Briciola

Wow, I was surprised that there wasn't already a thread going on Briciola. Time to get one started then.

Jan and I and another couple went there on Saturday evening. It got good reviews on Check Please, and I've heard good things about it from other sources. It's BYOB, which means it's a must-try for me.

It's a small place and was very crowded, but service was excellent. We ended up sitting right by the kitchen, which is in the front of the house here, so we could see that chef/owner Mario Maggi runs a tight ship.

Our food experience was somewhat up and down. We started with two special appetizers, the veal meatballs and the arrancini balls. The meatballs were good but nothing special. The arrancini was very good, with cheese and little bits of sausage inside.

For a first course, I ordered the roasted baby artichoke hearts with black olives. This was a really nice dish, covered with a huge single shaving of parmesan. One person ordered the Caesar salad, which was made with grilled romaine and fried capers, and he liked it. The two ladies shared the roasted beet carpachio and liked it.

The main course is where struggles emerged. I ordered the gnocchi with bolognese sauce. The gnocchi was dense, just the way I like it. The Bolognese sauce had to be the best I've ever had. It had a slight sweetness to it and a great tang. I didn't ask the meat in it but wouldn't be surprised if it was ox tail. Absolutely a do-again.

One companion ordered the pappardelle in a "pink tomato sauce" (read that tomato cream sauce). It was a pretty small portion that came out. I tried a bite and found the sauce to be pretty non-descript.

The ladies each ordered the same dish, a risotto that was a special that evening, made with a lobster stock and accompanied by three giant prawns that had been grilled. The risotto was very bland, with no trace of the lobster stock showing. There was a decided lack of seasoning in this dish. The prawns were good with great grilled flavor, but also lacked seasoning.

We skipped dessert as we had some waiting back for us at home.

Even with the downsides I noted, I'll try Briciola one more time to see if any of the other dishes are as good as the gnocchi. I'll definitely skip the risotto however.

Briciola
937 N Damen Ave
Chicago, IL
(773)772-0889
http://briciola.anagam.com/

Any updates on Briciola? We love it, but haven't been in four months or so.

Briciola closed back in January.

Edit: After doing further research, it appears the head chef was seriously ill and the restaurant closed "temporarily" back in January. However, it still has not reopened, so the future of Briciola is somewhat unknown.

I'd heard, but didn't want to jump to any conclusions. Thoughts are with the chef; he's given us and many others some outstanding meals.