If it's not too late, please add me to the list of those arriving at 6:00 pm for antipasti.

In the end, I just can't resist the thought of some sweetbreads....

tarte tatin wrote:If it's not too late, please add me to the list of those arriving at 6:00 pm for antipasti.

In the end, I just can't resist the thought of some sweetbreads....

not too late at all. see you there.

Oink?

Thanks to all who provided such excellent conversation and good times at last night's dinner. Thanks also to foodbeast and the rest of the Va-P staff who set us up in a nice private room, and treated us like the dignitaries we most surely are not.

Our feast started with appetizers from the regular Va-P menu. The highlight for me was the pan seared shrimp served with a super-crispy risotto cake and pistacchio pesto with sweet, earthy flavor. I also very much liked the tender grilled octopus, whose charred flavor was brightened nicely with a tangy citrus dressing. I may not have gotten to the sweetbreads fast enough. They might have been good right out of the kitchen, but we had so much other food on the table that it was probably 15 minutes before I tried them - at that time, they seemed to have lost their texture, and I tasted mostly mush. We also had the restaurant's antipasti sampler plate, the highlight of which was a smooth-texture garlic flan. As for the rest of the antipasti, they were tasty but not varied enough in flavor for my palate. Pickled this, marinated that, by the end it all kind of tasted the same (vinegary) to me. I should note that I'm generally not much of pickled foods fan.

Antipasti were quite nice, but we were there for the pig dinner, which started with house-cured pork loin, served with arugula/lemon salad. I thought the pairing of the salad with the pork was superb. The loin was dry cured with plenty of pepper and garlic, and the super-peppery arugula (need to ask Jeff where he got such good arugula - way better than what I bought recently at Whole Foods) brightened with lemon juice and nice olive oil helped pick up the cure's flavor. My one quibble was that I thought the pork loin had been sliced just a little too thickly. Pork loin being so very lean, the thicker slices felt a little too chewy to me.

Bacon-wrapped shrimp helped prove what we learned in the antipasti phase - the kitchen has selected excellent shrimp and knows how to cook it so it's perfectly sweet and tender. The "smokehouse bacon" added nice crunch and, as the name implied, plenty of smoke flavor. Perhaps just a little too much smoke for my palate. Roasted peppers adorning the plate were very nicely prepared and delicious.

Next came a slow-braised pork belly served with chianti glazed onions. I think palates at the table differed, as I thought the unapologetically very sour onions paired beautifully with the unapologetically rich, fatty, almost-melt-in-your mouth pork belly. To others, I think the sourness was a little overwhelming.

Some of us discussed that we thought the next dish - pork cheek ravioli served in a light broth with finely diced carrots and celery - should have come before the pork belly. It was a much lighter dish. Either way, while I thought this dish had potential, it didn't end up working for me. Too much rosemary, which overwhelmed the more subtle flavors in the dish, and the broth seemed like it had been oversalted.

The meal ended with cinnamon zeppole with cannoli filling, and I'd like to return for this dish on a night where I get to taste it right out of the fryer (perhaps not possible, because I imagine that it has to cool before it can be filled). The dish was a comforting, well-put-together array of tastes and textures, but I associate zeppole with hot, fresh, fried dough. Perhaps associations from many childhood carnival visits put me in the wrong frame of mind for Va-P's dish, because the cool-to-touch zeppole were a bit of a disappointment.

This was a very nice meal had in excellent company. I enjoyed everything I ate, some of it quite a bit.

(edited to correct spelling)

Thanks again to Kenny for doing such a great job of organizing a fun and lively event!

The wines and the prosecco were also delightful....

He also summed up the dinner quite well and the DH and I agreed with most of his comments.

It was wonderful of Chef Jeff to send out the Shrimp on the Risotto Cakes with the antipasti as they were one of my favorite things! We also loved the octopus antipasti -It was a stunner, perfectly cooked!

All the pork courses were great, and I agree with almost all of Kenny's comments, so I won't re-state them all.
For me also the only low was the ravioli, which I found to be quite salty, with the pasta a bit on the al dente side for my taste, (or it may just have been the one I got).

I also would have liked the zeppole hot, even if it meant sacrificing the filling...
of course it may just be difficult to get that many zeppole to that many people at a hot temperature.

The room was beautiful and relaxing, and company and the conversation was superb!
A wonderful night!

Thank you Kenny for organizing last night's dinner.

Regarding the dinner, there were components of the meal that I really enjoyed - two that, in my opinion, were outstanding were the Saffron Deviled Egg and the Braised Pork Belly. At first, I was surprised to be served this rather conventional egg appetizer. However, the saffron added a subtle and new nuance to deviled eggs. The braised pork belly was unctuous and I could have made a complete meal of this dish. An acidic component was certainly needed to cut the richness. Unfortunately, for me, the pomegranate reduction was a little too sharp an accompaniment for this course.

I would concur with Kenny's description of the marinated dishes. Each item tasted just fine. When combined, however, they became a marinated blur. The pork cheek ravioli was a disappointment as the pasta was undercooked and the broth and the filling were both extremely salty. Hot, just fried zeppole would have been a wonderful way to end the meal - perhaps with a bowl of ricotta filling to dip them in.

