Francesca's Forno

I searched a bit but can't seem to find much in the way of meanderings about Francesca's Forno in the forum.

In a moment of absentminded distraction, I let foodly-challenged friends choose a spot for dinner, so we're going there tonight. Does anyone have suggestions? Do's and don'ts from the menu?

Bring earplugs?

It's a noisy space. Haven't eaten there yet, but the people inside look like they are having fun

leek wrote:Bring earplugs?

Sound advice (no pun intended). That place is eardrum-breakingly loud. I read some article wherein the owners stated that they were considering buying some type of draperies to cut down on the noise, but when I was there, there were no such draperies.

In my sole experience there, I found the food to be okay. Super-chirpy and annoying cheerful service. The wine list is okay - I recall being underwhelmed by my pasta dish - I wish I could remember the ingredients (I think pancetta was one) but I distinctly recall thinking that I was getting a white sauce (both from the description on the menu and my belief as to what type of sauce I thought would go well with the dish), but I was disappointed when the server put down a dish drowning in a spicy, arrabiata-esque red sauce which overpowered the taste of the ingredients. I was also underwhelmed by the proscuitto I had as an appetizer. I've been meaning to give it a second look in the hope that a second experience will be markedly better, but I haven't been induced to go back yet.

It's probably similar to this.

I wrote my first long-ass meal review for the forum because no one had much to say about Forno, and promptly lost it when the phone rang and my session timed out. Drag.

So here's the short version:

* Not as loud as I would've thought, given the comments, so maybe they've figured out how to mute it.

* Overly chatty waiter gave us his life story before the first bottle of wine arrived (based on the IDs we presented...because he carded us...a table of four clearly 30-somethings), and said he hated cheese, so he couldn't make any recommendations.

* About that cheese: don't order the piave vecchio. It had the consistency of a credit card and about as much flavor. The pecorino was tasty, but someone in the kitchen poured honey all over it (as was promised in the description for ricotta e miele (ricotta and honey). Kinda weird, but oddly tasty.

* Lasagna with spinach and bolognese sauce was surprisingly light and yummy. Not a huge portion, but I didn't leave with the top button of my pants unbuttoned, either. A good compromise, overall.

* Carpaccio del Giorno, at $8, is a steal. Big ol' plate of thin, tender slivers-o-beef, although the tidbits on top (tomato, asparagus, mushrooms) kinda got in the way.

* Fellow diners had Margherita pizza (but picked off the big, scrumptious basil leaves "because basil is gross"--draw your own conclusions) and Francescche della casa ($9, seemingly small portion, but priced accordingly and very solid chicken and mushroom stuffed pasta with tomato and basil pesto).

* Wine list leaves something to be desired. Nothing exciting, and mostly overpriced for what they're offering. Got the Solane Valpolicella for $29, after a slightly discouraging hint from the chatty waiter about the Pinot Nero. Valpolicella tasted like grocery Merlot/Cab...overmanipulated, fruity, medium-bodied stuff that most reds taste like.

* Overall, a decent meal, priced accordingly, but nothing I'd scramble bacak for. For a few more pesos, I'd go to Avec for the better raw ingredients and apparent devotion to food.

The pecorino was tasty, but someone in the kitchen poured honey all over it (as was promised in the description for ricotta e miele (ricotta and honey). Kinda weird, but oddly tasty.

Not so wierd. I've repeatedly had hard cheeses served with honey as an accompaniment (altho not poured all over it!) both here and abroad, and I find it to be a good match.

Another good match: fig preserves go nicely with soft cheeses of character.

jbw wrote:

The pecorino was tasty, but someone in the kitchen poured honey all over it (as was promised in the description for ricotta e miele (ricotta and honey). Kinda weird, but oddly tasty.

Not so wierd. I've repeatedly had hard cheeses served with honey as an accompaniment (altho not poured all over it!) both here and abroad, and I find it to be a good match.

Pecorino with honey and nuts (pistachios, i think) is a classic combination. Not weird or odd at all, just "new to you"

Best,
Michael

I wrote my first long-ass meal review for the forum because no one had much to say about Forno, and promptly lost it when the phone rang and my session timed out. Drag.

Sorry!

Yes, anything longer than few lines should be written elsewhere for safety.

Or, if I start writing something and it gets long, I copy it and paste it into a blank email every once in a while. Then at least it's elsewhere.

