Good stuff. Tell the cameriere to drop by one of the Lavazza Caffe's in the Loop. The one near City Hall is managed by a real live Italian, recently arrived. It's not a fancy restaurant, it's a coffee shop like the hundreds (thousands?) dotting the autostrade.

All saucers, all the time.

Check it out, Adria' and Lavazza are bringing us espesso [no sic], the coffee you eat with a spoon...

http://www.lavazza.it/default/channel/index_eng.jsp

mauvais_sang wrote:Knowing that if the food were to suck, at least we could get sauced on the cheap, a ladyfriend and I decided to brave the crowds at Quartino last night.

The food lived up to the mixed reviews above: so-so salumi (dry, brittle sopresatta (probably sliced many, many hours before; and waaaaay too thin), double-plus pepper crusted duck proscuitto (at first we thought they'd given us speck by mistake; still, the fat was melty and dreamy)); phoned-in broccoli rabe (w/ tomatoes tossed in to add color to compensate for the lack of flavor); hearty, addictive fava bean and speck ravioli (this dish put the whole 'sharing' vibe on hold). We also had the veal meatballs with rasins and some other stuff. I let my dining companion eat all of these since a) she really liked them, and b) I ate more than my share of the ravioli and, after licking the last drop of sauce off the plate (while swatting off aggressive busboys), felt profoundly guilty for doing so. I think the pastas and warm small plates are the winners here. The olives and pickled veggies were good, as well.

Does anyone else find their excessive use of the EVOO abbreviation throughout the menu a wee bit annoying? Besides the trixie-ness of the abbreviation, like, isn't this a fairly silly/obvious ingredient to disclose on a menu, sort of like telling us that the spaghetti was boiled in (Lake Michigan) water?

As noted above, the vibe is suburban, and the tacky touches (what I'd give to read their employee manual -- it's gotta be a riot), from calling the ladies "bella," to the hilarious “recommendations” (after asking for the salumi menu, dude honestly told me, "Whenever prosciutto de Parma is available, I wouldn't pass that up") can be more than a little off-putting. I got a kick out of the Strip Club Style bathroom, complete with Wise Ol' Attendant (eerily attired in rubber gloves) and cologne assortment. I also enjoyed that they announce the availability of tables over a PA system. A clear tip of the hat to The O.G., and an invitation to the cheeky among us to take on obnoxious assumed names.

I know it’s not coming off that way, but I did like most of the food, and the $4 a quartino from-the-barrel table wine is quite good. dicksond, I can testify to the presence of effervescence, and it was served slightly chilled. At $16 for a liter -- which is, I think, 1.25 bottles of wine -- it's a steal, though not recommended for a party of two when half of said party has already quaffed a quartino or two and second half weighs 100 pounds. By the time we made it through the liter, we were more than a little rambunctious.

So we ordered a double espresso, which was served, oddly enough, without a saucer. Now, I do not proport to be an expert on Italy, but my lonely little cup looked wrong on the table. A more sober person would have let this go, I guess, but I wanted my freakin' saucer. Our server swooped by and stated: “Espresso is not served with saucers in Italy. There isn't a single saucer in this restaurant, so I can’t get you one.” When I countered that I’d been to Italy three times, and seemed to be served espresso with a saucer everywhere I went, he countered: "I've been to Italy, five times. I'm sorry, but you're wrong."

Thankfully, I'm a civilized cat, but I coulda woulda shoulda decked him for that or at least brought the tip below 20%, but I took it in stride. More fun to write about it here, and, for all I know, I might be wrong. Still, what kind of server talks back to/argues with a customer like that? (Antonius and others: *do* they serve espresso drinks with saucers in Italy? Who’s right here? FWIW, I called Quartino today and they confirmed that they don’t use saucers at the restaurant.)

What's funny is that I'll still probably go back.

m_s

Enjoyable post. Which reminds me of this anecdote long-repressed :

Friends in Manhattan Beach, CA insisted on exposing us to Santa Monica specifically a popular breakfast joint where, of course, they announce the names via intercom. My friend, agent provocateur that he is, offered the name "Madonna" to the tween-fashionista hostess. Soon enough we heard "Madonna, paging Madonna!" over the intercom. When the four of us guys meandered over to the hostess stand the girl, bewildered, looked us over, and STILL not getting the lame joke, asked, "so, which one of you is Madonna?"

