"First we eat; then we do everything else." - M.F.K. Fisher

I had a huge to-do list for today, and even managed to accomplish some of my grandiose ambitions. At the urging of my facebook friends, however, I took a small detour from my errands to meet Renee downtown for lunch. And I am really glad I did.

*All of the photos below are borrowed from the Aviary's facebook page...I really hope they don't mind, especially because I'm saying nice things!

The Aviary Cafe and Creperie opened only one week and one day ago (I feel like a restaurant hipster!). I'm a fan of Downtown Springfield on Facebook, and there has been a bit of a buzz about the opening. I watched a lot of Kitchen Nightmares while I was sick a month ago, so I was prepared for the hiccups of a new restaurant. But in every aspect, the Aviary was shockingly delightful.

 View from the front door.

First, the dining room is simply gorgeous. The bird theme is natural and not forced, and the colors are beautiful. (I'm pretty sure that gray color is the same one I picked for my bedroom!) There's also a lovely ceiling installation with globes from our own Springfield Hot Glass studio. The overall quality of the dining setting, from the cute wine bottles (with stoppers!) they serve water in, to the heavy silverware in a precisely-folded cloth napkin, was impressive.

 See! The ceiling! Pretty! Pretty!

They have a panini menu for lunch, and Renee ordered a ham and cheese panini. I ordered a crepe from the "second courses" section of the regular menu - the Venitian Garden, with spinach, asparagus, and ricotta, topped with sour cream. Both came with side salads, with perfectly herbed croutons, apples, small pieces of goat cheese, and a balsamic vinaigrette. The food was...let's just say very tasty. Very, very tasty. So tasty that Renee and I really couldn't stop talking about how tasty it was. Ok, so occasionally we talked about other things. Like how beautiful the decor is. And how I'm going to blog about it. And how I need to print little business cards to drop at places I love, telling them to check my blog, because I'm going to write about them. (Yeah, I'm not self-absorbed at all.)

This looks a little like my lunch, but with more cheese. Mmmmm...

The service was friendly and professional. Our server easily persuaded us to try a dessert crepe - the Sugar and Spice, which was a very good decision. The spiced sugar had caramelized to a rounded, sweet, sticky pile of heaven. Also, the prices are reasonable - my crepe, side salad, and half of the dessert came to under $10.

This is the Peach Melba, which I will have to try next time!

So thank you, Aviary, for a delicious and inspiring lunch. I hope to have many of these with you in the future. And thank you, Facebook friends, for persuading me to put aside some of my errands for a much-needed respite.