Art's Cafe/Pizza On Rockwell and Leland

So I just ate at this place for a second time tonight. It is quite new, and quite rough around the edges. The proprieter, I assume Art himself, apparently is working out the kinks. The furnishings are dated, an odd meat scale rests on the counter at the entrance, the 3-D art on the wall is certainly interesting, and the persistent group of hushed voiced friends of Art congregating near the entrance makes for quite a first impression. But let me tell you - THIS PIZZA IS REALLY GREAT!

As you enter, besides the above mentioned hurdles, you are hit by an incredible aroma of wood burning. Yes, a very nice wood burning oven is on the premises. The menu, full of color photos printed on Art's printer sitting in the corner, displays the 10 or 12 Neapolitan style pizzas, several eastern European appetizers, and several unique entrees (Stuffed calmari - spelled calamary on the menu) and that's it.

This place is all about the pizza.

I have now tried the prosciutto pizza, not real prosciutto di parma, but something equally as interesting -- Art's own wood oven smoked ham. He was so proud of it, and I so fond of it, that he brought me a heaping plate of it on the side. The pizzas are made with fresh mozzarella. I have tried the mushroom pizza, also excellent. To not be believed was the amazing calzone. We ordered it by accident. My girlfriend said "Pizza Calabrese" and Art heard "pizza calzone." Good mistake. The calzone, filled with mozzarella, ricotta, tomato sauce, mushrooms, showed off the beauty of his oven. The crust on both the calzone and the pizzas is slightly charred, crisp on the outside, and slightly chewy inside. I asked him and he said that he keeps his oven at 700 degrees. It was a beautiful crust and a delicious meal.

Additionally, Art kept telling us that everything was made from scratch. I believe him. Try the soups! Homemade chicken soup, really fantastic and simply. It is so clear that this broth is homemade and made from scratch and with care that it was wonderful. The bean soup-- absolutely great. Think smoky beans and nice large hunks of his homemade smoked ham.

Also tried an appetizer, a cabbage roll or dolma filled with spiced beef and sitting in a nice tomato sauce. Not bad, and again, clearly made with care.

This place is really worth a try. It has been totally empty, aside from the small group of friends near the front, both times I have eaten there. In the end, if you can get past the initial entrance, the atmosphere is kitschy, but warm, in a sort of ski lodge kind of way (sit at the wood booths lined with plush red lounge style cushions).

Anyone else checked it out?

Pizza Art Cafe
4658 N. Rockwell St.
Chicago, IL 60625
773-539-0645

Thanks for the tip. I hadn't realized another business had opened in this place. Is the guy's name really Art?

I think for a while this place was just called the Art Cafe (thus the novel wall decorations, clearly still there) and was some sort of restaurant.

Then it was a Serbian or Balkan or some such place with a guy who claimed to cure his own sausage, sell a variety of Eastern European packaged foods, smoke a lot of cigarettes, and carve things.

Now, I guess it's pizza. I'll have to check it out.

Thanks for the report. I live about 50 ft away from this place but I've never had the courage to go in. The entrance is, well, uninviting. I did notice that they finally posted a menu in the window recently. Terrible timing, though, as the Rockwell L stop just shut down. A block north on Rockwell is Tagine, the new Moroccan place that is opening soon. A veritable restaurant boom!

What are the prices like?

Prices from menus in window. All pizzas are $9.95 with no size specified. Yugoslavian dishes are around $6.

This place seems to have had three variations. I think that they are all the same management. Jasmin Bekto has been listed as building manager for the whole time since the place was a coin laundry. A Sun-Times story on Tuesday about the Rockwell station closing referred to the owner as Bekto Jasmin. City inspection records list the owner as Bosnam Food Restaurant Corp. doing business as Cafe Restaurant Art with last inspection 2/17/05. The first two variations used that name, which is still on the sign above the door. These bit make me suspect Bosnian and same management.

Variation one was a rather uninviting restaurant without posted hours or menu and with two men usually smoking while sitting at a table inside the southernmost window. Variation two added sausages and packaged groceries. There was a glass room with hanging sausages. Still same two men smoking by the same window. My reaction to the place was the same as tapler's. There was a for rent sign in the window for some months after variation two closed.

Same two men have been sitting in same window in current variation. I haven't seen them smoking but wonder about their ability to comply with the city ordinance.

While on the city food inspection site I noted that Tagine is listed but has no inspection report yet. Sounds like they have at least one hurdle to cross before opening.

