aschie30 wrote:I love Sabatino's too, but those are quite a lot of violations. This one, in particular, I find interesting, that was labeled as a "critical" violation:

No person affected with or carrying any disease in a communicable form or afflicted with boils, infected wounds, sores, acute respiratory infection, or intestinal disorder shall work in any area of a food establishment in any capacity where there is a likelihood of that person contaminating food or food contact surfaces.

I wonder how the inspectors discovered and verified that Sabatino's was actually committing this violation.

So no cuts, bronchitis, or farting.

And who determines the likelihood of that person contaminating food or food services. This could be interpreted quite subjectively.

Saps,

It's probably as simple as the inspector passing through an area of the kitchen and observing a prep cook (with a nasty cut on the finger) peeling onions or making marinara sauce. My guess is that this inspector was already a little upset from the numerous violations or lack of follow through of management. At that point, they really start looking hard and tend to pile it on. The more they find-the harder they continue to investigate type of thing.

I recently (4 weeks ago) had lunch at a middle eastern restaurant on Kedzie. Our server had a large boil, unbandaged, right on his face. There is the possibility of cross contamination. Not very appetizing, not to mention a potential health hazzard.

aschie30 wrote:I love Sabatino's too, but those are quite a lot of violations. This one, in particular, I find interesting, that was labeled as a "critical" violation:

No person affected with or carrying any disease in a communicable form or afflicted with boils, infected wounds, sores, acute respiratory infection, or intestinal disorder shall work in any area of a food establishment in any capacity where there is a likelihood of that person contaminating food or food contact surfaces.

I wonder how the inspectors discovered and verified that Sabatino's was actually committing this violation.

Actually, this concern goes back a long way:

A cook they hadde with hem for the nones
To boille the chiknes with the marybones
And poudre-marchant tart and galyngale.
Wel koude he knowe a draughte of Londoun ale.
He koude rooste, and sethe, and broille, and frye,
Maken mortreux, and wel bake a pye.
But greet harm was it, as it thoughte me,
That on his shyne a mormal hadde he.
For blankmanger, that made he with the beste.

Mormel=open sore (galyngale=a spice root; mortreux=stews)

From "General Prologue," Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1387-1400)

jbw wrote:Actually, this concern goes back a long way:

A cook they hadde with hem for the nones
To boille the chiknes with the marybones
And poudre-marchant tart and galyngale.
Wel koude he knowe a draughte of Londoun ale.
He koude rooste, and sethe, and broille, and frye,
Maken mortreux, and wel bake a pye.
But greet harm was it, as it thoughte me,
That on his shyne a mormal hadde he.
For blankmanger, that made he with the beste.

Mormel=open sore (galyngale=a spice root; mortreux=stews)

From "General Prologue," Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1387-1400)

How wonderfully apt. Thanks for posting it.

Could be something as seemingly benign as pink eye.

The city ultimately decides...there was the time my a slew of compatriats were pooping for city inspectors and prohibited from waiting tables until they, um, came clean. It was years ago...I don't remember what they all got infected with but they worked in a pretty nice place. The restaurant wasn't closed down (Powerful people ate there...it would have been really bad publicity) but some of the staff got some time off.

I just discovered this wonderful forum. Thanks!

Can anyone tell me what all the violations were at Sabatino's? I tried to follow the link, but it shows that they have passed inspection.

Thanks

We took advantage of our daughter being out of town and decided to stroll down to Sabatino's. This is our first visit since the reopening and things seem about the same.

We started with the Baked Clams, these were very tiny and 2 of the 6 were lacking any clams.

I had the straciatelle, my husband the french onion - both were very good.

The Veal Marsala was outstanding, lots of fresh mushrooms. The sauce was just right - a nice demi-glace, marsala and finished with not too much bitter. My husband enjoyed the Veal Sorrentino. Both were perfectly prepared thin cutlets.

Service was ok. Our waiter, who I had not seen before (he's a dead on impersinator for Anderson Cooper) was a little odd. He crossed the line a few times from polite conversation to asking odd questions while our food sat in front of us.