(Okay, there's my limit. Hit submit!)

Yeah, I've had honey and hard cheeses (though not pecorino, that I recall), and also blue cheese, and quince, and fig...I'd eat sawdust with cheese. I guess my short version comment was geared more toward the fact that they prepared the pecorino the way they described the ricotta, not necessarily that it was a weird combo.

Still curious about other people's experience here, and whether they'd go back.

LTH,

As Mike G and I exited Del Toro Thursday, and the cool, crisp early March air cleared my head of green apple martini vodka fumes and mind-numbing pulsing tecno-beat my inner adult said no more Wicker Park 'concept' restaurants, at least for a while. So it was to my great surprise that I found myself sipping a Blanton's while waiting for a table at Francesca's Forno the very next evening.

While there are similarities between the two restaurants, hip Wicker Park scene, small plate 'concept' I just love putting apostrophes around the word concept and one of the partners in common, not to mention a scant half block separating the two, the difference is apparent on the plate. Forno, a restaurant with a cool vibe, Del Toro, I'm too sexy for my shirt nightclub serving food.

This is not to say the food at Forno was up to, what I consider the flagship of the Francesca chain, Francesca's on Taylor. For example, crust wise, our Pizza Margherita reminded me almost exactly of the Tombstone pizzas I used to scarf in Wisconsin bars, but the roasted cauliflower w/capers, yellow raisins, red chilies and mint was very good, charred octopus w/white beans tasty and carpaccio terrific.

Count me among those who don't feel honey has a place on pecorino, at least when it's on the same plate as prosciutto and soppressata, though overall I enjoyed the salumie and cheese presented. I was also appreciative of actual bread on the table instead of a few kernels of pop corn, as they do at Del Toro.

The Forno crowd was noticeably more casual than Del Toro, less canoodling as well, but if one is going to eat, as opposed to impress, or look for, a date, Forno would be my suggestion.

Enjoy,
Gary

Francesca's Forno
1576 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60622
773-770-0184

G Wiv wrote:As Mike G and I exited Del Toro Thursday, and the cool, crisp early March air cleared my head of green apple martini vodka fumes and mind-numbing pulsing tecno-beat my inner adult said no more Wicker Park 'concept' restaurants, at least for a while. So it was to my great surprise that I found myself sipping a Blanton's while waiting for a table at Francesca's Forno the very next evening.

I dunno, Wiv. I have always found Francesca's Forno to be noisier/louder than Del Toro.

The surfaces and contours of that (F.F.) space are absolutely unforgiving.*

G Wiv wrote:I was also appreciative of actual bread on the table instead of a few kernels of pop corn, as they do at Del Toro.

On my first visit to Del Toro I asked our waiter for some bread to accompany our first round of dishes.

He looked at me and said, "I will have to go and see. I don't think that we serve it."



E.M.

* And, don't get me started on the chairs, or the budget banquettes...

Erik M. wrote:I dunno, Wiv. I have always found Francesca's Forno to be noisier/louder than Del Toro.

Erik,

Absolutely, Forno was noisy, I didn't mean to imply otherwise. Far as type of noise, I prefer Forno's conversation, bustle general hubbub as opposed to Del Toro's loud, to my ears, music with it's never ending techno beat. But, as I said, I'm not Del Toro's target demographic.

Enjoy,
Gary

I realize that while I wasn't looking popcorn became the new bread, I've now had it as the pre-meal freebie at both Hot Chocolate and Del Toro, but I find it kind of self-defeating for a restaurant-- I mean, by now most of us know that the cubic foot of popcorn in a $4.50 movie bag costs them less than the bag itself did, so to be issued precisely seven kernels, even dusted with truffle salt or something, can't help but seem a bit chintzy. On the other hand, I at least find popcorn much more quickly filliing than bread, so give me a good-sized amount and I won't be needing any other appetizer, or side, or whatever. Anyway, I can only hope the novelty wears off soon and we go back to bread or onward to puffed rice or halvah or whatever's trendy next.

Green Zebra and Opera both had popcorn in either the amuse or in place of bread on some of my visits.

You could look at it this way -- if my choice is between bad bread (because they're too cheap for good bread) or popcorn, I might want popcorn.

Mike G wrote:I realize that while I wasn't looking popcorn became the new bread ... I can only hope the novelty wears off soon and we go back to bread or onward to puffed rice or halvah or whatever's trendy next.

