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Avenida 5 Restaurante & Bar
2760 Fifth Avenue
(619) 542-0394
www.avenue5restaurant.com
Closed Monday
Restaurant review: Avenue 5
By David Nelson
Avenue 5 is a stylish, stylin’ place, thanks to the considerable expertise chef/proprietor Colin MacLaggan and general manager Nicholas Carbonne bring to the proceedings. MacLaggan builds thoughtful presentations that may begin with familiar ingredients, but take on clever, novel characters when inventively garnished and sauced. Carbonne, born in France but raised here, has the Frenchman’s sense of what service should be, and as a result, the staff guides guests through the evening with considerable panache. Informed, smiling and accommodating servers seem to be the norm.
It was a little gutsy of MacLaggan to appropriate the name that designates the backbone of San Diego. While not the city’s longest street by any means, Fifth Avenue sets a certain tone (the Fifth Avenues of many cities are important, perhaps in adulation of the most famous thoroughfare in New York), and has become home to so many eateries that it’s on the verge of becoming a contiguous restaurant row from the bottom of the Gaslamp Quarter to the upper rim of Hillcrest.
Avenue 5 is located pretty much smack in the middle of the action, but it’s not a middle-of-the-road restaurant. The dinner menu (there also are lists for Tuesday-Friday lunch, weekend brunch and nightly happy hours) avoids the many clichés of San Diego dining in favor of engaging starters like the sliced, pickled baby yellow and pinkish beets ($9.95). Tart and spritely, they square off against such sweet, musky and savory garnishes as julienned apple, blue cheese crumbles, pancetta and a little crisp, tart frisee lettuce, the whole moistened with a suave vinaigrette based on costly Banyuls vinegar. The presence of the “Burgundy escargot” (snails from Burgundy, but not quite served Burgundy style; $7.95) indicates that the little gastropods, long ago the stars of American French restaurants, are making a comeback. MacLaggan piles them in a puff pastry vol au vent along with mushrooms and a heady splash of brandy, a particularly nice presentation that makes a good first impression on newcomers to Avenue 5. It’s also easy to be impressed by such appetizers as carpaccio of vodka-cured beef tenderloin with arugula, olives and truffle oil ($9.95), and smoked salmon presented elegantly with potato-based blini, crème fraiche and American sturgeon caviar ($10.75).
Every night has its specials, including such recent offerings as smooth, subtly pungent cauliflower soup accented with fresh, crisp croutons ($8), and a deluxe plate of pan-seared, pomegranate-glazed foie gras with toast points and date chutney ($20). MacLaggan recently showed his imagination by topping an entrée of giant, pan-seared scallops (they were as deeply bronzed as George Hamilton) with ever-so-glamorous slivers of crisped foie gras, little bites of which made an exceptionally savory dressing for the scallops ($32). The dish only got better the more it was explored: the slightly acid bed of wilted spinach and mustard greens cut the richness of the seafood, foie gras and the light, creamy beurre blanc sauce. Edged around the rim of the plate, a garnish of plump and slightly sweet cipollini onions looked like oversexed raisins and brought yet one more welcome flavor to the dish.
The albacore au poivre ($23.95) packed a sizable surprise, since nothing in the menu description suggested it would be served red-rare, in the style of ahi tuna. The guest who had ordered it immediately objected, and the server returned it to the kitchen for a moment. When the dish came back to table, it was lightly rare and quite agreeable, especially in tandem with the “autumn” risotto flavored with seasonal ingredients, slender green beans, and a lovely, saffron-accented mussel sauce. Really good sauce béarnaise finished a grilled top sirloin that the kitchen carved into rosy slices and posed atop a puree of parsnips and potatoes; the sauteed chanterelle mushrooms on the side brought quite a deluxe note to the party ($26.95). Other entrees on the current menu, which was introduced October 2, include bacon-wrapped trout with curried cauliflower puree ($21.50), stuffed Portobello mushrooms with white bean ragout, grilled “ratatouille” and chevre ($18.50), and a very clever presentation of duck confit with cherries, frisee, pecans, Port and a rosemary-flavored potato gratin ($22.95).
Desserts all cost $8, and while items like the pear-frangipane tart and the chocolate decadence cake with orange and vanilla berry compote tempt, there is a particularly delicate, toothsome appeal to the baked “fromage blanc” (a simple, French homemade cheese usually served with cream and a sprinkling of sugar), which is accompanied with caramelized pears and custard sauce. The lemon that distinguishes the citron crème brulee lifts this sweet high, high above customary custards.
On both Saturdays and Sundays, Avenue 5 serves a quite sizable a la carte brunch menu from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. The highlights are many, including coconut-crusted French toast ($9), nicely-made classic eggs Benedict ($11), and for those who want to keep the previous night’s party going, bottle service Champagne with orange juice ($24).
David Nelson has written about dining in San Diego since 1980 for a comprehensive list of Southern California publications.