Service was excellent and, as always, the company of other LTHers enhanced the dining experience.

Jyoti

I'll also add my thanks to Kenny for organizing a great event so close to my house. I'll supplement his excellent writeup with a few not-very-good pix.


Bacon-wrapped Shrimp


Pork Belly


Pork Cheek Ravioli (I especially liked the al dente nature of the pasta)

It is always difficult to provide a not-so-glowing evaluation to a gracious host. We diners should want every restaurant to succeed, particularly when the chef-owner expands upon his fondness for such stellar restaurants as Avec and Blackbird. It would be nice to say that Va Pensiero is Chicago's Babbo - or even Evanston's Spiaggia. But it just ain't so. And perhaps the comparison is unfair. It is not that there are no pleasures to be had at Va Pensiero, but it is not the "fine-dining" "jewel" that the restaurant describes itself as being. Of course, the pork tasting menu that we shared was a recession-happy $39 (Olive Garden prices for five courses), and if we think of VaPen as a mid-range, suburban Italian restaurant with some degree of creativity (it stands far above Evanston's Gio or Campagnola), it fares much better than if we compare it to Molto Mario or Paul Kahan. The question is, as always, calibration.

If VaPen is going to be a destination restaurant its space needs an overhaul. The private room was dark and lacked any design spark. It was a space to eat, not a place to see. (The main dining room is not much better). Contrast to Spiaggia and you see the point. Service was proficient, but not revealing the sleek professionalism that one expects in a Naha, mk, or the like.

My favorite dishes were the additional appetizers, separate from the tasting menu: the grilled octopus with citrus was a very creative, strong dish with the right texture and combination of flavors. I could easily order this again and remember it still. The shrimp on risotto was also luscious. As noted, VaPen's shrimp is impressive. And some of the antipasti were fine (sharing meant that I often had no more than a bite).

As for the menu itself, none of the dishes really shined, although the cured pork loin with arugula was rather nice - although not so different from other preparations. I felt that the pomegranate reduction overwhelmed the pork belly and the bacon-wrapped shrimp (good shrimp) a bit of a muddied dish with the garlic aioli. And like Jygach, my ravioli of braised pork cheek was disappointing. It may be that some of us received al dente versions, and others had dishes that were undercooked. As it came with an oversalted broth, it didn't inspire a pasta high. If an Italian restaurant doesn't do pasta right, we have a problem. The dessert - cinnamon zeppole with cannoli filling - would have been improved if served warm, perhaps with the cannolli filling to the side, as a deconstruction. Perhaps the zeppole were made earlier in the day, because mine were edging toward soggy.

When I first arrived in Evanston in 1997, I had some fantastic meals at Va Pensiero, and felt (for at least one of those meals) that the food was the equal of Spiaggia (although not the setting) and that - with the exception of Trio, VaPen was Evanston's finest restaurant. But my previous two meals had been disappointing. This dinner was a marked improvement over those, indicating that there is good food to be had, but Va Pensiero is still a work in progress.

When the pasta is right, they will come.

Nice writeup, Gary. You make a good point about calibration. I get the feeling that there was a Va Pensiero of old that I know nothing about, because my calibration point has always been closer to the "very nice mid-scale Italian" point than the top-tier destination dining ideal. Va-P exceeded my expectations, and I'd gladly recommend it to others, unless they ask me to choose between it and places like Spiaggia and Vie. I actually like the dining room and our private room quite a bit, as chair comfort, space between tables, and conversation-friendly noise level are much more important to me than sleekness and chic design. Compared to similarly priced places like Blackbird (whose main room I despise, and the private room is even worse), Graham Elliott*, and Vie, I'd take the Va-Pensiero space. Onesixtyblue might be the only similarly-priced restaurant with a dining room I like more.


*I may be doing Va-P a disservice by comparing its prices with the prices of Graham Elliott and Blackbird. I think Va-P is considerably cheaper.

Interesting response. I do admire the Blackbird space. Perhaps I like those sleek spaces because of the absence of my own personal sleekness - and you have sleekness aplenty.

And one of the virtues of LTH is to share what we know so that our readers can make their own choices. The price point of VaPen (most entrees between $25-29) is below Blackbird (entrees between $31-35).

Is Peggy Ryan still involved with Va Pensiero? I loved the place back in the early 90s, but we moved away from town for a loooong time and have never gone back. I see it no longer rates with reviewers and get mixed reviews here. Too bad. I always found the main dining room to be a pretty nice place for a secret rendezvouz.

The price point of VaPen (most entrees between $25-29) is below Blackbird (entrees between $31-35).