This is the least trendy trend I've ever heard of. Didn't anybody ever go to a Ground Round? Not only popcorn, but salted in-shell peanuts served in lieu of bread, and the last time I went to one was probably 30 years ago. Nothing novel about that. Plus, at Ground Round, you could toss the peanut shells on the floor. Just try that at Del Toro. Hah!

Truffle-dusted popcorn at Butter (along with 2 other teeny, carby snax).

G Wiv wrote:Far as type of noise, I prefer Forno's conversation, bustle general hubbub as opposed to Del Toro's loud, to my ears, music with it's never ending techno beat.

I take it that a DJ was in residence then. That was the case on two of my four visits.

G Wiv wrote:But, as I said, I'm not Del Toro's target demographic.

Without question.

I, however, am assuredly part of the target demographic for Del Toro and Francesca's Forno.

E.M.

I'll weigh in with some comments. After a friend had remarked that it was a fresh, good Italian meal, I was well, curious about the place. Italian isn't a cuisine I tend to go out for too much, unless I know that it's high quality and the restaurant serves authentic dishes.

That said, on a cold bitter night, my significant other and I decided to give Forno a try.

We walked in and got seating quickly (a lucky matter of timing rather than anything else probably -- plus the bitter cold helped). The seating is cramped if you're in a two seater by the back/inside wall. As mentioned, it's loud in there. You hear a lot of things. especially your neighbours. How tight is the space? Well, the waiter had to physically move the table to the side to slide my partner in. I could pluck the bread from our nighbours table with ease if I wanted to.

Anyhow -- to the food! We were't in the mood for a full meal so we only ordered pasta entrees, my partner, one of the specials, an eggplant dish while I ordered the Frutti di Mare, one of the dishes I use to test a restaurants quality. I found the prices to be reasonable (I believe mine was $12 while hers was $10) considering the vibe of the place and the location.

The Frutti di Mare had a good amount of seafood with which I was pleased by. The seafood tasted fresh and I felt the portion was plenty. My partners eggplant bucatini was decent but lacked a bit of flavour.

Our neighbours to the right, a couple, had ordered a risotto which he returned, because it was way too watery. There was sauce in it, pooled around the rice. Because we could hear them, he found it to be odd and the waiter got him a new plate, sans diluted sauce. I found that quite odd.

On to the service: young, a little dumb and a little too transparent. Once our waiter realized that we were not going to order apps or drinks, he didn't care about us. I tip well, mostly because I've worked in service ages ago and know a few servers so I understand their toil but good service is good service and will be rewarded as such. And so, our waiter, so clearly uncaring did not receive a good tip. He got a fair tip though.

The kitchen seemed a bit odd with the flow because the couple to our left received their dishes before we did eventhough they had sat down a good 10 minutes after us and ordered even later past us.

I'd say the food is decent but the experience and service was a little subpar. 5/10.

I have to weigh in on Forno. I doubt I'll ever drive there for dinner based on above reviews- but what keeps me coming back is their brunch. Less than half-full every weekend, the space is hardly loud. The servers are helpful and never rushed, and our coffee cups (they serve illy, I believe) always stay full. The best dish on the menu for me is a scrambled egg, sausage, polenta and spicy pomodoro sauce combination. I wish I knew the name of it... something Diavola? While everything on the menu has some kind of "Italian" name, I doubt that any of the dishes are really authentic Italian creations. I am willing to look the other way because this egg dish just rocks. Probably not spicy enough for many folks on this board, but it's just right for me. The pancakes in their various incarnations are solid but not spectacular, but the French toast is made with panettone and is really the best sweet dish on the menu.

I also found the prices very reasonable- two entrees, coffee and juice for under $22 + tip.

Aside from the names of the dishes, I really couldn't say whether their brunch would be considered authentic Italian, but it's darn good and I know I'll be back.

I have not heard so many good comments about Francesca's Forno, so I was a little nervous when friends chose it for a birthday celebration last night. I guess I can say that it was better than expected, but certainly not a place I intend to visit again.

The noise issue is for real. I doubt that I have been in a louder restaurant in Chicago. It's extremely difficult to have a conversation, and impossible if you're on one end of the group and a friend is on the other end of a group of 6. This alone would keep me from returning on a weekend evening.

