Chicago-restaurant-reviews-Avec

From the owner of Blackbird down the street, this hip, crowded, noisy restaurant serves up an assortment of Mediterranean tapas. The menu consists of a series of small plates and large plates with all the dishes meant to be shared. Among the small dishes we sampled were the marinated olives, the whipped brandade (potatoes, salt cod and garlic ), and the ceviche of shrimp, scallops, tilapia & crab with grapefruit. The chorizo and mussel stew was bland and very fishy tasting. The large plates we tried were the pork shoulder which was fork tender, and the focaccia with taleggio and truffle oil. We sampled one dessert, the eclairs. There were 2 miniature eclairs, one vanilla cream filled and the other chocolate cream filled. Good but barely more than 2 bites. The wine list is long and there were no wines by the glass, but rather by the 250 ml carafe ( 1/3 of a bottle) priced from $9 to $15. The prices for bottles of wine seemed more reasonable. Service was very friendly and helpful.