Fine Dining Hit Avant Garden Brings Upscale Vegan to Williamsburg

Restaurateur and cocktail bar hitmaker Ravi DeRossi brings his popular East Village vegan restaurant Avant Garden to Williamsburg on Monday, opening in the former Post Office space at 188 Havemeyer St., between South Third and Fourth streets.

The food menu is again from chef Tony Mongeluzzi, who has been cooking at the Manhattan flagship for the past year and a half and remains executive chef there. As with the original menu, it’s broken down here into three sections: toast, cold, and hot. Williamsburg’s Avant Garden will offer a few of the same dishes as the original, but most are unique to this location, like the corn salad and black bean puree toast, a pineapple “tartare,” and a spring onion, masa cake, fried leek, baby corn, and pickled chanterelle mole. Check out the full menu below.

Plants aren’t just a centerpiece of the menu, but of the decor, too: Logs bursting with greenery hover over the eight-seat bar area, while wood tables and dark purple chairs and banquettes run through the rest of the space. There’s an open kitchen with 32 seats all in all, plus a 20-seat outdoor dining area that will open in late summer.

Photo via Avant Garden

The cocktails, which are all bottled, are herbal and floral as well, like the “Whole Lotta Trouble” made with gin, strawberry, sparkling rose, and rose water. DeRossi’s restaurants are well known for their cocktails, and OTB owner and beverage director Alla Lapushchik oversees the drinks here, including a natural wine list.

DeRossi opened the original Avant Garden in East Village in 2015, and it’s populary was swift, making DeRossi talk about expansion since 2016. One of the first vegan fine dining restaurants in the city, the restaurant received a glowing review in the New Yorker’s “Tables For Two” column shortly after it opened.

DeRossi already has an East Village empire in Mother of Pearl, Mayahuel, Amor Y Amargo, and Cienfuegos. Now, he’s taking hold of Williamsburg: Avant Garden joins his Brooklyn outpost of Latin seafood restaurant Desnuda in the neighborhood.

Avant Garden opens June 18 and will be open every day from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. and until midnight on the weekends.