Casual catering recs in Evanston/Wilmette?

My wife and I are hosting a Halloween party for adults and kids this weekend, and we need to find a place to order food for about 30 adults and 30 kids. When we lived in the City, we used to order from Pompeii, which worked out well...their big calzoney things, some pasta, salads. Since we recently moved to north Evanston, we don't know how to replace that. Any ideas????

Thanks to all!

If you want to stick to Italian, Dave's Italian Kitchen in downtown Evanston is yummy and always reliable:

http://www.davesik.com/

Eva Luna wrote:If you want to stick to Italian, Dave's Italian Kitchen in downtown Evanston is yummy and always reliable

Based on my experience, Dave's has the absolutely worst Italian food I've ever eaten. I know, one doesn't expect fine dining for cheap, but it was simply inedible. I explained why in this topic, where I discussed the dreadful food I've eaten at Dave's as well as at Gio, next door.

I've had catered food from Pompei, and it's quite good, and an excellent value. If you're looking for inexpensive Italian food, either for your party or just for a casual night out, Panino's (at Dempster and Dodge in Evanston) does an excellent job, very similar to Pompei - not haute cuisine, but the food is well-prepared and tasty, and the prices are reasonable. It's the closest thing you'll find to Pompei in the Evanston/Wilmette area.

There are a couple more Italian catering options, but they're a bit more expensive. Convito Cafe & Market (formerly Convito Italiano), in Plaza del Lago at the north end of Wilmette, is another possibility. And there's always Maggiano's, at Old Orchard in Skokie.

Getting away from Italian, there are numerous other places in Evanston/Wilmette where you can order food for parties, including Simple Gourmet, a new (and excellent) shop in Evanston (see this discussion), Foodstuffs, the long-time gourmet store in Evanston, and A La Carte in Wilmette.

All these places have catering menus on their websites. Here are the links:

Panino's - http://www.paninospizzeria.com
Convito Cafe & Market - http://www.convitoitaliano.com
Maggiano's - http://www.maggianos.com
Simple Gourmet - http://www.simplegourmet2go.com
Foodstuffs - http://www.foodstuffs.com
A La Carte - http://www.alacarteinc.com

I've been at parties catered by Michaels that were very good.

http://www.cateringbymichaels.com/

I respectfully disagree with Ken about Dave's - while the food's not great, it's certainly edible, and a reasonably good value.

Another caterer you may want to contact is Kim's Kitchen, at 815 Noyes Evanston.
Full disclosure - I haven't been there since the recent ownership change.

nsxtasy wrote:

Eva Luna wrote:If you want to stick to Italian, Dave's Italian Kitchen in downtown Evanston is yummy and always reliable

Based on my experience, Dave's has the absolutely worst Italian food I've ever eaten. I know, one doesn't expect fine dining for cheap, but it was simply inedible. I explained why in this topic, where I discussed the dreadful food I've eaten at Dave's as well as at Gio, next door.

I never said Dave's was the best Italian food on the North Shore (it isn't). But if you're looking to feed a whole passel of people at a reasonable price, Dave's does the job. I've certainly never had a bad meal there, and I've lived in or near Evanston since 1971 (with breaks for college and grad school).

If you want to hear about inedible Italian food, sometime I'll tell you about the "pizza" I tried to eat in the Soviet Union in 1989.

2 ideas come to mind:

Convito Italiano
Plaza Del Lago
1515 Sheridan Rd
Wilmette, IL 60091
(847) 251-3654

Foodstuffs - Evanston
2106 Central St
Evanston, IL 60201
(847) 328-7704

Both are definitely above average, if maybe a little pricey.