. . . and moving a little further north to Rome, and to what many consider to be the gold standard of a cofee bar, we come to Caffe Sant'Eustachio:

http://www.santeustachioilcaffe.it/

House-cured bresaola and relishes

mauvais_sang wrote:dry, brittle sopresatta (probably sliced many, many hours before; and waaaaay too thin)

Hmm. I watched them slice mine. They do slice all the meats uniformly. Is sopressatta supposed be sliced thicker than other salumi? It doesn't seem too thin to me.

mauvais_sang wrote:the trixie-ness of the abbreviation

Sherman Kaplan was calling it EVOO years before anyone ever heard of Rachel Ray.

mauvais_sang wrote:As noted above, the vibe is suburban

Anyone who thinks this place feels suburban needs to spend more time in Schaumburg. The fact that it's open past 10 p.m. is enough to make it unsuburbanlike.

Maybe the vibe changes dramatically later in the evening; I dunno. Nobody called me anything in Italian, either.

I finally managed to have the camera along, so here are a few pix from my last visit.


Cipollini


Polenta fries and bell pepper sauce


Pan-roasted mussels with pinot grigio and red chili broth


Quartino
312/698-5000
www.quartinochicago.com
626 N. State St.
Chicago, IL 60610

W/o quoting the above post

That's a pet peeve of mine(attributing EVOO to Rachel Ray). Of course, Rachel Ray didn't coin the term EVOO. I first encountered it in one of Michael Ruhlman's books in which he attributed the abbreviation to common, nigh passe' kitchen parlance esp. in Napa Valley.

Whatever one thinks of the abbrev. and/or Ray...it's just grating laziness to attribute the coinage to her, imo, brimming vocabulary of annoying colloquialisms.

I'm not sure anyone is truly attributing "EVOO" to rachael ray. But she is the driving force, and the most annoying force, behind the word. If I walked up to 10 foodies on the street and said "EVOO", 5 would smack me and rant about rachael ray, and 5 would sing her praises.

Regarding the slicing of the soppressata, I hope Antonius will chime in, but my general understanding is that you slice salumi such that a single slice is a somewhat uniform amount of meat. That is, you would slice a 6" diameter sausage much thinner than, say, a 2" diameter sausage.

Speaking of house-cured salumi, at Graziano's the other day Jim Sr. generously gifted me with a dozen thick slices of some hot soppressata one of his customers makes. One of those "10 family members get together once a year to make 600 pounds of salumi" situations. Sounds like my type of family reunion. The soppressata was unbelievably good.

Christopher Gordon wrote:I first encountered it in one of Michael Ruhlman's books in which he attributed the abbreviation to common, nigh passe' kitchen parlance esp. in Napa Valley.

Indeed, before starting the French Laundry, Thomas Keller started an olive oil company in napa named "EVO". Not identical, but certainly awfully close. You might have seen it mentioned in Ruhlman's "The Soul of a Chef", where he profiles Keller...

Alexander Hamilton calls it EVOO in one of The Federalist Papers.

Oh...I'm pretty sure Hammurabi mention's EVOO.

Went yesterday for the first time (for lunch) and liked it a lot. Happily, didn't encounter any of the service issues others have reported, either from the hostess or our waiter. I'd give the place good marks for service, meaning not just "we weren't seated in the men's room and our food arrived about when it ought to have and was what we ordered," but also, for lack of a better phrase, "intelligent friendliness." Thought the food was outstanding. The three of us shared a plate from the salumeria menu (the duck prosciutto, the speck, and three cheeses including the taleggio, the fontina and a third one I can't remember because I wasn't the one who ordered that one and I'm not enough of a cheeseophile to have identified it from the flavor alone), and a dish of eggplant salad and a dish of the broccoli rabe. Every bite was special. And even though I wasn't sure it would be enough for three hungry guys, it was--and the bill, with tip, was about $22 a person (our beverages were non-alcoholic--Pellegrino, etc., then coffee), which seems to be about as little as we're able to get away with at lunch these days, and which seemed like good value.

Rene G and i went there three and four Mondays ago and found that, in the days between, Quartino's had increased a bunch of their offerings by $1 each. still a good deal, but i really hate what has come to be common practice for a new place--start with reasonable prices and then ratchet it up as much as traffic will bear. Burp! btw, make sure to ask for valerie as your waitress if she is working when you go there.

I am heading to Quartino this weekend with some friends from out of town. I had been there once before and sampled many different items, most of which I enjoyed. My question is, is there anything that we shouldn't leave the restaurant without ordering? What are your favorites?

My favorites are the duck prosciutto, polenta fries, and roasted clams. I also always get the crispy duck leg.

I went a couple of weeks ago in a group of 12 people and found most of their dishes very average and the space itself very loud.

