It's official: Giordano's headed to Market Place later this year
University of Illinois students will have something new to sink their teeth into when they're back in Champaign-Urbana. Sometime later this year, Chicago-based Giordano's will bring its famed stuffed deep-dish pizza to Market Place Mall, a corporate spokeswoman confirmed Thursday to The News-Gazette. "We believe that Champaign is a gr...
Contadino Will Do Full-Tilt Italian in Downtown Wilmette
Sometimes the way forward is the same way you’ve been going, just with greater purpose. So hope the owners of Contadino (1146 Wilmette Ave., Wilmette, 847-920-5962), an Italian restaurant opening in mid-March in downtown Wilmette. Compared to its predecessor in the space, The Avenue, another Italian place under similar ownership, Contadi...
Trattoria Gianni Still Thriving after 25 Years of Serving Authentic Italian
by Paul Blasco It's been 25 years since Gianni Delisi opened up his dream restaurant on Halsted Street. And in a few months, he will mark the 25th anniversary of the day his future wife walked in the front door. For Delisi, the block has changed a great deal over the past 25 years, but the authentic Italian dishes that made t...
9,200 Square Feet Of Italian Food Doesn’t Get Any Easier With Age
by Madeline Skaggs Dan Rosenthal hasn't opened a restaurant in more than 10 years. Now the man behind Trattoria No. 10 and Sopraffina Marketcaffes is about to open two restaurants in one space in Streeterville. Rosenthal, a 45-year industry veteran, is planning another Sopraffina — his sixth — and an as-yet-unnamed small-plates It...
Dolce Italian Will Debut in River North This Summer
by Penny Pollack and Graham Meyer Like Anita Ekberg, Dolce Italian (Godfrey Hotel, 127 W. Huron St., no phone yet) plans to make a splash in early summer when it opens in Italian-crowded River North. Along with a second Dolce Italian in development in Atlanta, the Chicago location will join the famiglia of Miami's Dolce Italian, a...
Tony Quartaro pays homage to his family's Italian kitchen at Formento's
"My entire upbringing is based in Italian-American food," says chef Tony Quartaro. "My grandma is a major inspiration for me, and there are pictures of me when I was 8 years old making gnocchi with my dad." Quartaro is poised to bring that traditional Italian family cooking — with a few twists — to Chicago's dining scene when Formento's opens in Ja...
Italian chef brings authentic tastes of home to Batavia
Anyone who travels will most likely agree that the best restaurants are those that are known mainly by local residents. These small eateries where the owner is often the chef survive on reputation so the food is prepared with personal passion. The Aurora Area Convention and Visitors Bureau is trying to discover these best-kept secrets by ho...
The Italian Expo Expresso
The Italian American Chamber of Commerce invites you to The Italian Expo Expresso - Tuesday, October 27, 2015, 5:00- 9:00 PM - Bridgeport Art Center - 1200 W 35th St. Chicago, IL 60609 This Tuesday October 27th, we are keeping the ball rolling on the fun and throwing our next one-night event - The Italian Expo...
Sweet of the Week: Italian Ho-Ho at Rosie's West Town Deli
The best part about childhood was snack cakes. The best part about adulthood is being able to eat snack cakes without asking permission first. Or even better, we have the wherewithal to seek out snack cake-inspired desserts that capture the best of both worlds: childhood nostalgia without any of those pesky preservatives that want to kill...
A Conversation with Viola Buitoni - November 07, 2014 at 6:00 p.m.
Join Viola Buitoni as she shares the colorful story that is her iconic culinary heritage. Weaving threads of family, love, pasta and chocolate, she'll describe how her industrious relatives turned Perugina from an exclusive confectionery shop in the heart of the Umbrian capital to the worldwide brand it is today. Viola is a sixth generatio...
Vinitaly International lands in Chicago for the first Italian participation in FMI Connect
From the 9th to the 11th of June, Vinitaly International will be taking part for the first time in FMI Connect as the co-protagonist of a project supported by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development (MISE) and organized by the Italian Trade Agency (ICE) with the aim of developing the Italian agro-industrial sector through the involvement of th...
Fontano's in Hinsdale, not far from Little Italy
Fontano's Subs has been a staple in Hinsdale since 1990 and is the third sandwich restaurant the Fontano family opened. On a recent Wednesday, Kathleen Devine arrived at Fontano's with her three sons, still in their uniforms from Notre Dame Catholic School in Clarendon Hills. They had just gotten haircuts in Hinsdale, and were squeezing in...