where the noise level should be (comparatively) tolerable.
Bon Appétit!
TAD
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