Foodwise, I tried the roasted beets, goat cheese and hazelnuts. This is served in a soup cup which in this instance was good because there might have been a little too much oil, but thankfully most of that oil dripped to the bottom of the cup. The beets were diced small and were very perfectly roasted, flavorful and the dish was pretty tasty, although there was not enough goat cheese.

I really enjoyed the Ricotta e Miele - Ricotta with Acacia honey, sea salt and ground black pepper. While this is not the best Ricotta you will find, it was quite good and served with the perfect amount of honey to make it just slightly sweet. A little more sea salt would have been nice to accentuate the flavors more, but this was very good nonetheless.

FF really screwed up with their tomato dishes, in my opinion. The Caprese salad, which I did not order, comes with beefsteak tomatoes. The Panzanella salad on the other hand comes with varieties of heirloom tomatoes. They should reverse this to appropriately highlight the heirloom tomatoes, but oh well.

I opted for the Panzanella and it was a little below average. First, there was simply too much vinegar. Equally bad - some of the heirlooms were a little over-ripe, others under-ripe, so maybe the vinegar did not steal so much flavor anyway. The menu also indicates that the salad is served with a warm Gorgonzola dressing which I asked for on the side. Why ruin the taste of the heirlooms with so much vinaigrette and then with blue cheese? I tasted the dressing and it was very thin and not impressive. Well, at least the bread in the salad was nicely textured, not crisp yet a little bite was left in the bread.

The Pizza Salsiccia e Uova featured Soppressata, one fried egg (sunny side up) and Piave Vecchio. I imagined a perfect combination of flavors, but turned out to be only average. The crust was a little too oily, and did not offer much in the way of texture or flavor. The Soppressata was far from the best I have had, and there was so little of it (and slightly overcooked). Seemingly a great combination turned out to be a failure in execution.

A friend of mine had a prosciutto-wrapped trout. The waiter raved about this dish, but none of us were enamored. Little in the way of flavor and there was so much salt added to the dish to ruin what was otherwise a well cooked piece of fish.

On the other hand, I tried a friend's skirt steak and it was cooked medium rare as requested and was perfectly tender and very nicely flavored.

We skipped dessert and headed over to Hot Chocolate which was as usual, outstanding.

Had dinner here last night at the request of my wife and her girlfriend. No one has posted on this place in a while so i thought id give an update. It was Around The Coyote this weekend so maybe the throngs of people in WP impacted on our experience. They seated us an hour late for an 8:30 reservation. Had i been given the option we would have left, sadly we didnt. They did buy us a Marghareta Pizza 59 minutes after we were supposed to be seated and one minute before we actually were...with only 4 trips to the maitre'd to check on our table in between.

The restaurant is still LOUD, the food is standard Francesca's fare and the bill for 3 was $107 w/o tax and tip for the following:

2 glasses of wine (vintage unknown but something meh)
2 bottles of San Pellegrino, small
1 Peccorino with truffles and black pepper
1 Caprese Salad
1 Insalata Francesca (mixed greens, tomato, string beans, blue cheese)
1 Capellacci Tradizionale (ricotta filed hat shaped pasta with marinara)
1 Grilled Calamari
1 Small Fish Special (Mahi-Mahi Piccata or something else forgetable)

AND a cold Piece of Lava Cake

Besides the peccorino with truffles everything else was completely average to below average with the fish a particular waste of time. The calamari was swimming in marinade which totally ruined it for me and the Caprese was made with a very mealy tomato and a pesto instead of fresh basil that i did not enjoy.

I kind of like the idea of small plate italian. I had a great dinner with 8 friends at quattrino last month. I just dont think this place gets it right at all. BTW The Lava Cake failed to lava. when i asked the waitress about this she said if it was lavaing it would melt the ice cream on top. i replied why call it lava cake? with this she shrugged and walked away.

I started posting on this Forum because I was looking for a good place to eat in River Forest last night and La Piazza was closed on Sundays. I ate at the Francesca Fiore iteration of this chain. Ended up only being two of us for dinner. We both had pasta. I had the pumpkin ravioli in a butter sauce. The pumpkin filling was a little too sweet--like pumpkin pie filling in ravioli. It was better if rolled around in the sauce a lot because the sauce was salty and offset the sweetness. It was an interesting taste sensation, but not one I would crave again.

