Wedding rehersal dinner (Italian, ~40 people, private room)

I've searched the board and am trying to nail this down a bit more. As you can see from the list below, we would be willing to cab from hotels in the loop.

My sister is planning a dinner August 21. She's been to Mia Francesca on Clark and that is on her hit list. (She's from Detroit area , 2 children live in Chicago,).

Options that we have on the table:

Mia Francesca on Clark - I can walk to this one, so would be high on the list
Vivo - she talked to the manager who she thought was very nice
Tuscany in Little Italy - where my MIL arranged our dinner - very, very nice in private room. A wonderful experience. I would endorse this one also.

She is coming in this weekend to do some looking/eating around and I thought I'd try to help her a bit.

Any other options you could recommend? I'll be having dinner with her this Saturday and we'd like to check out another venue that you would recommend.

Thanks!

Sabatino's

We used the private room at petterino's, its a bit big, but i think it can be sized down.

Gioco has great space -- owned by the same group that owns and operates Vivo. But I think it's a much nicer space and the food is better. i did a great party in their Speakeasy Room. They do a nice family style dinner.

There's a room upstairs at Quartino that i liked a lot. The food is okay -- but for a party atmosphere it might be perfect.

I just attended a wedding reception at Maggiano's at Clark and Grand. The food was spectacular. They have a private rooms for banquets and catering; large downstairs and smaller rooms upstairs. Definately worth a look.

Definitely look into the deal at Sabatino's. It's something like 40 dollars a head including appetizer, entree, dessert, and alcohol.

earthlydesire wrote:Gioco has great space -- owned by the same group that owns and operates Vivo. But I think it's a much nicer space and the food is better. i did a great party in their Speakeasy Room. They do a nice family style dinner.

There's a room upstairs at Quartino that i liked a lot. The food is okay -- but for a party atmosphere it might be perfect.

I love Gioco. We actually had to kill off a number of places because I won't entertain a formal event with family style food.

Thanks for all the suggestions! I've sent my sister links to all the places suggested.

I thought of Salvatore's on Arlington. Have never eaten there but used to live in the hood and always thought it looked so pretty. No recent posts about it. Any comments? Prices look in the ballpark.

http://www.salvatores-chicago.com/main.html

Although I will choose many Italian restaurants above Topo Gigio when it comes to Italian in Chicago, we picked Topo as the site of our rehearsal dinner. It was great. There is a nice, private room overlooking Wells Street upstairs from the restaurant. They served family style and the room was good sized, along with a bar and bartender. The convenience to downtown couldn't be beat. The only downfall was that it wasn't cheap, but probably in-line with the others that you are considering.

Topo Gigio
1516 N Wells St
Chicago, IL 60610
(312) 266-9355

I would second the private room at Topo Gigio. We attended a rehearsal dinner there and the private room was nice and the food was really good.

The folks at Maggiano's do a lot of rehearsal dinners & similar events - they really do have the logistics down pat & do a very nice job every time I've attended one of these. Its an incredibly convenient location downtown & IIRC their pricing is very good.

The upstairs private room at Quartino is a bit dark & really, really noisy - noise from downstairs also really carries up so I think there are better options, though the food is solid. Osteria via Stato also has a private room, though I've not attended events there. Rosebud Prime has a private room that holds up to 50 or 60 folks based on a dinner I attended there, I think all the other Rosebuds also have private rooms. My boss is a huge fan of Tuscany on Taylor, so that's the place that always gets his vote.

Beverator wrote:Thanks for all the suggestions! I've sent my sister links to all the places suggested.

I thought of Salvatore's on Arlington. Have never eaten there but used to live in the hood and always thought it looked so pretty. No recent posts about it. Any comments? Prices look in the ballpark.

http://www.salvatores-chicago.com/main.html

We were there for a wedding reception two years ago, and all I can say is that we were underwhelmed and unimpressed. I join the chorus of those who recommend Sabatino's.

Beverator wrote:Thanks for all the suggestions! I've sent my sister links to all the places suggested.

I thought of Salvatore's on Arlington. Have never eaten there but used to live in the hood and always thought it looked so pretty. No recent posts about it. Any comments? Prices look in the ballpark.

http://www.salvatores-chicago.com/main.html

We had our wedding reception at Salvatore's and have been back several times since. I have nothing but good things to say about the venue, food, and atmosphere as did many of our guests. It's certainly a unique restaurant, unlike the Maggiano's and other cookie-cutter Italian restaurants out there.

Best of luck and congratulations.

She is coming in today and they will be scoping out some recommendations tonight and tomorrow. I will be having dinner with her tomorrow evening at a restaurant of her choice.

Thanks for all the help and I will let you know her impressions and finally, the decision.

Also, I just found out that the wedding will be held at the West Loop Studio space. And from reading LTH I knew all about it! Not sure who is catering the event.

This may well be a day late, Beverator, but you may want to check out the private room at Erie Cafe. Nice room - certainly seen its fair share of rehearsal dinners - and the menue has some decent Italian, although it's really a steak/chop house. Search it and I am sure there is plenty of commentary on it, and cousin (step-sister?) restaurant Gene & Georgetti, which also can reserve part of the house for a private party.

Best of luck.

Beverator wrote:She is coming in today and they will be scoping out some recommendations tonight and tomorrow. I will be having dinner with her tomorrow evening at a restaurant of her choice.

Thanks for all the help and I will let you know her impressions and finally, the decision.

Also, I just found out that the wedding will be held at the West Loop Studio space. And from reading LTH I knew all about it! Not sure who is catering the event.

I feel like jordan's food of distinction does a lot of work in that space, but there could obviously be more than a few caterers possible.