Chicago’s Avec wine bar
Officially, Avec is first and foremost a wine bar. Yet, a few minutes in this vibrant, energetic Chicago-based space and it’s quickly evident that it’s so much more. Set in a long, narrow honey-colored room wrapped in cedar and hickory, with five communal tables and red oak seating, the atmosphere is loud and boisterous, filled with lively conversation and music to match. Within this James Beard Award Winning designed room, rustic cuisine, charcuterie, and cheese from the Mediterranean regions of Southern France, Portugal, Italy, and Spain are served as small and large plates.
The wood-oven, roasted flavors that dominant the menu are rich and representative of local foods, like Chorizo-stuffed Medjool dates and prosciutto with peaches, ricotta, and mint. And of course as a wine bar, Avec’s list is abundant with over 130 affordable bottles from the region and 30-plus wines available by the glass to encourage tastings and experimentation. The long lines around Avec speak to the success of their formula (and their no-reservation policy), but if you’re not in the mood to wait for hours, check out their equally intriguing, more formal – and expensive – sister-restaurant, Blackbird, just next door.
Tagged: Avec, Chicago, Chicago wine bar, France, Italy, restaurant, Spain
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Grandpa Shea is a Melbourne-based artist wielding a pencil like no other. His work is confident, emotional, at times dark and filled with black humour. Read more
My friend Katya Usvitsky is a great Brooklyn-based artist who does a lot of textile-based work. I really like her recent pieces where she fills nylons with little wads of fiber to create weird, unsettling, organic forms. Read more
Oh man, it’s a good thing I’m not living in Tokyo as I’d probably never leave the house. Japanese TV is the best. Want proof? Check out this clip from a prank show called Wake You Up where hapless victims are woken from their slumber in the most … ummm … ruthless of ways.
Look closely at the walls of the Diga del Cingino dam in Italy, at the small brown dots that line the grainy surface. They are European Ibex and they live in these remarkable gravity defying surrounds, eating the moss and lichen and licking the salt off the dam wall. Read more
A Chicken Growing Up! is a great blog on which science illustrator Mieke Roth posts one ink drawing a week of a chicken as it matures. Read more
The highly polished electronic sound of Minneapolis band UltraChorus falls somewhere between Hot Chip and Phoenix, bringing a cut and paste indie rock aesthetic to late nineties Hip-Hop and R&B. We have their debut single, Words Kept Talking [listen below], available for free download in our Music Download section.
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Beautiful Kaos is a small boutique Sydney-based label, created by Paulo Brito. His collection is launching this Summer, with a range of boardies, singlets, tees and jackets. The entire range epitomizes Summer fun, my favourite time of year.
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