Ascione Bistro, a highly anticipated Italian restaurant, has opened at the Hyde Park Shopping Center, 1500 E. 55th St., offering both classic and modern Italian dishes prepared by Chef Gaetano Ascione. The bistro is in a “soft opening” mode with a limited menu now while staff is being hired and trained, but Chef Ascione expects that to change in the next few weeks. 

Ascione is from Naples, Italy but he has worked in Chicago for 5 years. He was a chef at Gioco, an Italian restaurant in the South Loop located at 1312 S. Wabash Ave., before it closed in 2018 after 19 years. Before he committed to coming to Hyde Park to open Ascione Bistro, the chef was steered away from the South Side.