All in all an enjoyable evening though. The place was packed at 7pm on a Sunday evening. I think they are recovering just fine

Went here tonight with a 8:30 reservation and was seated quickly. The place looked pretty busy. Started off with calamari and escargots as starters. Those were pretty tasty and hoping the the main entree's would be just as good. There was group of 5 in the party, I ordered the tortellini stuffed with cheese, shrimp, and crab meat. That was okay, I couldn't find any shrimp. But, I guess they might have minced them really small. The sauce had a slight hint of canned tomatoe to it. Then there were also a broiled seafood platter and everything on that placed tasted like it came from a freezer. Next was the seafood linguine. That was pretty good. There was good assortment of seafood in there...lobster, shrimp, scallops, mussels, clams, and calamari. But, again the taste of canned tomatoes. Then was the Rich's special which included a filet, shrimp, and chicken. That was pretty good. The steak was done just right. it wasn't like steak house quality, but fit the bill. Lastly it was tortellini. I didn't have any, but my friend said it was pretty good. So, I guess at this kinda place stick with pasta dishes.

Mario wrote:... The sauce had a slight hint of canned tomatoe to it ... But, again the taste of canned tomatoes...

Do you mean the sauces tasted as though they were canned sauces, not prepared in house, or just -- as it seems to be the case -- that you detect the flavour of canned tomatoes which they used to make their sauces?

Canned peeled tomatoes are really what one is supposed to use to make Italian tomato sauces in general. Fresh tomatoes, when in season and ripe, produce great sauces but for most of the year, one uses tomatoes that were harvested at the right time and preserved through canning. This is true no less in Italy than it is here. There is nothing odd or bad about using canned peeled tomatoes. Of course, another question is what quality of canned tomatoes does one use... there are all levels of quality, from pretty lousy stone-hard ones to the finest San Marzano ones from Campania. Then there are various other canned tomato products from crushed peeled tomatoes to puréed tomatoes with or without paste added, etc.

I have no idea what they use at Sabatino's but the one time I was there, I sampled a couple of things that involved a tomato sauce: I don't remember being struck by any odd quality to the tomatoes themselves but I do remember the 'marinara' sauce used on the pasta side dishes striking me as being extremely bland. Undersalted, no trace of herb, no pepper, no aromatics... I also had a taste of the meat sauce that came on my son's pasta and that seemed vastly more flavourful, though again, I just had a little taste.

Antonius

HI,

I was at Sabbatino's for lunch today. I ordered the artichoke stuffed ravioli in a roasted tomato sauce. Unexpectedly the shape of the ravioli was hearts in red and white pasta.



Often when you get a novelty shape, the quality of the pasta or filling goes south. Fortunately there were no compromises in the filling's quality.

Regards,

I was going to post on our LTH lunch with American Studies Professor Warren Belasco at Sabatino's on Friday, but Cathy2 beat me to it. For the author who writes about the future of food (Meals to Come), we wanted a time machine into the past of food. The nine of us were not disappointed. The pasta was sooo cute (even though on February 16th we assumed that it might have been prepared few days previous). The filling was a robust artichoke blend (not so traditional, in fact) - and perhaps the tomato sauce napping pink and red pasta would not have been quite right on any other week.

What struck me at lunch - although this should not be so surprising - was how dark Sabatino's was, and how dark restaurants once were. Entering from a sunny street at noon required some time to become adjusted to the ambient light.

It was a festive lunch with the typical bright LTH conversation.

All,

For the GF's birthday, after long deliberation, we decided to hit Sabatino's last Saturday night. After making reservations for 6 p.m. and then completing a review of all LTH threads on this joint thereafter, I was guardedly optimistic. I was nervous of perhaps a little too much of a "family" atmosphere and an off-night in the kitchen given our time and day of patronage.

