Review: At Bistro Avera, a fine-dining star is born in Lewiston

Hometown boy Stephen Pusateri brings Rue-Franklin-level finesse to his own creations

Tomato tart, Bistro Avera

When you make it your business to talk to restaurant pros, tracing their careers and getting reacquainted at each new stop, you learn backstories, and dreams. Every new restaurant is someone finding out how well their dream flies in the real world.

One grim fact I’ve learned over the last decade is that most restaurant dreams don’t soar into the sunset. A flock of seagulls sucked into an engine, menu navigational error, or just plain running out of financial fuel. Soaring successes are rare as beef tartare.

For years after French landmark Rue Franklin closed, its sous chef Stephen Pusateri ran a breakfast spot in Lewiston with his wife Janelle. What he wanted was a full-scale restaurant where he could bring that fine-dining level precision and care to his own dishes.

So in July, when he launched Bistro Avera, a 30-seat fine-dining restaurant on his hometown’s main drag, I tried to play it cool. After dinner there, I realized he’d made my own wish come true: to get to see him cook his heart out.

I offer this note in a spirit of transparency. As a critic, it is my sworn duty to report when I get my doors blown clean off. Then get you the number of the truck that hit me.