On a recent trip to Springfield, MO, I was in the mood for some Italian food. I've found some good Italian restaurants in the city during my past visits (click here and here to read about a couple of the ones I've been to) and I wanted to try another one that wasn't too far from my hotel on the south side of the city. This particular evening, I drove up Glenstone to have dinner at Avanzare Italian Dining.
Avanzare owner Tony Garcia is a Chicago native who worked in a number of restaurants in that city starting at an early age. Many of the places were famous Italian restaurants in Chicago - Spago, Cafe Fresco and Tuscany, to name just three. When chef/co-owner Nicola Gilardi left Ristorante Teatro in Springfield, MO, Garcia was recruited to take his place. (Nicola Gilardi now runs Nicola's Ristorante in Springfield.) Garcia wasn't certain that Springfield was a good fit for him, but he soon found that it fit perfectly to his lifestyle and he fell in love with the people and the surrounding area. It took him just 3 months to figure out that he actually did like the place enough for him to have his wife Carmen move from Chicago to join him.
After four years at Ristorante Teatro, Tony Garcia felt it was time to strike out on his own and open his own restaurant. Along with a partner/investor, Garcia opened Avanzare Italian Dining in 2002. He named his new restaurant for the Italian term for moving along or advancing in one's life.
Pictured right - Tony Garcia. (Photo courtesy 417 Magazine.)
Within four years Garcia had bought out his investor and became the sole owner of Avanzare and he continues in that capacity to this day. (In 2013, Garcia opened a short-lived restaurant - Tony's Italian Cafe - on S. Campbell in Springfield. The restaurant closed within a year so Garcia could solely focus on Avanzare.)
Avanzare Italian Dining is located in the Plaza Shopping Center, a strip mall at the corner of S. Glenstone and E. Sunshine in Springfield. (see map) There was plenty of parking out front of the restaurant when I got there around 8 p.m.
It had been a long day of driving when I finally got into Springfield and I knew I could use a cold beer. I was seated at a booth along the wall and given a menu when my server for the evening, a young man named Roy who spoke in an easy manner without any pretension in his voice. He asked me what I wanted to start out with and I ordered a Greene Ghost beer, a West Coast-style IPA from the Springfield Brewing Company that was sort of hoppy to the taste. It was a nice sipping beer to start out with.
The restaurant was actually pretty nice for being in a strip mall. I've long ago gotten over my aversion to strip mall restaurants (it began when I was working for a guy 30 years ago who completely avoided strip mall restaurants like a plague) as I've found some pretty fine places to eat in strip malls. Avanzare was elegant without being snooty. The main dining room featured a number of booths along the wall in a narrow space with tables with banquette seating along the other wall. Contemporary jazz music including a great track by tenor saxophonist JD Allen was playing in the background.
There was a smaller room on the way back toward the restrooms that I gathered could be used for small parties or private dining. The room featured some pretty interesting artwork, as well.
Now, I have to say that the men's restroom was rather unique. It featured soft lighting and a couch along the wall. At first, I thought I had walked into the women's restroom. But when I saw the urinal on the wall, I knew I was in the right place. It was like peeing in a den. And, sorry, no pictures of the restroom.
The bar/kitchen area had a contemporary look with small tiles on the back wall of the open kitchen and soft lighting around the bar. The bar wasn't very big - I think it only sat 6 people. But it was a nice and cozy little bar area.
When I went into Avanzare, I didn't really know what I was hungry for - I just wanted something with a tomato sauce on it. The did have a rigatoni dish that had a spicy tomato sauce and housemade Italian sausage that immediately caught my eye. But when I saw the cheese-stuffed tortellini in a rich cream sauce with prosciutto, mushrooms and peas, my mind momentarily wandered away from a red sauce. But if the tortellini would have been stuffed with beef or prosciutto, I probably would have pulled the trigger on that. They had a lasagna on the menu, but I didn't want lasagna at a nice place like this.
Avanzare featured a number of northern Italian specialties - they had a grilled rack of lamb with assorted mushrooms, a seafood linguini, and a pan-seared salmon filet with artichoke hearts, red bell peppers, and mushrooms in a garlic white wine sauce. I finally made up my mind for dinner and ordered it up with Roy. I also ordered a glass of the house malbec they had on their somewhat impressive wine list that featured a number of great wines from California, South America and Italy.
Roy brought out the salad along with a loaf of fresh bread and a small plate that included a dollop of freshly chopped garlic. And it was very fresh garlic - as in spicy garlic. The bread was fabulous and it was made even better by the wonderful fresh garlic. No vampires were going to be bothering me after this meal.
The salad was also very good. It was a mixed green salad with slices of tomatoes and topped with a red wine vinaigrette with olive oil and shredded parmesan cheese. The greens were cool, crisp and very fresh.
For dinner that evening, I went with the chicken parmesan. A side of spaghetti with their housemade marinara came with the entree. It was topped with Avanzare's tomato/basil-infused sauce, melted mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese. A drizzle of aged balsamic was squiggled on the plate. The chicken was thin cut, lightly breaded and flash fried in a pan.
The chicken parm was wonderful. The combination of the mozzarella and tomato-basil sauce was the taste sensation I was looking for that evening. The basil was especially fresh and forward tasting in the sauce. The chicken was tender and flavorful, there wasn't a lot of breading that gummed up the taste. And I really enjoyed their sweet and tangy marinara sauce that came on the side of spaghetti. Overall, this was a very good meal.
One of the problems of dining out alone on the road is feeling comfortable. And I felt more than comfortable while dining at Avanzare. Roy did a great job of taking care of me all evening long with his good sense of humor, down-home demeanor and flawless service. The chicken parmesan that I had was outstanding, as was the homemade bread and the fresh garlic chunks they provided with the bread. There was little to nothing I could find wrong with my visit to Avanzare. There's a number of good to very good Italian restaurants in the Springfield area and Avanzare is one of the best of the lot.
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