Two Glenview newbies - Trattoria Belluno & Jölane's

Back when I was so young that I couldn’t even snap a whipper, I used to get on my bike and ride to Rennecker’s, in downtown Glenview. It was the classic drug store – with a soda fountain and genuine soda jerks in the side room.

Rennecker’s circa 1933:


The original building is long gone, and many other businesses have been on the site. The newest is Trattoria Belluno.

It seems as though the husband and wife team that were running a L’Appetito franchise there got tired of the life of a franchisee, and turned it into a full-service restaurant. It opened in December.

In addition to the restaurant service, Trattoria Belluno has a very attractive fresh-baked pastry case, and a small deli with a number of interesting items.

The menu is very reasonable – most entrees under $20, with only a few meats creeping into the low-$20 range. It’s not the most adventurous menu, but based on our limited sampling, they seem to do classics very well.

On a Sunday evening, business was very slow. Still, that didn’t prevent service from also being slow, even though there was no paucity of servers. That was the only downside of the evening.

We weren’t feeling especially hungry, so we skipped appetizers. I had the Porchetta di Veneto, a slow-roasted pork (but not too slow-roasted – it still had a bit of chew to it), served with smashed potatoes flavored with roast garlic, sautéed green beans with flecks of red pepper, and an asiago cream sauce with a bit of pancetta. The flavors all worked well together, with the pork almost serving as a delivery vehicle for the flavorful accompaniments.

The others both had chicken dishes – Pollo Picatta, with a caper-lemon sauce over angel hair pasta topped with a pomodoro sauce, and a Pollo Sorrento, also over angel hair in a garlic and oil sauce, with artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, and a lemon-herb butter sauce. Both were pronounced to be very tasty.

It’s an attractive room (photo from their website):


And the portions were generous.



But wait – there’s more.
Monday night we visited a surprisingly similar place, in some ways, opened a few months ago, also in Glenview … Jölane’s. It’s on Milwaukee Ave., at Zenith Drive, and, not suspiciously, close to Abt Electronics and Appliances. It’s owned by the Abt family, in a new “planning” strip mall just south of the main building. That mall is filled with kitchen designers, closet designers, a Viking cooking school, and other shops designed to supplement your purchases of high-end appliances at Abt. So in part, with its dark wood and leather seating, large windows, and high ceilings (clearly a lot of Abt money went into designing this place), Jölane’s is designed to be a place to sit and consider your appliance and electronics purchases. But it’s much more than that.

Jölane was the matriarch of a founding family of Abt, from Austria, and the menu vaguely reflects that, in “European Specialties” such as Austrian Goulash, and in the coffees and pastries offered. (Like Trattoria Belluno, Jolane’s has a sizable pastry case, as well as coffees, teas, and other things available for sale.)

Jölane’s has an extensive menu – breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus a wide selection of gourmet coffees and teas, not to mention the beers and wines. One interesting feature – every day, they have a $15 daily wine special on one red and one white. We got a bottle of a crisp, refreshing Greek white from the Peloponnnisos, which was on the wine list at $27. As the daily special, we were charged $15. Quite a deal.

The only real misstep of the evening was the Austrian Bisque I ordered as a starter. Imagine dissolving 3 or 4 beef bouillon cubes in 3/4 cup of hot water, then throwing in seven or eight little strands of limp, sodden noodles. I asked the server if it was meant to be so extremely salty. (I had always thought of a bisque as a creamy soup, not a broth.) He said, yes, it was supposed to be that way, but was very nice about taking it away and replacing it with a decent mixed green salad.

Another of us had a cream of vegetable soup – it was rich, and nicely seasoned.

As an entree, I had the Seared Tuna Carpaccio. My first reaction was … huh? Seared Carpaccio???? Despite the nomenclature, it was a very good dish. The thin slices of ahi tuna were almost completely raw, except for approximately 1/16” of opaque, cooked flesh ringing the outer edges. The tuna slices alternated with more thin slices of avocado and tomato, with an Asian black sesame dressing, served over mixed greens. Another interesting part of the menu – becoming less common these days – is the option to choose your sides. I had the Fingerling Potatoes Dauphinoise and Vegetable Medley (carrots, zucchini, red pepper, onion).

The others both had the whitefish, one with a cheesy, herb-y crisp polenta cake, the other with a reasonable wild rice, plus broccoli.

And portions were ample enough that we skipped dessert.

Food prices were exceptionally reasonable. Three of us, including the bottle of wine, got out for under $70 (not including tip).

Between the two, which was the winner? It could be as close as the Indiana race between Obama and Clinton (at least as predicted 4/29). If you’re in the not-too-far northern ‘burbs, either would be an excellent destination.

Trattoria Belluno
1836 Glenview Road
Glenview, IL 60025
847-729-0465
http://www.trattoriabelluno.com

Jölane's Cafe and Wine Bar
1100 Milwaukee Ave.
Glenview, IL 60025
847-375-6986
http://www.jolanescafe.com

I've driven by the new strip where Jölane’s is a few times and had no idea this was a restaurant. Thanks for the review. This is an interesting new option for the area (unlike another Italian restaurant, which right or wrong gives me a "meh" feeling).

The old Glenview picture is lovely, but sad....

Jölane's is mentioned in this pastry plaint by Gale Gand (further dicussed here).

It may have been obvious when dining in, but apparently the pastries are supplied by Julius Meinl. I look forward to checking it out the next time I need a robot vacuum cleaner.

Yes, the Julius Meinl signage is prominent. And last time I was at Jölene's, they said they'd be enlarging the outdoor patio this year.

On the other hand, Trattoria Belluno is no longer with us.