The expectation of great food folded into every menu is no small feat, and spring is not the easiest season from which to harvest key ingredients according to Amani’s chef/owner, Jon Amann. The deadpan serious culinary captain of the blue-ribbon Downingtown BYO confesses that spring produce is a tough gig to get right.
Fear not. With the new spring menu, Amann pulls out serious firepower from the hardworking kitchen’s battery of talent and creativity. Pushing out 25 seasonal menus over the years with the expectation of offering great food, Chef Jon Amann is taking a breather as the just-born menu “[was] the easiest to come together; the smoothest rollout.”
So what hurdles dot the path to culinary conquest? “We wanted to take advantage of early spring flavors. The challenge is that there is not a lot of growing time. Spring is the trickiest. Fall is great; everything has been growing all summer,” Amann acknowledges. Staying true to Amani’s mission to use the best of the seasonal, local market, Amann taps the likes of Milky Way Farm, Amazing Acres Goat Dairy and Two Gander Farm.
Capitalizing on bright flavors for the new menu, Amann brings to life grilled calamari ceviche with conch, garlic lemon and avocado. Also premiering: Berkshire pork belly with black miso glaze, golden beet puree and asparagus slaw. The fried calamari coming to the table is not the usual ring variety. Oven dried tomatoes, roasted garlic and basil aioli complete the starter. Explore the full new menu here.
Next up for Amann and the Amani’s crew is a “widening of the circle,” laughs the chef. While maintaining a focus on the food, unlike some “commercialized operations that tend to promote alcohol that dilute the food experience, like walking through a shopping mall,” Amann is looking up to the second floor of the current building as a bistro venue that may include a wine list.
Find Amani’s at 105 E. Lancaster Ave. in Downingtown; phone: (484) 237-8179.
