We are excited to announce that the PSALM Salon and Avril BYOB Restaurant have joined forces to offer a knock out "evening on the town" package featuring a sumptuous gourmet dinner for you and your friends at Avril followed by an evening of stellar entertainment at PSALM!

Avril BYOB, located nearby in Bala Cynwyd, has been a longtime dream for husband and wife team Christian Gatti and April Lisante. The two met in 2003 when April, food editor for the Philadelphia Daily News, was reporting a story about Philadelphia's hottest, most talked-about chefs. Christian, a longtime Philadelphia chef and pastry chef, was one of twelve chefs featured in the story. The two met at the Daily News photo shoot for the story, shook hands, and the rest was history.

April ran the food section at the Daily News for seven years, crafting weekly feature stories, chef profiles and editing columns. But her dream, as a lifelong cook and food-lover, was to have her own restaurant. And Christian was her ultimate match, sharing the same passion and dream.

Christian first fell in love with cooking at age 15, when he took a job as a dishwasher at a local bakery in his hometown of Havertown, Pa. Shoulders down and head low over the basin sink, he often turned and watched bakers make their breads, cookies and cakes. Soon enough, after pestering owners, he was making braided Easter bread in the spring. His passion was born.

Ironically, Christian, a prolific writer, headed to the University of Pittsburgh in 1993 thinking he'd translate his love of food into a food writing career. He studied creative writing and history but it wasn't until he was sitting in a windowsill at University of Pittsburgh reading MFK Fisher's meditational essay about savoring a peach that he realized food was the place to turn to understand life and to celebrate and savor life.

It was also in Pittsburgh where he met his first mentor, the Moroccan and Avignon French-trained chef Driss Boubakri from whom he learned to cook and learned the phrase "With love," which was meant to be the mantra beneath cooking.

In Pittsburgh, Christian worked at and eventually became the head baker at an artisan bakery. He worked at a number of restaurants in Pittsburgh and returned to his hometown of Philadelphia to work at stalwarts such as the socially-conscious, and one of Philadelphia's first farm-to-table restaurants White Dog Café and Old City's City Tavern. The Tavern allowed Christian to combine his love of history and food. There, he realized the deep roots of American cooking and has since devoted himself to resolving America's inferiority complex that all good things in food don't only come from Europe. Working under Tavern's owner Walter Staib, head of Concepts By Staib, Christian helped to open hotels and resorts nationally and internationally, working with menu development and staff training with clientelle such as Benchmark Hotels, Shula's Steakhouse and Sandal's Resorts. It was a priveledge to learn to from Staib, one of the nation's most knowledgeable and internationally-respected chefs.

At Avril, Gatti combines his classical French training to create a menu that is Southern French meets Northern Italian bistro. Focusing on seafood, upscale savory pastries, homemade pastas and breads, Avril is all about love, passion, and devotion......it's about good food.

Jamey Reilly, the chairman of the Philadelphia Society for Art, Literature and Music, and the host of the PSALM Salon is delighted to join with Chef Christian to offer a wonderful evening of soul satisfying food and world class entertainment to the Philadelphia and Main Line community.

To take advantage of this unique offering, simply purchase online advance tickets for a PSALM Salon performance, print out your tickets, and call Avril by Thursday afternoon for Saturday six o'clock reservations at 610-667-2626. Bring your tickets with you to Avril to receive a full 15% off the cost of your meal. Then bring your tickets to PSALM along with your receipt from Avril, and get a $5 cash rebate from PSALM!

Plus... on other evenings, PSALM members recieve a 10% discount at Avril, just by showing a PSALM member card!

Avril is located 1.5 miles from PSALM at 134 Bala Avenue. It is off City Avenue, only five traffic lights away. See Google Map