Avocado pancakes…avocado grilled cheese…even avocado ice cream. You’ll find them all on the menu of a new restaurant coming to downtown Naperville this spring…titled, appropriately, “Avocado Theory.”
“This place is for anyone and everyone who loves avocados and is looking for healthy fresh, vegan, gluten-free options,” said owner Krunal Patel.
Construction is currently underway at the restaurant located at 22 E. Chicago Ave. in River District.
An avocado-packed menu coming to Naperville this spring
It will be serving up breakfast, lunch, and dinner options, all with a focus on the restaurant’s namesake fruit, though diners can ask the chef to hold the avocado, if they prefer.
But Patel says the fruit’s flavor could lead to a pleasant culinary surprise—especially when it comes to the avocado cheesecake.
“Everyone, when they hear, they are skeptical, but once they try, they are like, ‘Wow.’ They would’ve never thought it’d be like this. We also have avocado fries, avocado samosa, deviled eggs. I mean, we have over 70 dishes, all avocado base,” he said.
Patel said he came up with the idea of an avocado-themed restaurant after noticing their increasing popularity while working as a produce manager at a grocery store.
“It was a Super Bowl Sunday. And the guacamole line was crazy. I’m like, man, everyone loves Guacamole. So I started doing a lot of research, and I realized there are so many things we can do with avocado,” he said.
From a Farmer’s Market stand to a full restaurant
He began selling guacamole at a farmer’s market in Tinley Park in 2019 before opening his first restaurant in 2021. There, he says, they go through about 7,000 avocados a month, but he expects that number to more than double at the Naperville location.
“Once we open this one, we expect it to grow to, almost a month, 18 to 20,000 avocados,” said Patel.
And he’ll be serving up knowledge alongside his dishes.
“We’re gonna have a little bit of an educational avocado museum, where we’re going to show that there is not only one kind of avocado. There are 500 varieties of avocados out there and people don’t even know,” he said.
Patel expects to do a soft opening in mid-April before opening officially in May…hoping to give people lots to “guac” about.
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