The only thing I thought was memorable was the duck prosciutto on the salumi list.

Although Quartino seems to be mentioned in a number of threads, this one seemed to best relate to your question.

Like last year, my original plan for the early hours of the Super Bowl was to take the family to Avec-- that being the one time that Avec actually could be made to be family-friendly. But I had a suspicion when the Bears got into the Super Bowl that they would just give up and let the staff stay home to watch the game, and sure enough as we drove past other Randolph St. joints looking dark and shuttered, Avec too proved to have some sign on the door we didn't really need to read to know what it said.

My backup plan was to scout out some of the new places in the Mag Mile area, figuring they would be more likely to be open; and we soon spotted Quartino's large sign lit up. The game was on inside, the staff occasionally fell under its spell--



--but while the bar was noisy, the restaurant was fairly empty, and asking for a table where the TVs weren't visible brought us to what's probably usually the worst seat in the house, back against a wall and behind a pillar-- couldn't have been more perfect for our desire to keep the kids out of view of the electronic crack machine.

The interior of Quartino is supposed to evoke an old school meat market or the like-- tin ceiling, white enameled cases and white tile-- and they sure didn't cheap out on making it convincing; I had to check the exterior of the building afterwards to be certain that it was too new to have housed a genuine old place of this sort.

The menu is a little of this and a little of that-- mostly house-made salume and cheeses, insalate, pastas and pizzas, small plate stuff. Being in a salume mood from Avec, we started by putting together a plate of nosh stuff precariously balanced on a pizza stand:



It was a nice assortment-- I particularly liked the lonzino, air dried pork loin with sprightly fresh herb flavors-- though I had a vague sense that nothing really had the full-on funk of Avec's European-style salume. It came with various dips, accents and accessories like giardinera, not that many of which seemed to me to enhance what we were eating. (The dark stuff at left is caponata, an eggplant salad.) Still, we had no problem scooping and dipping away at it. We also had an octopus salad that was rather bland, only a vague taste of lemon and oil instead of coming to a sharp point with citrus and maybe garlic like it should have.



Next we ordered a pizza, mainly for the kids. You know, it's funny to think, there was probably a few months, after Quartino opened, when it and Follia had the two best Neapolitan-style pizzas in town. Then they started opening all over the place, and Quartino's seems somewhere back in the pack-- not sure what oven they have, but it didn't have that high heat-char that we've grown to know and love at other places around town.

We also had the polenta fries-- that was basically a mistake, those are only for people who've already had too much booze already, and are looking for something to soak it up. Deep-fried Malt-O-Meal. On the other hand, a special of tagliatelle bolognese was terrific, with fresh pasta and, contrary to any impression that they were afraid of funky flavors, a stronger taste of organ meats in the sauce than, for instance, Terragusto's. And at $9 for a reasonable, not typically excessive, portion, it was nice to have a special that was first-rate yet didn't take the opportunity to gouge you for the privilege.

Finally, we finished with freshly fried, gooey doughnuts with honey to dip them in, and a lemon "panino"-- lemon gelato inside lemon cookies topped with lemon cream and candied lemon rind, plenty big enough to share among four. It was lemony all right!



I expected a bill over $100 (and I note some complaining above that prices have gone up), so I was pleasantly surprised to find that we had eaten a lot of different things for the four of us, several of them very good (and others less so), and had a perfectly nice wine off their list of things specially imported for them, for only about $80. Besides striking me as reasonable, Quartino struck me as the sort of place that's generally better than it has to be-- the crowd is happy hour and make-the-scene types, the food could be pure plastic like a Bar Louie or something, but it shows a commitment to authentic flavors that's completely admirable even if not quite at the top for Italian food in Chicago-- and well worth a visit given the uncharacteristically reasonable tab for its location.

Mike G wrote:I expected a bill over $100 (and I note some complaining above that prices have gone up), so I was pleasantly surprised to find that we had eaten a lot of different things for the four of us, several of them very good (and others less so), and had a perfectly nice wine off their list of things specially imported for them, for only about $80. Besides striking me as reasonable, Quartino struck me as the sort of place that's generally better than it has to be-- the crowd is happy hour and make-the-scene types, the food could be pure plastic like a Bar Louie or something, but it shows a commitment to authentic flavors that's completely admirable even if not quite at the top for Italian food in Chicago-- and well worth a visit given the uncharacteristically reasonable tab for its location.

