The sign has arrived at 130 E. Seventh St. … where Team Ravi DeRossi (Death & Co., Cienfuegos, Proletariat, etc.) is opening an upscale vegan restaurant here just west of Avenue A.
DeRossi told Eater more about the project last month:
DeRossi says that this is something he's been wanting to do for 10 or 20 years, but finding a good vegan chef has always been the "biggest obstacle." Now, however, he's found that chef in Andrew D'Ambrosi, who currently runs the kitchen at DeRossi's Carroll Gardens seafood restaurant, Bergen Hill.
The way he tells it, D'Ambrosi put a hen of the woods mushroom dish on the menu that DeRossi, who "always hated mushrooms," loved. That dish turned out to be vegan, and so from there DeRossi had the chef begin experimenting with other vegan dishes, offering them as specials at Bergen Hill. Two years later, they've pulled together a list of about 20 that will make up Avant Garden's vegan menu. Those include things like charred onion with chimichurri and seasoned breadcrumbs, and roasted carrots with orange, honey, pumpkin seeds and quinoa, as well as that hen of the woods dish.
In addition to Avant Garden, DeRossi is launching a nonprofit, BEAST (Benefits to End Animal Suffering Today), which will host regular fundraisers for animal rights organizations, per Eater.
No word on an official opening date just yet.
As we first reported on May 5, Avant Garden takes over the storefront from Gingersnap's Organic, who decamped to the West Village in January.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Veggie friendly Avant Garden in the works for former Gingersnap's space on East 7th Street