Nonetheless, my "Old School Chicago" vibe really began pulsating as we pulled up into the valet and gawked at the 1920's-ish Sabatino's sign underlined by a traditional marquee with "Happy Birthday" across it. Not my doing but I didn't tell the GF that fact. As we entered, we headed straight up the stairs through the Glass door marked with "Sabatino's" across it. After climbing up the stairs we were taken aback at the dearth of tables and unmanned bar and total lack of any FOH. Boy I had thought I really f*cked this night up. Then the bulb went off and we decended the stairs hoping this was just a private party and that the bar entrance was where we should have gone. That was the case - thank God.

The bar looks straight out of Central Casting for Goodfellas. The host table is near the back of the bar on the left and thouhg we were 10 minutes late and the place looked at least near full, we were promptly seated. I was disappointed in passing several of the "grotto" tables that despite reserving one we were not given one - a pity. But, the host did say that they would not guarantee us a grotto seat when I made the reservation - fair enough.

We were seated in the back area in a booth to the immediate south side of the in-room giant wine fridge. We liked our seat very much. We were two in about a 4 or 5 person booth.

The menu was very big, which quite frankly makes me nervous. 80% or more of the time I go to a place with a large menu they generally do everything alright but nothing well. That was not the case at Sabatino's.

As I perused the wine menu I couldn't help but think how reasonable the prices were. We selected a Cline Zinfandel that I swear I purchased at the winery in CA back in May for about $18 or so and was only $26 on the menu. It was a good, medium-full bodied Zin if a little warm - I doubt they kept this moderately-priced bottle in their cellar (fridge, I mean). But a good deal nonetheless.

We went with the Prosciutto de Parma with Parmesian cheese for an appetizer and it was very good. Perfect, slighty cool Prosciutto and room temp. cheese. Very good. Even the GF, not a big Prosciutto fan, loved it. A nice helping for $7.

Next we had the Oysters Rockefeller which i hadn't had in a long time. It was good with the solid if too heavily-applied bearnaise/hollandaise sauce atop spinach and the oyster. I would say pretty good but a nice qunatity as well - maybe 6 to 8 of them if I recall. When the worst dish of the night is "pretty good" you know it's gonna be a fun time.

We had the complimnetary pizza bread which was very good. The GF almost chopped my hand off when I tried for a second piece, well, it WAS her birthday.

GF opted for the Chicken Sabatino - boneless breast of chicken, stuffed with long grain wild rice, prosciutto, mushrooms and olives. This was very good. The chicken was perfectly cooked and the stuffing a nice compliment to the chicken if somewhat difficult to taste any prosciutto or olive. The highlight of this dish for me were the absolutely, outstanding sauteed mushrooms rung around the stuffed chicke. Just fabulous!

I opted for the Veal Braciole - veal stuffed with Italian sausage and prosciutto with the mushrooms and wine and tomato sauce. Really good. A perfect match with the veal, sausage & mushrooms. A near excellent dish.

God those mushrooms are good - so simple to make wonderful yet so few places take the little required time to do it right. Sabatino's does it right!

I got a nice side of spaghetti with my dish and the GF got the baked potato - both solid.

The absolute highlight of the evening, bar none, was the Table side- flamed Baked Alaska. I had never heard of or had this before. Outstanding. Savory. Seductive. Naughty. A few thin layers of cake on the outside of vanilla ice cream and then a thin coat of white something that is flamed and served table side. They put the flame out by pouring warmed (hot) chocolate sauce all over the dessert. No, it's not as good as it sounds, it's BETTER! If you love dessert, get this!!! A huge hit with the GF!

Just a few minutes of slowness toward the end of the meal prevented a perfect "10" for service. Impeccable. Brillant. Service was great! A 9+ this evening.

We dined for two-hours. For two starters, a bottle of wine, two entrees and a gorgeous dessert with tax and tip = $110. That's one hell of a meal, with leftovers for a shade over $50 each.

Thanks for the recommendation. We are gonna go again and take my parents in the near future.

What a great Old School Chicago gem!