=R=

Incidentally, if you're going to go pick up the food (rather than having it delivered), here's what you'll face in terms of parking the car and running in:

Panino's - parking lot outside their door, nearby spaces always available
Convito Cafe & Market - parking lot outside their door, although nearby spaces may be full at busy times
Maggiano's - parking lot outside their door, although nearby spaces are usually full; valets will let your car stand in the valet area while you run in
Simple Gourmet - parking lot outside their door, nearby spaces always available
Foodstuffs - on-street parking on Central is somewhat difficult, metered lot across the street usually has open spaces
A La Carte - on-street parking on Green Bay is easy; I'm not sure but they may also have their own parking behind the store
Dave's - on-street parking on Chicago is difficult; parking garage up the block around the corner, free for first hour

Caution: The City of Evanston is VERY stringent about enforcing parking regulations, including meters.

As for Dave's, here are details about the awful food I had on my last visit:

nsxtasy wrote:I already described my bad food at Gio above. While my expectations for Dave's were lower, due to the low price, I expected edible, but that would be a highly generous and undeserved characterization of the food there. We had two dishes. One was veal in lemon sauce, which consisted of a few slices of veal with no breading and no taste, served over rotini in a liquid that I can only guess was the water in which the pasta was boiled. The dish had absolutely no lemon taste whatsoever. The other was a special, grilled chicken and provolone ravioli, in which the ravioli (including filling) had absolutely no taste, and were submerged in a tomato sauce that might have come from a jar at the supermarket (and from the cheap brand, too). Also, from the Department of Ewwww, I'd also like to know what the green-colored liquid in the olive oil dispensers on the tables is, because it sure doesn't taste like olive oil (although the serving of undistinguished bread without butter would lead one to expect it to be real olive oil).

I don't eat at expensive restaurants every time I eat out, and I don't expect the same thing when I'm paying $10 or $14 for an entree (the veal at Dave's is $13.95) as when I'm paying $20-30 or more. But I expect it to be better than, say, what I find in the frozen food department of my local supermarket. At both these meals, it wasn't; it was worse.

Of course, you can always try any (or all!) of these places yourself before you commit to using them for your upcoming party.

nsxtasy wrote:Foodstuffs - on-street parking on Central is somewhat difficult

There is a surface lot across the street.

Darren72 wrote:There is a surface lot across the street.

Thanks; I just edited my post to indicate that.

nsxtasy wrote:

Darren72 wrote:There is a surface lot across the street.

Thanks; I just edited my post to indicate that.

And a useful loading zone directly in front of the store

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:And a useful loading zone directly in front of the store

I didn't want to mention that because in my experience there is usually someone already illegally parked in it. (And technically, it's not a designated loading zone; it's a no-parking zone because of the crosswalk.)

nsxtasy wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:And a useful loading zone directly in front of the store

I didn't want to mention that because in my experience there is usually someone already illegally parked in it. (And technically, it's not a designated loading zone; it's a no-parking zone because of the crosswalk.)

It extends well beyond the crosswalk and I'm pretty sure it is officially designated as a loading zone. I know you live in Evanston, so maybe you could confirm this. In any case, it is used frequently for pickups at Foodstuffs. But they do write parking tickets quite liberally in Evanston, so use it at your own risk.

I wouldn't want to carry food for 60 across the street to the parking lot but I'm guessing that the Foodstuffs people would assist with that, as they are very helpful.

=R=

nsxtasy wrote:
If you're looking for inexpensive Italian food, either for your party or just for a casual night out, Panino's (at Dempster and Dodge in Evanston) does an excellent job, very similar to Pompei - not haute cuisine, but the food is well-prepared and tasty, and the prices are reasonable. It's the closest thing you'll find to Pompei in the Evanston/Wilmette area.

Please do not mention Panino's again. Please edit your post to remove any mention of Panino's.

I've always had excellent food and service from them and if the word were to get out they would soon be overrun by LTHers ,Chowhounders, Roadfooders, Metromixers, Time-outers, and various other foodie types.

This place is my secret and I want it to stay that way!

How about a party pan of wings from Buffalo Joe's? Always a crowd favorite.

Buffalo Joe's
812 Clark St.
Evanston, IL 60201
847-328-5525

cito wrote:Please do not mention Panino's again. Please edit your post to remove any mention of Panino's.

