Frank T.
Yelp
Welcome and good luck Avenue Social Kitchen & Cocktails. I came here on a Saturday night for a date. Getting in is easy, there is restaurant parking on the same side of Bedford Ave around the corner on Grand Ave.
Inside, it's the same configuration as the former restaurant, I think the bar area looks more bling-ie. The minute we got there, at our reservation time, we went directly to our table from the host stand. No waiting around, nice! The dining room is to the left of the bar separated by a half wall. There is more seating past the bar to the right with a booth-wall, where we sat. The tables each have plexiglass dividers keeping your germs away from others - suppose I felt safe, but kinda done with these restrictions by now. The menu is broken down by starters, salads, flatbreads, tacos, wine bites (tapas-ish), sides, sandwiches ("handhelds") and entrees. The vibe was clubby sounding, house music was loud, just loud enough where you can't hear the table next to you, but you can still hold a conversation.
Since my date had been there before, she recommended a few things - bacon wrapped stuffed dates, calamari with cherry peppers for some flair (delicious), and buffalo cauliflower (spicy). The apps came with arugula which was a nice touch. We could have stopped there, but we each put in something for ourselves. She did the kale caesar salad with GIGANTIC grilled shrimp - a very delicious salad, well dressed.
I saw a Yelp picture of the buttermilk fried chicken sandwich from Nicole T's review, so had to try it myself. Mine had thinner sliced flat breast, and didn't look as high-stacked as Nicole T's which seemed to be thicker tenders. And my bacon was soggy and pressed into the underside of the top bun and not crispy like the other pic. The sandwich (ir, handheld) was still very tasty, just not what I thought I might have gotten based on the review below.
The sides all looked incredible. My date got the brussels sprouts which were roasted/charred nicely and quartered (I'm too lazy for that kind of prep-work). I didn't taste them because I smelled truffle oil which I don't care for.
We ended up having coffee but couldn't muster up a desert order, next time. The coffee was very good. We were in and out in an hour and a half.
Service was absolutely on-point. We really enjoyed being in Melanie's section, she was a riot!! We belly laughed a couple of times and she was perfectly perfect.
Next time, I think I would try to get a bigger group together and sample all the smaller plates and go for the desserts - which looked like big shareable portions. Not sure why "Social Kitchen" in the name, might be good to understand what's behind that concept. I could see a group of people lounging around, noshing on snackie-foods, and sipping in handcrafted cocktails, maybe. They may want to consider offering non-alcoholic cocktails for people staying away from booze (higher margins and less inventory / beverage costs to figure out). The beverage program looked incredible otherwise.