Avero Bar Italiano, a.k.a Avero Craft Pizzeria, in Wayne, PA, finally bit the dust. For those familiar with the restaurant, its demise obviously came as no great shock.
Ensconced in the Whole Foods Shopping Center, 821 West Lancaster Avenue, the location seemed perfect. Even before the restaurant opened its doors, the owners were throwing around buzzwords like ‘craft” and “artisan” and local journalists were waxing eloquent about “trendy cuisine.” Diners’ expectations began to rise at the speed of light – and there was the rub. Avero’s food never lived up to all the hype.
My first encounter with the so-called “craft” pizza, for example, was a complete horror. The spinach version, awash with enough raw chopped garlic to keep a coven of vampires at bay, came replete with a doughy crust and was completely inedible. The Margherita – pomodoro sauce, fresh mozzarella, and basil – was somewhat better, but still overly dry and generic at best. As if to add insult to injury, my wife and I returned a year later and found the pizzas to be even worse than the originals.
Couple the hit or miss quality of food & service with an excessive noise level, elevated prices, and a spirited game of musical chefs, pizza makers, managers, and wine personnel, and you had a recipe for disaster.
In October 2013, despite the fact that Amy Strauss of Main Line Today penned a positively gushing sugar-coated puff piece, knowledgeable foodies were already becoming disenchanted. Even then, the end seemed inevitable. The only surprise for most Mainliners, this writer included, was that restaurant managed to carry on as long as it did.
TAD
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