Interestingly enough, the marquee denotes "Italian-American" cuisine, the menu and business card says "Northern Italian," and the server said just plain old "Italian" when asked the origin of the food. Some care about this, I felt it intriguing but could generally care less. I like great food and don't care where it's from - Sabatino's fits that bill!

Bster

That's the Sabatino's experience many of us have had, from time to time. It's sort of mind-blowing how the food, atmosphere and low-low price can come together there. There are off-nights, as you know and went in half-expecting. But when Sabatino's is on, it's hard to match. Thanks also for mentioning the wine list. The "expensive" stuff on the menu -- wines, red meat, fish -- are the astonishing things about Sab's, really. Pasta entrees and whatnot are not so unusually priced, but the things that usually support a gouge in other establishments are hardly marked up.

The brothers who own and run the place (and cook also, depending) are from Pisa. That's the Northern Italy angle. The sign is old enough that it harkens back to the days when 'mericani didn't go to Italian, Chinese, or Mexican, but would try ethnicity-American cookin'. That said, Sab's mostly is Italian-American.

now that's a restaurant

MBK wrote:now that's a restaurant

Now, that's a Great Neighborhood Restaurant.

JimInLoganSquare wrote:

MBK wrote:now that's a restaurant

Now, that's a Great Neighborhood Restaurant.

Now that's a Time Machine! The link took me to a post dated May, 2005 with an embedded graphic that said that they had been appointed a GNR for 2007-8. How do these crazy internets work?

YoYoPedro wrote:

JimInLoganSquare wrote:

MBK wrote:now that's a restaurant

Now, that's a Great Neighborhood Restaurant.

Now that's a Time Machine! The link took me to a post dated May, 2005 with an embedded graphic that said that they had been appointed a GNR for 2007-8. How do these crazy internets work?

It's elementary, my dear YYP: Sabatino's was a GNR-winner in the first (2005) round; its GNR was renewed in 2007.

After struggling between some significantly different places where to take my husband for a special birthday dinner, I have settled on Sabatino's, which will be a first for both of us. I am looking forward to the overall experience.
Since so many LTHers seem to frequent this restaurant with some regularity, I am wondering if there are strong favorites in the dessert category. Since it's just the two of us, we'll have to decide between the baked alaska, cherries jubilee, peaches flambees, and bananas foster. Is one of these a clear winner at Sabatino's? We always are grateful for some good intelligence to inform these hard decisions...
I will report back regarding our meal. Going in, my expectations are good - albeit perhaps not great - food served in an atmosphere that will make up for any deficiencies in the first category. From reading the posts, I think the birthday boy will love it there.

The presentation of the baked alaska, with sparklers, is hard to beat for a celebration, but I'm just not a fan of baked alaska.

I particularly like the cherries and peaches, but they're all winners. Get whichever appeals most.

The two best desserts I have had at Sabatino's are the profiteroles and the brandy ice, based just on flavor. But of course, they involve no sparklers or flames. If you want a table-side prep that really will be memorable, have profiteroles and flaming Mexican coffee. Not on the menu, but I saw it being prepared for guests at a neighboring table a month or so back. They also have Irish coffee on the menu; don't know but maybe that's flamed, too.

Baked Alaska and it's not close.

A short note before time gets away to report back that my husband and I enjoyed a very festive meal at Sabatino's on the occasion of his birthday. He was deligthed with the warm and celebratory atmosphere of the restaurant, which I enjoyed also: the private booth at which we were seated (the one with the painting that others have referenced), the strumming musicians serenading him with songs like happy birthday and Chicago, several flaming courses, as well as sparklers in the dessert, and a lot of special attention from the front of the house.