I think this sums up really well why I like Quartino too. The funny part is that a lot of the prices on the menu have doubled (or more) since they opened. The fiance and I ate there with another couple a month or 2 after they opened. We ate about half the menu, had 2 liters of wine and we were out of there for about $120.

I had lunch today at Quartino, and loved the price. For $6, I had a too-big-to-eat panini of prosciutto, mozzarella, and arugula, that came with a small cucumber salad on the plate, and a mound of tomatoes in olive oil.

Really good. Hard to beat.

I actually dined once at Quartino, late last summer, business dinner for about 10 in a small room in back. I have the menu and some notes at home for the post I was going to do, but since this is back on top and it seems I am never going to do that post, here are my impressions as I recall them now.

Did not have any memorable salume. I think we did have one of some flavor, but it was just okay. For a business dinner I suspect this may have been intentionally bland.

The wine selection is wonderful. Cheap, varied, and all 4 or 5 that I tried were decent. Not earth shattering, but spot on for a simple enoteca in Verona. I really loved this part.

The rest of the food was mediocre, except one plate of pasta in a pork ragu. The noodles were decent, but the ragu was great, tender, well-seasoned (meaning seasoned lightly in such a way as to highlight the taste of the pork), not a lot of sauce, just great. The ratio of ragu to noodles was all wrong, but because the ragu was (properly) more like a stew placed on the pasta, it was not too hard to get the proper balance for myself.

Anyway, I would certainly go back for the wine, and it looks like I should go back for the salume.

I think the suburban reference may have been more about the calculated decor, which really made me think that this place looks like it would fit well in the Italian Pavilion at Epcot. It did not offend me and was reasonable comfy. And service was fine.

There was a Cary Grant movie playing in our room on a TV that seemed too large for the space. And one could see at least two other TVs out the windows of the room. Maybe that is suburban, too, but for this suburban boy it was too much TV even if the shows themselves were not offensive. Now if it had been some over the top Italian variety show with all the proper cast and costumes I might have felt differently, but the old movies did not add much other than distraction.

I started going to Quartino when they first opened and thought the food was great and the prices were refreshingly low, for a downtown spot. Since then, the bar has been a great meeting spot for pizza, small plates, and lots of great and reasonably-priced wine for a small group.

When I went last night, I was astonished at how much the prices have gone up. The wine list seems like it has almost doubled in price OR maybe they just got rid of the lower-priced wine available by the carafe. In any case, your options for lower-priced wines have been diminished, and the prices on the food also seem to be a couple of dollars above what they were even a few months ago. Now it's turned into another downtown place that I can't afford to frequent. I was SO happy to have found an after-work spot with decent pizza and reasonable prices!
Has anyone else noticed this?

arae wrote:In any case, your options for lower-priced wines have been diminished, and the prices on the food also seem to be a couple of dollars above what they were even a few months ago. Now it's turned into another downtown place that I can't afford to frequent.

Although I haven't been back since the times I favorably reported some months ago, I can't say I'm surprised to read this. There was something "too good to be true" about the combination of high quality, high-rent location and low price at Quartino then, and while I appreciated it, it also made me scratch my head in wonderment. The change seems inevitable.

Same goes for the parking. When it opened, Quartino offered $5 valet parking - almost too good to be true. Now, just like many of the menu items, add $2 to the cost of the valet.

Still, as a 7 dollar valet in downtown is still quite a deal, the (no longer great and now just) good prices at Quartino still represent quite a deal.

The LTH book group meet-up at Quartino was a lot of fun. Like so many lth events, it's a tough call whether the food or the company was more enjoyable, but the combination was terrific either way.

We were seven: Anonymous me, plus Germuska, Mr & Mrs. Messycook, Happy Stomach, Gleam and Beth. We had a round table, so even in the busy room we could talk to each other pretty easily.
Germuska and Happy Stomach with salume


Mr & Mrs. Messy Cook and Germuska.


It is a little odd that you have to ask for the salume menu--anyone have a theory on that? Maybe that's what they offer you in the bar and they're hoping to push you more toward the more expensive items in the restaurant? Anyway, we said the secret words and set Ed to ordering. I really liked the jam that came as one of the suggested toppings for one of the cheeses. It reinforced the wisdom of this recent thread.

If I'd read upthread more carefully we might have skipped the delectable looking but bland-tasting polenta fries. After a few good shakes of the nice table sea salt, however, I found myself reaching across the table to finish them up. We were also not at all disappointed with our pizza choice. We had the Stefano--with rosemary, mozzarella, parmigiano, and spicy sausage. I think it's often hard to pull of rosemary successfully, since it can so easily overwhelm a dish (and I hate the ubiquitous rosemary tree you find sticking out of so much restaurant food these days). But Quartino really pulled it off. The cheeses were assertive enough to smooth it out and the sausage added another bright note.