I've always had excellent food and service from them and if the word were to get out they would soon be overrun by LTHers ,Chowhounders, Roadfooders, Metromixers, Time-outers, and various other foodie types.

This place is my secret and I want it to stay that way!

Don't worry; it's not like I nominated it to be a GNR (even though it's worthy of consideration).

Incidentally, in case you go to Panino's... I've found that most of their items are very good, including their pastas, their salads (way better than you would expect from an inexpensive place), their eggplant parmagiana and veal and other entrees, and their timpanos (like a pasta dish inside a crust). The one thing I wasn't all that enamored with was their pizza in the pan, which I thought was too cheesy. Every time I look at the menu, there are more things I want to try...

I would second (or 3d or 4th) the Panino's recommendation. As a Wilmetter, it's my go-to place for pizza, and they do a nice job catering as well. A non-Italian recommendation would be That Little Mexican Cafe in Evanston. I'm not a fan of that restaurant generally, but they do a very good job on catering (e.g. fajitas buffet), and it's a little more unusual than the typical catered fare. I'll save my two cents on Dave's for another thread, but suffice it to say that my fond memories go back 25 years, and its wine list, featuring a huge variety of interesting wines, served at the proper temperature, at <50% markup, is an unexpected bonus.

I ate once at Dave's about 18 years ago and found it to be laughably bad. I can't believe it's still there...figured they would have put up a high-rise in its place by now. Now that I think about it, they had incredibly cheap and lousy pizza too.

ParisCat wrote:I would second (or 3d or 4th) the Panino's recommendation.

Funny; like cito, I thought this was my little undiscovered secret. I don't recall seeing it mentioned by others, here or elsewhere.

ParisCat wrote:A non-Italian recommendation would be That Little Mexican Cafe in Evanston. I'm not a fan of that restaurant generally, but they do a very good job on catering (e.g. fajitas buffet), and it's a little more unusual than the typical catered fare.

Since you mention this... As far as I know, they do not have a website (showing either their regular menu or their catering menu). Do you know otherwise? Having eaten there numerous times, I'm familiar with their dinner menu, but if I were evaluating it for catering, I'd love to see the catering menu.

Oh, and for parking around there... on-street metered parking around That Little Mexican Cafe (on Church and around the corner to the south on Maple) is difficult at times, not difficult at other times. For a quick pickup, just around the corner to the south on Maple is a "cutout" loading zone next to a high-rise, with room for two cars. If you're not shlepping food for 30 and just dining there, you can also park in either of two parking garages a block or so away: one block north past the theaters on Maple, or one block south on the other side of the tracks on Davis. First hour free at both.

Thanks for the responses, folks. I think we're going with Panino's - the menu seems to be just what we're looking for to feed 35 costumed kids and the same number of semi-sober adults. Plus, my wife had some pizza and salads from there a few weeks ago and really liked it.

Nsxtasy, I think you may be my father-in-law...in his world, one does not just get in the car and go somewhere. One researches the route, understands traffic patterns, gauges the weather, and MOST IMPORTANTLY figures out where the hell he's going to park when he gets there.

Thanks again for all the recs, gang.

Oh, and since it seems to be the hot undercurrent of this thread, we at at Dave's a couple weeks ago with our four kids. Not great, certainly not awful, very standard "I don't feel like cooking, dressing up, getting a babysitter, or spending over $50 for the whole family" kind of stuff, IMO.

I ate once at Dave's about 18 years ago and found it to be laughably bad. I can't believe it's still there...figured they would have put up a high-rise in its place by now. Now that I think about it, they had incredibly cheap and lousy pizza too.

They moved from Church St. to Chicago Ave. several years ago - that block of Church is totally unrecognizable now to anyone who hasn't seen it for a while (as is much of downtown Evanston). I hated the dark, creepy Church St. location, and conversely loved Pine Yard, which was next door. Pine Yard, now on Oak Ave. & Davis, has slid precipitously, while Dave's seems to have improved greatly. Go figure.