I have not seen any smoking in the place. Also, the owner very intently described his interest in food and pizza and cooking. He was quite friendly and warm and proud of his oven and his pizza, saying "This is real Neapolitan Pizza." I agree that the initial impression is a little off-putting but the actual dining experience was relaxed, pleasant, and delicious. I'm curious what other diners might think of the food. Check it out.

Thanks for posting a review! I also live very close but was a bit nervous about this place after seeing the 'food stills' in the window. Somehow they never quite look appealing.

I will say, however, that owners of Art's are extremely nice. They always come out and play with my puppy when we walk by

I finally put on my bedroom slippers and walked over to Art Cafe for dinner last night. I enjoyed it.

We ordered two pizzas. The "Four Seasons" pizza was garnished (a quarter each) with mushrooms, black olives, ham, and artichoke. The Sicilian featured salami, mushrooms, and assorted bell peppers. Both pizzas tasted good. Compared favorably to Spacca Napoli, in my opinion. I admire Spacca Napoli for the freshness and quality of the ingredients and for their attention to detail, but the wateriness of the center of the pie just doesn't appeal to me.* The pizza at the Art Cafe is crisp and doesn't require silverware to eat. The veggies and meats were tasty--not eye-wideningly fresh, but very good.

The furnishings were nice and comfortable, but there were a few ambiance/service issues that were negatives. My water was never refilled despite being the only occupied table. One of the owner's friends (I presume) was smoking right outside the door which was propped open; felt like we were sitting in the Smoking section. The most offensive part of the experience was the radio, which was tuned to WNUA ("smooth jazz"). The husband and wife team that served us** were warm and friendly.

I don't anticipate that Art Cafe will evolve into a destination-type place as Spacca Napoli has, nor would I recommend it as such. But I'll definitely be back.


*In fairness, I've only been there once, but I have read other posts that mention this.

**Presuming again--careful or I'll make a pres out of you and me

Sign in window says closed until August 23, which should be soon after the Rockwell Brown Line stop reopens.

Edited to correct typo.

Has anyone been into Art's since its reopening on August 23rd? If so, any tweaks to the menu or the place itself?

My wife and I visited Art today and had a very pleasant and tasty meal. The interior of the place which used to seem so foreboding to me is now warm and appealing:




Started with the bruschetta which featured feta cheese. The aroma of garlic was quite evident (in a good way) when the plate was served:



Had two delicious pizzas. The margherita with mozzarella and fresh basil:


and the Quattro Stagiononi, or "four seasons":



The pizzas' crusts were nice and crispy on the edges and duly foldable as well. The owner has two brick ovens and was kind enough to pose with one of them for me as we left:



I hope more folks stop in and try Art Cafe. The pizza alone is reason enough, but now the owners seem to be striving to provide a pleasant all-around experience for their customers.

Art Pizzaria Caffe Restaurant
4658 N Rockwell
773-539-0645
BYOB
(and I think they may be cash only, but don't quote me on that)

I didn't realize that we went the day after the post above and made the guy pose from practically the same picture-- okay, G Wiv made him pose more exaggeratedly...

Anyway, a couple of weeks back G Wiv, Trixie-Pea, Pigmon and Stevez and I visited Art's Cafe and had its pizza, which belongs in the ever-growing category of Places I Wished Had Existed All Those Years I Was Waiting For Spacca Napoli. In other words, a perfectly decent pizza which suffers by comparison with the one that now sets the local standard for this style of pizza, but which taken on its own terms, seemed quite all right to me (though pizza purists at the table were more critical than me, who likes any pizza that's not served in an airport or from a freezer).

We had three different ones, a calzone with some okay ham and cheese inside:



The olive oil and garlic on top of the crust made this. Next was an anchovy pizza, the anchois on top were, shall we say, pungent.



Between strong anchovies and weak tomato sauce this wasn't that great, although the crust had nice burnt patches and tensile strength:



The thing I liked best, and maybe others did too, was a white pizza with onions and some kind of non-mozz. cheese, I forget what (Emmental?) There was something indefinably Eastern European about this, more than Italian, maybe some farmer's cheese or something spread below the onions.



This is either the oven, or the set for the next Blair Witch sequel.



Anyway, you can't eat at Spacca Napoli every time, check it out and enjoy the "clever" conceptual "art" on the walls. It's something else.

Mike G wrote:The thing I liked best, and maybe others did too, was a white pizza with onions and some kind of non-mozz. cheese, I forget what (Emmental?)

