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Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Food writer to open a restaurant

April Lisante, who spent 10-plus years as a reporter, food writer and editor at the Daily News, is going into the restaurant biz with her husband, Christian Gatti.

It'll be Avril -- French for "April" -- a 50-seat white tablecloth BYO at 134 Bala Ave. in Bala Cynwyd, in the corner space across from the Bala movies that was Café Shira. 

Food will be provincial Southern French with a little Northern Italian, including homemade pasta and bread plus flatbread from a pizza oven. Apps will be in the $8-$12 range, with entrees $22-$32. They're hoping to open Aug. 1.

Lisante met Gatti on assignment in 2003 for a hot-young-chefs feature. His background includes City Tavern (Concepts by Staib), White Dog Cafe and Audrey Claire.

Posted by Michael Klein @ 1:55 PM  Permalink | File Under: TableTalk | 3 comments
Comments   
Posted 07:44 AM, 06/17/2009
cuffthis
Best wishes on overwhelming success for your new venture.
Posted 10:53 AM, 06/17/2009
esterrick
April is a total class act, and I think she and Christian have the good karma to pull it off! That fella who opened Salt a few years back (already he's forgotten of course)definitely didnt have it.
Posted 10:29 PM, 08/20/2009
bkeepr
We were there tonight. Lovely decor and extremely polite hostess, Avril. The food however was a bit too seasoned, and one dish was too salty, and I really like salt. I had spinach and artichoke pudding appetizer and my partner had leek soup. Soup was too bitter, pudding was clever, and good. She said she wanted the sweetness of the leeks to come through. Entrees for us were wild mushroom plate with sacllop, this is the salty one, and roast pork. Too many strong seasonings in the pork and the corn pudding with it was flat in taste. The service was good, but when I offered that she could tell the chefabout the meal, no one ever returned to the table. The dessert was "strudel" bu had a crust similar to a biscuit. It was only the opening so i hope they get it right soon, we need more restaurants like this in our area. Good luck.
3 comments
About Michael Klein
Michael Klein chronicles local people, places and things (in easy-to-digest portions) three days a week in his Inquirer column "INQlings." He also covers the restaurant scene in his Thursday Food column, "Table Talk." See his work at http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/michael_klein.
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