West Chester’s Avalon Bistro to open in Bryn Mawr

Seventeen years after buying into his first restaurant and opening two more in Chester County, Avalon Bistro chef-owner John Brandt-Lee is opening a branch on the Main Line.

He is taking over the former Marbles and Verdad space at 818 Lancaster Ave. in Bryn Mawr, between Fraschetta and the Bryn Mawr Film Institute. It has been restaurant-less since October 2015.

Brandt-Lee was a web designer before 2002, when he bought Avalon, then at 316 S. High St. in West Chester, and he learned not only management on the job but the cooking side. Four years later, he closed that location and relocated it to 116 E. Gay St. in West Chester. In the middle, he opened and closed a pasta-centric BYOB version in Downingtown.

Now, the East Gay Street bistro is known as Bar Avalon.

Avalon Bistro will be similar to Bar Avalon, with a French-Italian-inspired menu offering what he says will have “something for everybody.”It will offer live blues and jazz.

He’s talking about a March opening.