Mike,

Art's menu lists the Pugliese (Apulian Onion Pizza) as onions, oregano, grated pecorino and olive oil. Though I agree, it seemed as there was more than pecorino in play. I liked the Pugliese (white pizza), though would have preferred more caramelization to the onions.

Mike G wrote:Anyway, you can't eat at Spacca Napoli every time, check it out and enjoy the "clever" conceptual "art" on the walls. It's something else.

Is that a camera in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

Art Pizzaria


Enjoy,
Gary

I feel like I might have eaten at a completely different restaurant. I found little of redeeming quality about Art's Café, other than the parking space I found right in front. I'd only return under protest.

(Edited to add some further details)
I thought I would add a bit more details about why this place turned me off so much. You can draw your own conclusions.

1. Service - The service was abysmal due to short staffing. The owner was the only person on duty at lunch time. He had to act as waiter, busboy and cook. As a result, service was slow and haphazard.

2. Food - I found the pizza to be neither Chicago Style or Neapolitan. It was some sort of zombie crossbreed. I guess if one were touring Bosnia and wanted a pizza, this is what you could expect. The pizza ingredients were a click or two past fresh. When I ate the above mentioned anchovy pizza, the fish was so funky that I thought for sure I was going to be driving the porcelain bus for a few days. Luckily, I didn't get sick. Something was not quite right about the crust in the Pugliese (Apulian Onion) pizza, either. It tasted more like a Bosnian pita than a pizza crust.

Some may find this place charming and will flock here just because they have not one but two wood burning ovens. I'm here to say that the Emperor has no clothes. I give this place no more than 6 months before it folds.

Just had dinner at Pizza Art Cafe.

The house-cured beef was an absolute knockout. I could see visiting with a decent bottle of wine, and enjoying nothing more than these toothsome, flavorful, slightly salty dense meat slabs with Jasmin's excellent bread. Maybe a salad on the side.

I do not believe this is an across-the-board great place, but there are pockets of promise that make it worth a visit.

And with BYOB on top of very reasonable prices, this is a very economical eat.

Hammond

I have no idea how I let this place slip past my radar while I've been living in the neighborhood. Pizza Art Cafe, or whatever it's actually called, is a great neighborhood restaurant. On our first visit tonight, the bride and I shared vegetables provencal and a funghi pizza. The vegetables were sauteed in good olive oil, and served in a delicious white wine/herb vegetable broth that was loaded with parsley and dill. The dish also had the perfectly tender, slightly charred octopus about which the chef is justifiably proud. I thought the pizza was terrific too. Charred thin crust that provided a nice crunch, then virtually disappeared like air in my mouth. The good cheese had a little char too, and the fresh mushrooms had more than a faint whif of garlic. For "dessert", I asked to sample the housemade dried beef, and it was salty, slightly chewy, beefy and delicious. The huge byob meal with plenty of leftovers came in at $35. This place has taken a solid spot on my dinner rotation.

Service may be somewhat slow and clueless, and the espresso may be a bit weak. But Pizza Art Cafe is doing way more things right than wrong.

So basically this place is less than 2 blocks from where I've lived for 3+ years and I've never eaten there? I guess I'll have to change that soon. And I love that "Main St."-like appearance of Rockwell in that area, right near the newly rehabbed El station.

Pizza Art Cafe has come a long way since we moved to the Rockwell area a couple years ago or so. The place used to be almost always frighteningly vacant, so I assumed that they were doing most of their business as takeout. Whatever kept them going is fine with me because as we walked past on Saturday night the place was almost packed with raucous patrons enjoying the hell out of the place. Good to see.

The menu has expanded quite a bit since the first time we were there, adding some Eastern European specialties and some more unique pizzas. My wife swears by the four-quarters (artichoke hearts are a favorite of hers), or the salmon-topped pie; having tried it, it is pretty good. As above, the anchovies are very potent, way overpowering the rest of the pizza with its supersalty anchovy-ness. Other slight drawbacks are that the pies at Pizza Art tend to be oilier/greasier than I've had at other neapolitan-style places. If you can live with that, you'll do fine at Pizza Art.

It's a good place and I'm glad to have it in the neighborhood. And even though it's a pizza place, primarily, I'm hardpressed not to get the pljeskavaya every time I'm in there. Soft pita, nice mild soft cheese, raw onion and mild sausage. Very good.

