route. After 31 years in Chicago she made her way home at the end of 2015, settling into a cottage on Octavia Street just two blocks from my own home in the neighborhood where our great grandparents settled when they immigrated from Sweden in 1894. We were thrilled, both having longed for what we witnessed between other sisters. I think each of us secretly, idealistically, thought the other had the power to heal old wounds. The reality was very different. The 13-year chasm, vastly different life experiences and polarized political ideologies came screaming into focus. It was a disaster. Whatever Band-Aids either of us had used to hold ourselves together were ripped off. By the middle of 2017 we had scraped the relationship and each avoided the other’s routes within the same neighborhood. Long story short, I believe it was a mutual friend’s determined prayers to Buddha, Ganesha, the Goddess and other deities she keeps in her arsenal that healed my relationship with my sister. At the end of this past, particularly brutal winter Beth showed up with a salve for the most persistent and deeply rooted of my wounds. We began to heal, but we had to find more than biology and pain in common. So, we started with dinner. My daughter Cecilia joined us at Avo. It was a sparkling, rain-drenched evening made all the more exciting by a beautifully assembled menu that made decisions nearly impossible. So we ordered pretty much everything. Chef Nick Lama’s pan-fried squash blossoms were stuffed mozzarella and puffed
Try This: Saba is well deserving of its hype and the effort needed to score a reservation. The service is attentive and cheerful, executed by proud, well-compensated and cared-for employees. The environment provides a chic, though comfortable backdrop for beautifully executed fare that hits all price points from couscous with dried cherries and Persian lime butter ($8) to foie gras with date honey and Marcona almonds ($30). If this sweltering heat ever passes, enjoy your meal of the front patio while taking in the scene on Magazine Street.
grains atop a sauce of zucchini purée; meatballs of pork and beef were laced Fontina fonduta and a spicy tomato sauce. Cecilia’s scallops were paired daringly with apple, olives and cauliflower and sauced with Romanesco sauce and brown butter. My soft shell crab was fried shatter-crisp, lightly sauced with Parmesan aioli and served with asparagus and prosciutto. Beth’s Halibut was set atop a celery root purée dotted with minced tomato and capers with a side of fiddle head ferns in a gloss of brown butter, berries, rhubarb and sumac. We shared a portion of creamy cheese cake finished with lemon curd and fresh berries and toasted a new beginning with cups of chamomile tea and sweet liqueur. n AVO 5908 Magazine St. 509-6550 RestaurantAvo.com SABA 5757 Magazine St. 324-7770 EatWithSaba.com
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