We started off by munching on the warm pizza bread that was brought to the table as we were seated and that I would describe as most comforting. Our meal consisted of oysters Rockefeller (which I was eating for the first time so no good point of comparison) - the oysters were plump and good; the sauce not completely to my liking as it was more tart than smoky as I had imagined. Next we had the straciatella soup, which was quite delicious as has been noted throughout this thread, followed by a nice big house salad in a creamy roquefort dressing and topped off with more blue cheese and freshly ground pepper. By that time, we were feeling rather satiated... and yet the meal had only begun. The next course to be brought out was a flaming chateaubriand, which the restaurant prepares for two. The meat was tender, prepared medium rare as we had requested. It was quite tasty, as were all the fresh vegetables that accompanied it (mushrooms, artichoke hears, asparagus, sauteed potatoes). What was a bit disappointing was the bearnaise sauce, which was lacking in any way of tarragon and tarragon flavor - unfortunate since I love the herb. There were plenty of leftovers, which actually tasted even better the next day (perhaps because we were hungry again by then). Finally, we closed with the baked alaska - the birthday boy's choice with some LTH intelligence. Again, this is not a dessert I have had before, but I was pleasantly surprised after having read that so many on the board were more impressed with the presentation than the execution. I found the soft meringue to be especially satisfying and almost light to eat after such a heavy meal. With the meal we drank a very pleasant chianti classico, the name of which I should have taken down as it now escapes me.

All in all, the food was very satisfying - and certainly good enough to warrant coming back in the future (to try the chicken vesuvio, veal marsala, profiteroles, and brandy ice that others have written up). The highlight though was the gracious service and the sense of production that accompanied every step of this special occasion meal. We ended up spending a bit over $100 for this dinner, which was a bit more than I would have guessed from other posts - part of the reason being that we splurged in ordering the chateaubriand.

Thanks to all for the good tips that allowed us to find and enjoy dinner at Sabatino's. We give it two thumbs up.

JimInLoganSquare wrote:It's elementary, my dear YYP: Sabatino's was a GNR-winner in the first (2005) round; its GNR was renewed in 2007.

Not that it matters that much, but I'm curious, too: If your 2005 post was edited to insert a new graphic showing the 2007 renewal, how come the post doesn't carry a line at the bottom indicating that an edit took place?

riddlemay wrote:

JimInLoganSquare wrote:It's elementary, my dear YYP: Sabatino's was a GNR-winner in the first (2005) round; its GNR was renewed in 2007.

Not that it matters that much, but I'm curious, too: If your 2005 post was edited to insert a new graphic showing the 2007 renewal, how come the post doesn't carry a line at the bottom indicating that an edit took place?

Because changing the image file behind the post doesn't necessarily require editing the content of the post.

eatchicago wrote:

riddlemay wrote:

JimInLoganSquare wrote:It's elementary, my dear YYP: Sabatino's was a GNR-winner in the first (2005) round; its GNR was renewed in 2007.

Not that it matters that much, but I'm curious, too: If your 2005 post was edited to insert a new graphic showing the 2007 renewal, how come the post doesn't carry a line at the bottom indicating that an edit took place?

Because changing the image file behind the post doesn't necessarily require editing the content of the post.

That makes me wonder aloud. Is an image file not content?

YoYoPedro wrote:

eatchicago wrote:

riddlemay wrote:

JimInLoganSquare wrote:It's elementary, my dear YYP: Sabatino's was a GNR-winner in the first (2005) round; its GNR was renewed in 2007.

Not that it matters that much, but I'm curious, too: If your 2005 post was edited to insert a new graphic showing the 2007 renewal, how come the post doesn't carry a line at the bottom indicating that an edit took place?

Because changing the image file behind the post doesn't necessarily require editing the content of the post.

That makes me wonder aloud. Is an image file not content?

Logically, yes. Technically, no.

This is way off course for discussion here. If anyone would like a specific description of how file embedding in HTML (and other markup languages) works, please email or PM me directly.

Has anyone heard details about the fire at Sabatino's this morning? Was it in the restaurant, or just nearby?

On WGN TV 6:00 a.m. ish, Sabatino's is on fire. Fire trucks are on the scene.

CBS has some info:

Fire at Sabatino's: Article and Video

Whoah!
That's my 'hood!