RoPa Restaurant & Wine Bar

Jayz wrote:
Dish to the rescue:

Penny Pollack and/or Jeff Ruby wrote:RoPa Restaurant & Wine Bar (1146 W. Pratt Blvd.; 773-508-0002), a new 115-seat spot, pays homage to Rogers Park with its name, but its heart is in the Mediterranean. “It’s basically American cuisine with a lot of Mediterranean influences,” says Tarik Emanet, a Turkish-born partner. “Some nice steaks, seafood, pasta, poultry, very easy cuisine. All of our salads are unique. Mediterranean style—a lot of olive oil is used.” Some of RoPa’s dishes break the mold, though, such as the appetizer of feta/parsley spring rolls, and a homemade cheesecake and apple pie. The former Café Suron space got a major makeover, which includes decorative tile and wood tabletops, plus a wine cellar for tastings unveiling in November.

edit: Hours: 5-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; 5-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday:(

...after selling condo, i moved across the street from RoPa yesterday... stopped in for a quick dinner. It exceeded my expectations.

Let's not talk about what "type" of Mediterranean it is... Based off of what I ate and what I saw on the menu, I'd say further west than further east, but the chef or partner is Turkish as I understand it... So I'm still not exactly sure.

We started off with calamari. It was some of the better fried calamari I've had in awhile. The breading was nice and light. It came with a spicy Thai dipping sauce (which I would've been OK had it been a little spicier, but it was good).

My SO had a fettuccine with chicken. Which sounds boring, but the chicken on top was well prepared, and the pasta wasn't overly saucy and was right on.

I had a blue cheese encrusted rib eye steak. it was quite good. It was a great cut of steak, I ate every bit. It was cooked just as ordered. and I don't normally go for the "encrusted" stuff, but this blew anything I had at Wildfire (which seems to be known for this encrusted crap??) out of the water... the crust was actually...crusty. It came with a side of a brandy peppercorn dipping sauce if you care, the waitress said it really didn't need it and she was right. The steak came with a side of sauteed mushrooms, which went nice with the sauce though.

The wines by the glass were pretty great, and a good value. But more importantly they had wines that had actual depth to them, and not just value wines that taste like everything else. They were out of whatever sauvignon blanc was ordered, so substituted a Cakebreak for $9/glass or so, which is very reasonable for that bottle. I had a nice Pinot and a Malbec but don't really recall from where.

Service was in the "very good" category. Our waitress was on top of her game and she was personable.

Anyway... I will be back and will have to update with more details, but the urgency of my post is concerning their grand opening event, which is being held tonight (October 1 08) from 6-8pm. They're having wine and appetizers from what I understand. (I imagine you could order off the menu if you wanted to order food as well).

RoPa Restaurant & Wine Bar
1146 W Pratt Blvd
Chicago, IL 60660
(773) 508-0002
(3 blocks north of Loyola red line stop)

On a snowy night before viewing "Up In The Air" at the new 400 theatre in Rogers Park, Mr. X and I wandered into RoPa for dinner. Odd that we haven't been since it became RoPa over a year ago. Both of had the 3-course prix fixe menu at $17.95* each. Several choices were available in each category. I started with the mesculun salad with apples, blue cheese and walnuts. Decent salad except that it was over-dressed. Mr. X had the turkey-vegetable soup, which was the winner of our two selections. My entree choice was tilapia with fried polenta, mushroom ragu and grilled asparagus. Mr. X had the grilled pork chop with braised red cabbage. Both entrees were well-prepared. The pork chop was easily 2 inches thick and just perfect. I had a little bit of entree envy. Dessert choices included tiramasu, creme brulee, vanilla ice cream, chocolate ice cream and coconut cream pie. I had the creme brulee and had no problem cleaning the dish. Mr. X had a scoop of chocolate ice cream, which was, well, chocolate ice cream. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality and we'll definitely add it to our neighborhood rotation.

RoPa Restaurant
1146 W. Pratt Blvd.
Chicago, IL 60626
Phn (773) 465 6500

* It may have been $18.95 for 3-courses, but $17.95 sticks in my mind. Either way, it's a great deal.

$17.95 - http://www.roparestaurant.com/