Could be a good place for a Rockwell-area LTH dinner. I'm considering a rare personal posting to the Events board, so if anyone wants to give me a nudge, please do.

whiskeybent - consider yourself nudged. There is a wide selection of menu offerings that really dictate a decent-sized group.

And look what a nudge can do.

Event listing posted here,looking at November 19th, 7pm.

whiskeybent wrote:As above, the anchovies are very potent, way overpowering the rest of the pizza with its supersalty anchovy-ness.

I was part of an LTH group that went to Coalfire maybe a year and a half ago after a Clark St. Ale House event and someone, maybe GWiv, ordered an anchovy pizza and the combination of the anchovy and tomato's hit like a bolt of lightening when I bit into a slice. I rarely eat anchovies - but I thought that combination was outstanding.

A large group of us went to Pizza Art Cafe last Saturday night. What an excellent place!

We split two orders of a "crostini" with their house smoked beef. I believe they use their pizza dough for the bread, but don't roll it out as much. It is drizzled with olive oil and slices of the excellent beef. We also had a large Greek salad.

The eight of us split 6 pizzas, which was more than enough. All were excellent and everyone seemed to have a different favorite. Some that stood out to meet were the spinach pizza, the white pizza, and the "four seasons" pizza. Note that you can add the house smoked beef to pizzas (and substitute it for ham on any pizza).

Service was excellent.

The room was very warm. Next time we will dress in layers.

It is BYOB, which I always like. Prices are incredibly reasonable. Three appetizers, the salad, and 6 pizzas came out to $15 per person (tax and tip included).

Whatever the state of the economy, people are still eating out aplenty if the wall-to-wall crowd on a Wednesday night at Pizza Art is any indication. Of course, when 7 LTHers can eat like gluttons and get a bill for just $108 - and the food and service are both excellent - such popularity is easily explained.

Amazingly, a single order of the $6 greek salad was more than enough for the whole table of 7. The salad had fresh, crisp greens, a nice vinaigrette, and the unusual-to-me addition of chopped mint, which really made it sing. A pleasant way to start the meal.

Pizza's ranged from pretty good to very good, my favorite being the one with hard salame and marinated hot peppers. The oil from the peppers had seeped into and permeated though the cheese, lending a spicy, but not over-the-top kick to the whole pie. The salty salame was sliced nice and thin - perfect sized cut for getting just the right amount in each bite. As with all the pizza's, the crust had some nice char, was almost cracker-thin, and had enough strength to hold up to the toppings.

Here's the picture Bill took of the salame pizza (Thanks Bill!):




We ordered some non-pizza items too, my favorite of which was this spaghetti alla amatriciana. The chef replaces the pancetta in the traditional Italian recipe with his Bosnian version of house cured, smoked and dried beef. The resulting sauce is deeply smoky with plenty of spice, and the noodles absorb all of that flavor.

Here's Bill's picture of the excellent spaghetti alla amatriciana:



Thanks to whiskeybent for planning our dinner, and to all who joined, enabling us to try a wide variety of good food at Pizza Art Cafe.

Indeed, a good time was had and thanks to everyone for coming out on a Wednesday. I think we were all pretty pleasantly surprised by the food, as well as how rocking a tiny little storefront on Rockwell became as the night progressed. Quite a change from Hammond's "Save This Restaurant" piece from a while back.

My thoughts on the dinner:

The Diavola pizza - my favorite of the evening as well. I didn't imagine that the pepperoncini oils would infuse such a great taste through the whole pizza, and the salame on top was also surprisingly good. Not too salty, either - which I think we all agreed is a problem at PAC.

For example, the salmon pizza. Overly dry salmon, and far too salty. A different source for the fish, as well as perhaps using either a creme fraiche or perhaps some of the farmer's cheese on the cevapcici would take this pizza to great places. As it is, as much as I've liked it in past, it wasn't the hit of the evening.

The pizza with the egg in the center (I forget the name as well) - I don't think that was a favorite of anyone else last night, but it was worth a shot. I think we can probably chalk the ordering of that up to the copious BYO that we all brought with us.

But the mushroom pizza, recommended by Kenny, was excellent. The bruscetta, while certainly not a standard presentation, had great bread as well as a fantastically creamy feta cheese. The crostini was good, the smoky pasta was a real surprise - very good, but not something I see myself ordering again, same as the octopus stew - and the cevapcici were really, really tasty.

