Ripasso - Bucktown

We had an excellent meal at Ripasso (formerly Terragusto) last night. I was surprised by how delicious the pasta here was. We started off with the polenta ricca, which consisted of two layers of ¾’’ thick hamburger-patty sized polenta cakes with fontina and very thinly sliced ham. Seasoned beautifully with truffle oil. The polenta had an amazingly fluffy texture. A simply beautiful dish. My wife had the zuppa, which was PEI mussels with clams in a white wine and tomato broth served with two crosinis. The broth was very light, but I believe they added some peels of tomato, which added some nice complexity. Not enough mussels and clams in my opinion, but still a pleasant dish. I must say that the fresh baked complimentary bread was outstanding and so was the olive oil.

We ordered two pasta dishes for our entrees, and they hit a homerun on both. I had the foletti with homemade sausage, rapini and cauliflower and topped with pecorino cheese. The long pasta tubes were cooked beautifully and night not-quite al dente texture. The sauce was light, but the cheese added a welcome dimension. I must say they did a fabulous job on the sausage with a little peppery spice kick to it. My wife ordered the pappardelle, which was highly recommended by our server. This was a grand slam. We had the pappardelle at The Bristol two nights earlier and this blew it away. The noodles were beautiful and sauce was done in a very delicate manner with touches of truffle and parmigian cheese, it reminded me of some of the best pasta I’ve had in Italy. Bravo!

Our server seemed pretty new and didn’t have a full grasp of the menu, but did a good job of following up to answer questions and attend to us.
It was a Sunday night so the restaurant was mostly empty, but I’m sure they will generate more business as people find out how good the food is here.

Ripasso
www.ripassochicago.com
1619 N. Damen Ave.
Chicago, IL 60622
773.342.8799

Get in now before the Hoi Polloi start filling tables

tem wrote:Get in now before the Hoi Polloi start filling tables

Agreed...this is the best among a passel of new restaurants in the immdiate vicinity (e.g. Storefront, Grass Fed, Trencherman).

Go often, if you like it - I go by a lot and see it empty at times I would think are prime for restaurants (a Saturday at 8 pm, for instance)

A front-of-house contact for both Ripasso and Terragusto of yore confirmed that Ripasso is done under that name; they're hosting occasional private events this month and then hope to reconcept with more affordable pub or comfort fare soon in the same space. There are some additional details here:

http://www.redheadpub.com/