Ouch, it's not THAT much below. I was thinking this was kind of a silly comparison between a mid-level suburban Italian place and a high-end downtown joint, but evidently it's not.

teatpuller wrote: I see it no longer rates with reviewers and get mixed reviews here. Too bad.

teatpuller,

What do you mean when you say it no longer rates with reviewers? The only recent published review I could find was from Pat Bruno, and it was a glowing report. As far as getting mixed reviews on LTH, I think you could say that about almost every restaurant - especially the higher end ones.

kennyz

The crew at Va Pensiero doesn't think of themselves as running a mid-level suburban Italian restaurant. They define themselves as offering a fine dining alternative. Their prices are equivalent to Quince, which is now IMHO the best dining option in Evanston. (But less expensive than Oceanique).

Do I get a sense that many feel VaP was better under Peggy Ryan than under Jeff Muldrow? I can't disagree with that, although I'll also agree that Jeff was a most gracious host. The space is what it is - basically, the basement of a building that was constructed in 1915 as a place for unmarried working women to live. I've dined in the room we were in before, and it definitely reminds me of the gym (complete with stage) from my elementary school. The regular dining room is better, and even our room is nicer when filled with regular dining tables, as they do on busy days. The garden and rooftop dining areas add a lot to the ambiance when weather permits.

There's only so much they can do with the existing space - they'll never have picture windows overlooking Lake Michigan - but I'm wondering - what would others recommend to do with the food to raise it up a level in the pantheon of Chicago-area Italian spots?

Yes, a fine dining alternative.

Va Pensiero's prices about the same as or cheaper than far inferior downtown Italian places, including Coco Pazzo and Volare. It's significantly cheaper than Campagnola. Pastas, btw, are in the high teens, and I suspect many people order pasta as their entree.

nr706 wrote:what would others recommend to do with the food to raise it up a level in the pantheon of Chicago-area Italian spots?

I sure hope that's not the bar we want them to shoot for. Chicago-area Italian is mostly dreadful, and Va-P already far exceeds that bar.

Kennyz wrote: It's significantly cheaper than Campagnola.

Not according to Campagnola's web menu - prices are in the low $20s. Campagnola is that mid-range suburban Italian restaurant.

GAF wrote:

Kennyz wrote: It's significantly cheaper than Campagnola.

Not according to Campagnola's web menu - prices are in the low $20s. Campagnola is that mid-range suburban Italian restaurant.

Ah yes, my mistake. I was looking at the menu of Campagnola in NYC.

I have had other meals at VaPen that have featured really stand out entrees and desserts,
as well as some wonderful wines.
I tend to think of it as a very romantic restaurant,
with kind of a hidden away quality
I also do perceive it more on the expensive side compared to alot of Italian,
but not in the Spiaggia category, price wise obviously.
For those of us in the far far north, one of it's benefits is not dragging all the way downtown if there are not other downtown-oriented components to the evening.
That being said GAF does make some interesting points,
and I am glad one of them was how gracious our host was,
because it was nice to see how enthusiastic Jeff was about his ingredients and the concept of a rotating single ingrdient dinner.
Yes, as mentioned some items could use some tweaking,
but it was a very enjoyable evening.

Back in the 1980's into the early 90's, Va Pensiero was my go-to upscale Italian if I wanted to stay close to my then-abode in Skokie. Had a couple Xmas parties there, wined & dined some out-of-town clients there. During that time, under Peggy Ryan, it was chic, happening, funky and they turned out some great, great food. I still remember a rack of venison that I haven't had the equal to, anywhere. But I haven't been back in at least 15 years.

Thanks again, to Kenny, for putting this event together and to the folks at Va Pensiero for being such gracious hosts. As for the meal itself, I'm almost completely in agreement with the comments made upthread by Kenny. For me, the stand-outs were the garlic flan, both shrimp dishes, the cured pork loin and the pork belly.

As was mentioned above several times, there's a lot of history here and some of it is really astonishing . . .


A display case mounted on the wall near the front desk contains several mementos. I love the 'women at moderate prices' line on at the bottom of the big ad in the center.



Yes, prices have risen a bit since 1929.



Selection of antipasti
My favorites here were the Garlic Flan (far left) and the Cannellini Bean salad (just next to the flan)



Grilled Baby Octopus with Cannellini Beans and Broccoli Rabe



Pan Sautéed Tiger Shrimp served over a Risotto Cake with Pistachio Pesto



Parmesan-Crusted Sweet Breads over Wilted Radicchio Trevisano



Pork Loin, -- Dry-Cured with Black Pepper and Garlic -- baby arugula, lemon and olive oil



Crisp North Country Smokehouse Bacon-Wrapped Tiger Shrimp with roasted red peppers and roasted garlic aioli



Braised Berkshire Pork Belly with Chianti-glazed onions and pomegranate reduction



Ravioli of Braised Berkshire Pork Cheek with julianne sugar snap peas and roasted garlic



Cinnamon Zeppole with Cannoli Filling and Bittersweet chocolate glaze

=R=

Kennyz wrote:teatpuller,

What do you mean when you say it no longer rates with reviewers?
kennyz

Perhaps I was generalizing a bit. It certainly got a lot more publicity back in the day, making Chicago Magazine "best of" lists for example. That's how I found it in the first place. V.P. gets very little media exposure nowadays. That is just my impression.

Incredibly beautiful pictures, Ron!
especially in "light" of the low light they were taken in...
bravo!