Highwood Gets early taste of Avec

With its Highwood opening just weeks away, Avec restaurant gave residents an early taste of its menu on Tuesday, Sept. 15, during Highwood’s Design Week kickoff event. 

The restaurant will open on Oct. 29 at 250 Waukegan Ave., becoming Avec’s first location outside of Chicago, and third overall. 

First opened in 2003, Avec blends Mediterranean and Midwestern shared plates. The food reportedly is crafted with ingredients from local purveyors inspired by the wine regions of southwestern Europe and beyond.

Avec is under the umbrella of One Off Hospitality, the restaurant group that also operates “celebrated” spots like Blackbird, The Violet Hour, The Publican Quality Bread, Dove’s Luncheonette and Big Star.

Reservations will be accepted online starting Oct. 1, ahead of Avec’s opening. 

Avec offered two bites at Design Week: tabbouleh salad and shrimp cocktail. The salad featured a little sesame, tahini, freshly roasted corn, gold tomatoes and Parmesan cheese, while the shrimp cocktail included a harissa cocktail sauce, fresh horseradish and chives. 

Guests Holly and Jack Azulay, of Highwood, called the bites “very good, and they especially enjoyed the horseradish, cocktail sauce and cherry tomatoes. 

As for the new Avec opening, the couple is “super excited” and said they loved Avec’s downtown location. 

“I like the menu of Avec’s Chicago location,” Holly Azulay said. “I think they always do a really good job with the atmosphere, food and service they provide.” 

Guests can expect signature dishes in Highwood’s Avec, such as chorizo-stuffed medjool dates and wines, in addition to new ones that Executive Chef Dylan Patel is keeping as a “surprise,” he said. 

The new location will also continue to provide an atmosphere like “the best dinner party you’ve been to,” Patel said, adding that he strives to create a “lively atmosphere, full of community and delicious food.”

Inside the restaurant, a U-shaped marble-backed bar greets guests, with booths lining the dining room and a wood-soffited ceiling enabling a “light and airy” atmosphere, says a statement from Avec.

The restaurant will span nearly 5,000 square feet and include a 95-seat main dining room and a barroom featuring a booth, bar counter and banquet seating for 48. The detached private dining space reportedly will accommodate up to 40 seated or 75 standing guests and is expected to open in the spring of 2027. 

“Avec has been here for 24 years now,” Patel said. “I think the restaurant is going to do very well out here, bringing that kind of different flavor profile to the neighborhood using a lot of ingredients from not only Italy, France and Greece but also the middle eastern part of the Mediterranean.” 

The Record is a nonprofit, nonpartisan community newsroom that relies on reader support to fuel its independent local journalism.

Become a member of The Record to fund responsible news coverage for your community.

Already a member? You can make a tax-deductible donation at any time.