Restaurant notes: Avalon's new spot in Downingtown
Chef John Brandt-Lee is branching out from West Chester.
Ink is barely dry on this one: John Brandt-Lee of West Chester's Avalon just signed the lease on a second restaurant. (He's been teasing his Facebook followers for days now.)
Brandt-Lee is taking over the former Jasper at 78 W. Lancaster Ave. in Downingtown for a pasta-focused BYO called, simply enough, Avalon's The Pasta Bistro.
This old house is being stripped down and modernized. Brandt-Lee wants an energetic vibe along with homemade pasta, flatbreads, salads, a sophisticated cheese program, and a 15-item antipasto platter with preserved tuna, roasted peppers, white anchovies, chili-cured olives, eggplant, zucchini, fried risotto, salumi, roasted beets, white beans, and such.
Specialty will be a four-course, $40 prix-fixe -- the antipasto platter for sharing, two pasta courses, and dessert.
He's aiming at a tax day opening, which is April 18 this year. "I'm going to need those extra three days," he told me.