It’s a bit of a cliché, the underperforming hotel restaurant, but it’s endured for good reason. Consider the challenges facing hotel chefs: the marathon hours, the high customer volume, the pressure to offer something to please every necktie with a breakfast voucher. Never mind the problem of motivation. Each traveling circus or T-Swift tour means a revolving door of new guests with new palates. The burden to court local, repeat customers is low.

The Hotel Phillips is battling that image with Tavernonna, its year-old anchor restaurant. It is gaining ground. Sure, the Chicago-based restaurant group DMK has skewed conservative with its vision of a modern Italian trattoria, and some miscues suggest coordination problems with back-of-house staff. But splashes of creativity hint at a brighter future for the location, where the cocktails are novel, the pastas are comforting, and nearly every dish is snowed with a conciliatory layer of Grana Padano.