My favorite, though, was the roasted baby octopus



We had a couple of nice wines and left for $35 a person, including tip. I thought the value was fine at that price, and would definitely return. Thanks again, germuska, for the last minute inspiration which kept us from cancelling this event.

gleam wrote:I'm not sure anyone is truly attributing "EVOO" to rachael ray. But she is the driving force, and the most annoying force, behind the word.

Ed,

I was in Tony's, an Italian deli in Edison Park, picking up wedding soup, a favorite of my brides, and low and behold Rachael Ray EVOO for sale right next to the Colavita. I started to buy a bottle as company to my Rachael Ray Ritz Crackers when I noticed the olive oil was $14.99 and had second thoughts.

So, for all the closet LTHForum RR lovers out there, head over to Tony's Deli for your RR signature EVOO.

Enjoy,
Gary

Tony's Italian Deli
6708 North Northwest Highway
Chicago, IL 60631
773-631-0055

If you think of Quartino primarily as a place to get a good thin crust pizza, salume, some small plates, and a glass of wine for a reasonable price in an unreasonable-price location, then you might want to give some of their pastas a try. We've been working our way through this portion of the menu and the standouts so far are:

the pork ravioli (with slivers of cheese and prosciutto)
potato gnocchi (with green beans and potatoes in a creamy-spinachy-garlicky sauce)

I could have easily posted the above on "Best Things You've Eaten This Year Thread."

In the value/quality quotient, Quartino continues to be our go-to place for lunch and late night (and sometimes dinner) in the area.

$2 for a dish of outstanding lemon gelato! this place is great. the smell wafting up from the subway vent even reminded me of rome for some reason.

I'm happy to have seen this thread as I had been meaning to share a positive experience I had at this restaurant where I felt the service went above and beyond what was expected.

I ate here with five or six other people on July 4th. When it came time for dessert, we ordered the chocolate fondue and then started talking about how great it would be to make s'mores (we'd also had quite a bit of wine by this point). Anyways, the server overheard us and said they probably had marshmallows and graham crackers in the kitchen and he would brind them out with the fondue. Well, it turned out they didn't have any so the manager left the restaurant and went to a nearby grocery store, which had closed a few minutes before he arrived (it was a holiday, I think it closed at 9).

Both the manager and server appologized profusely for not being able to come through with the dessert. Although the food was delicious, what I'll always remember most about the restaurant was how they tried to fulfill even this crazy request.

I'm always impressed with the service at Quartino when ever I'm there. Its a nice option in the area & they are always accommodating & don't rush you out even if all you want is a glass of wine & a plate of salumi. One thing I've noticed the last couple of visits is in addition to the regular wait staff there seem to be a couple of floating hosts who rove the floor to check every thing is okay, help with the menu & expedite ordering. Its a nice touch because frankly the place can be a bit crazy at peak times.

We tried the lemon panino for the first time recently & really enjoyed it (I've usually stuck to the fondue, but it was way too hot that evening for this) - I'm planning on trying more of their ices next trip.

El Panzone wrote:Rene G and i went there three and four Mondays ago and found that, in the days between, Quartino's had increased a bunch of their offerings by $1 each. still a good deal, but i really hate what has come to be common practice for a new place--start with reasonable prices and then ratchet it up as much as traffic will bear. Burp! btw, make sure to ask for valerie as your waitress if she is working when you go there.

That's most likely because since Quartino's opened, the city has increased the amount of taxes they charge a restaurant to be in business (downtown restaurants pay a special tax specifically for the cost of McCormick Place, and another tax simply called "food and beverage tax"), and as well, gas prices have pretty much doubled and vendors started the common practice of implementing a 'fuel surcharge' to ALL deliveries made to restaurants (i'm guessing that it's to all restaurants, but i know for fact that is it to all downtown restaurants). There is no regulation to the amount of these fuel surcharges, other than for the restaurant to complain but risk not getting their orders delivered, and at some point the restaurants have to pass that expense along to the customers.

Executive chef John Coletta, who has been with the Gibsons Restaurant Group for 13 years, is stepping away. Coletta runs the group's Quartino Ristorante and was set to head Coletta, the upscale Italian steakhouse being built in the new River Point complex. Instead, the restaurant will be renamed Gibsons Italia; longtime chef Jose Sosa has been promoted to executive chef.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/dining/re ... story.html