As a birthday celebration for my dearest Jessica, I wanted to take her someplace nice. Very nice. After days of pondering, brainstorming, and acquiring suggestions from local foodies, I consulted with my counterpart, Jenna, and ultimately decided on AV (located on Birney Ave in Moosic). Approaching AV’s parking lot (via GPS) was horrifying. I thought I was entering a slum Motel, which is conveniently attached to the restaurant, AV. Visually the outside of AV is in need of some serious TLC. A hanging plant, bench, candle in the window…anything?! My thought process went from “oh no, where did I take you, Jessica” to…the skies opening and a choir belting “halleluiah” as I walked in the front door. The interior of AV is absolutely beautiful. Clean design; warm and cozy. Great bar area, and most importantly clean, clean bathrooms. I was relieved.
This is an interior decorating blog isn’t it? Oh right, we talk food here. Okay, so here we go: We started with wonderful drinks from the bar. The birthday girl had frozen grapes floating in her martini. My first impression was “oh…how interactive…and tasty.” The appetizers we decided to order included the highly recommended sweet potato gnocchi, which was outstanding. The gnocchi was very soft with crunchy walnuts on top, mmm, delicious. We also ordered fig puree on a crostini topped with prosciutto. Sweet and salty, a flavor combination Jessica and I both seem to favor. Jenna ordered a seared swordfish as her entrée, which was just that…seared swordfish. Fresh tasting with a great sauce (but clearly not memorable). Jessica ordered skate (which is the fin of a stingray fish), served with mashed sweet potatoes. The skate struck our attention because it is a type of fish rarely seen on a menu. Skate is a light fish, and prepared in a way that easily flaked from the bone. This too, was fresh tasting, and had a great sauce. I ordered the “diver scallops.” If you like scallops I would absolutely recommend ordering this dish. They were truly seared to perfection, and were also served with a great sauce and mashed parsnips. I have to say, however, that when my plate was put in front of me and I saw three dainty scallops staring back at me, with a dollop of mashed parsnips with about five string beans, I almost laughed and said, “I didn’t ask you to box up the other half of my meal…” I quickly got back to reality and said, “this is fiiiiiiiine dining, Jean…don’t be a glutton.” I savored every bite of those scallops (not that there were too many bites…but they were all savored). Looking back on this meal, we all seemed to have been in the mood for seafood, hmm. However, there were many different proteins on the menu.
Chocolate lava cake, and classic cheesecake were our desserts. And the very attractive wait staff included a candle for Jessica. How thoughtful.
All in all, this is a restaurant I would go to impress someone (not that you would ever need to impress anyone…but if you ever did…). The inside décor is outstanding, the food is…good…but wouldn’t be the subject of your conversation, which is good, I guess? And the menu has a variety to choose from.
Recommendation? Wear something nice, don’t forget your wallet, and order the gnocchi.
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