My companion had spaghetti with wild mushrooms with a veal reduction and truffle oil. This was really good and addictive. The plan was to save half for leftovers given the large portion size, but this proved impossible. Truffle oil seems to be to the 2000's what pesto was to the 80's an obvious addition to the repertoire that has quickly become cliché. That doesn't stop it from making things taste good.

I realized when I saw the menu that I'd eaten at the Francesca's in Edgewater and didn't realize how ubiquitous the chain is. Overall, it's a near miss for me because some things are very good, but I don't think overall the quality of the food justifies the prices. As others have mentioned, the wait staff could use better training. When they didn't have the gnocchi with gorgonzola, the waitress recommended another dish that she said "had lots of vegetables and herbs," pronouncing the "h" in herbs as though she was talking about the oily sales guy from WKRP in Cincinnati. She also disappeared for long periods despite it not being that crowded.

"You say 'erbs', and we say 'herbs', because there's a f***ing 'H' in it!" - Eddie Izzard

Is there a more extreme version of a thread with early interest that then just completely dies? I tried Francesca's Forno last night, and left pleased that it wasn't as bad as I had expected.

A pear carpaccio had mandolined slices of good, sweet pear with shreds of parmigiano reggiano and a drizzle of aged balsamic. This was tasty, and could have been even better had it not been doused with unmentioned honey, taking it further into the dessert realm than what I wanted to start the meal.

Strangely-named "Ignudi"* were good too - the spinach-ricotta dumplings not quite light-as-air, but far from as dense as the gnocchi balls that come out of your average Italian-American restaurant kitchen.

Linguine with some sort of seafood tomato sauce was on par with the poor pasta cookery that abounds in this city's Italian restaurants, with its mound of noodles sitting atop a swimming pool of sauce. The two parts together adding up to two parts, nothing more.

Profiteroles with pistacchio gelato were good, the ice cream being served at the right temperature, and the shells seeming relatively fresh.


*perhaps Antonius or someone more linguistically/ artistically knowledgable than I can clarify, but "Ignudi", as far as I know, is the word used strictly to describe Michelangelo's nude males in the sistine chapel, or perhaps other paintings or statues of naked men in the art world. "Gnudi" is the word for the sensual ricotta dumplings, as far as I’m concerned.

Strangely-named "Ignudi"* were good too - the spinach-ricotta dumplings not quite light-as-air, but far from as dense as the gnocchi balls that come out of your average Italian-American restaurant kitchen.

According to the web page La Cucina Fiorentina, this is a dialect term for a Tuscan specialty, also known as "Ravioli nudi" or "Gnudi" and is basically a dumpling, with ingredients as described. Here's more for those who want to explore in Italian. (Actually, the description makes sense if you think of "nude" as being "unclothed" and this dish as ravioli without the pasta.):

http://www.aboutflorence.com/firenze/cu ... ntina.html

jbw wrote:

Strangely-named "Ignudi"* were good too - the spinach-ricotta dumplings not quite light-as-air, but far from as dense as the gnocchi balls that come out of your average Italian-American restaurant kitchen.

According to the web page La Cucina Fiorentina, this is a dialect term for a Tuscan specialty, also known as "Ravioli nudi" or "Gnudi" and is basically a dumpling, with ingredients as described. Here's more for those who want to explore in Italian. (Actually, the description makes sense if you think of "nude" as being "unclothed" and this dish as ravioli without the pasta.):

http://www.aboutflorence.com/firenze/cu ... ntina.html

I wasn't saying that the description "nude" was strange, only that the choice of "Ignudi" over "Gnudi" was strange. I have seen this dish referred to as "Gnudi" many times, but never as "Ignudi". My Italian isn't so good, but I believe that even the website you linked to confirms what I'm saying. I believe it says that in Florence these are typically called Gnudi, a word that is derived from the Renaissance-era "Ignudi". I don't think it's saying that the dumplings are called "Ignudi," but, again, my Italian is poor.

Kenny Z,

You're right, the passage I indicated is a bit ambiguous (not clear whether it's referring to a Renaissance term or an item of food). However, after a brief google tour of sites in both Italian and English, it appears that both terms, "ignudi" and the contraction "gnudi" are used interchangeably. See, for instance, this article on the Italian gastronome Ada Boni, who seems to prefer "ignudi":

http://memoriediangelina.blogspot.com/2 ... icita.html

Francesca's Forno Closing on Sunday, Big Star Group Taking Over Corner Spot

http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20151010 ... orner-spot