And all this for $20 a piece - and that includes tip, btw. A huge feast with a very fine selection of quality foods in great company. Both Kenny and I ran down the reciept, trying to figure out if we'd been comped anything or if they had just forgotten something - not as far as we could tell, just a great value for the price.

And no corkage for our BYO - 3 bottles of wine, and 3 or 4 different kinds of beer (the Rogue Yellow Snow IPA I brought I certainly enjoyed and I think the Moylan's Kiltlifter Scotch Ale went over pretty well also).

Good times, y'all. Thanks for coming out.

whiskeybent wrote:The pizza with the egg in the center (I forget the name as well) - I don't think that was a favorite of anyone else last night, but it was worth a shot. I think we can probably chalk the ordering of that up to the copious BYO that we all brought with us.

That would be the Capriciosa pizza. I'll partly take the fall for ordering that, as I recall yammering on about how I like an egg on pizza and most people don't like it and they're crazy, blah, blah, blah, and then the pizza was ordered. But truthfully, I think a fried egg sunnyside works better on a pizza than an overeasy egg, which was on this one. Besides, this pizza also had ham on it, and I think we all agreed that ham was not Pizza Art's strong suit.

Having said that, I really enjoyed most the Diavola, especially the interplay between the salame and the acidic pepperoncini. I also liked the mushroom pizza. To me, this pizza, and the dough in particular, aims to be less "artisinal" and more of just a good rendition of "tavern style" pizza. I thought the dough showed best in both renditions of the "bruschette" and "crostini" (quotes applied because those were unorthodox versions of the traditional things).

This restaurant is cozy, warm and inviting, yet quirky (in a good, endearing way). And warm, literally. Take this advice to heart:

Darren72 wrote:The room was very warm. Next time we will dress in layers.

Was the salami on the pizza diavola pork or beef? For some reason the pic looks like beef salami but it simply may be wishful thinking on my part as my pork eating days may be nearing their end.

Here is the restaurant's menu:

aschie30 wrote:To me, this pizza, and the dough in particular, aims to be less "artisinal" and more of just a good rendition of "tavern style" pizza. I thought the dough showed best in both renditions of the "bruschette" and "crostini" (quotes applied because those were unorthodox versions of the traditional things).

aschie30's reaction to the pizzas is similar to mine - they weren't in the same category, say, as Coalfire, not as intricate and the dough was definately much thinner than earlier photos indicated - almost cracker crust in texture - and I was pleasantly surprised by that (the crust). The slightly-charred crust supported the pie toppings excellently. The Jasmin's Bruschette was a sight to behold (and taste!) - one of the stand-outs of the evening.

I hadn't been to that neighborhood before, nor had the two persons who accompanied me (though they'd previously lived not far away, and they drive close-by several times weekly) - and the three of us were impressed by the small town feel - an atmosphere and environment that the restaurant compliments very well. The restaurant is almost on top of the Rockwell Station on the Brown Line, making it easy to be reached by public transportation. It was a comfortable place and the service was attentive but not intrusive. Given the every table was full situation, food arrived in a steady flow without interruption or delay.

The menu I've posted in the comments earlier describes each of the pizzas and other foods we've been talking about.

This has been my go to pizza place since we moved in the neighborhood in May. We've tried the Spinaci, the Napolitana, and the Sicilana. Although we've enjoyed all of them, the we order the most is the Spinaci. It has a excellent balance of cheese, fresh spinach, and fresh chopped garlic. Nothing is really over-powering or salty (which we noticed with the other two). It isn't greasy and you can almost kid yourself that the pizza is relatively healthy.

The staff is incredibly friendly and I just like the over-all vibe of the place. Is it a special destination place? Probably not. But it is one of those increasingly rare neighborhood joints that doesn't feel corporate or phony. It is what it is and it does what it does well. And the Rockwell Bar has a nice selection of beer if you want to a beer while you wait for a pickup.

Also, if you happen to take the Brown line and want to order a pizza to go, call at Belmont and by the time you get to Rockwell, the pizza is cooked, boxed, and ready for you to bring home. (once the Addison/Irving Park/Damen stops are fixed, I'd call from Addison). But it's not like I have the number programmed in my cell phone - oh wait.

picked up just an absolutely outstanding pizza today, the "Pizza Art" which is described on the menu as having homemade cheese and shrimp. Turns out the "homemade cheese" is actually a sharp, homemade tsatziki, and the shrimp are sauteed perfectly with tons of garlic. Put all that atop a crispy crust with plenty of char, and I am a hell of a happy man. Pizza Art is a gem.