FIGS
Todd English and modern Italian
Much of what is known about Todd English’s café of modern Italian cuisine can be summed up in a sentence: elegant and modern American takes on classics. The reality of a deeper look shows a restaurant with a nuanced palate and love for both the simplicity of ingredients and the invention of new takes on the tried and true. From the brick oven wood-fired pizza and pastas, to a variety of inventive and intimidating salads, they prove their merit in each course. With two local stores to choose from you can start with the benefit of convenience. For our part we meandered our way to the upper level location at The Grand Avenue - The Avenues in the midst of a recent shopping trip. 110
Up and above the crowds below, a wide opened floor plan to the restaurant welcomes you with a warm and spacious feel. Additionally, with dim lighting and dark colored décor, it’s easy to get sucked into the relaxing nature of staring off into the fire that billows out of the brick oven that separates the kitchen from the dining room. First, you should prepare yourself for a lot of options: we started with an appetizer of Shrimp Fritti and a Buffalo Chicken Dip that happened to be on the specials menu (though I hear it appears on there often). The Shrimp Fritti comes with a roasted corn ragout and a creamy avocado ranch sauce that was delicious with the perfect amount of spice.
Meanwhile, the buffalo Chicken Dip special was an incredible take on a classic. After a chat with the chef wherein he described the variations he played with before coming to this final recipe, we must say that it paid off. With all of the normal flavor profiles you would expect from this often standard starter, they take it up a notch by doing a deconstructed version of same, and then putting it all back together in a baking dish and baking: delicious. Moving on to soups and salads we found the roasted beets with toasted walnuts and a tangerine vinaigrette to be wonderful and abundant in portion. Meanwhile, the asparagus soup was far more delicious and flavorful than a non-asparagus fanatic likely