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EJ’s Place in suburban Skokie might not seem like the kind of restaurant that would be nimble in the time of a crisis. The place looks like an an old-fashioned Wisconsin supper club from the 1950s landed in the north suburbs and features a menu stuffed with large cuts of meat and Italian comfort food. Traditional and comforting? Yes. But pioneering...

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When COVID-19 hit Chicago, owner Dimitri Syrkin-Nikolau of Dimo’s Pizza saw it coming. He spoke with his staff about the uncertain moment ahead and enlisted them to generate ideas. At first, he revamped the takeout menu, adding new options like pizza and focaccia kits. Like most business owners, he wasn’t sure how to react. He had worked in pizzeri...

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In the U.K. and Canada, they call it Boxing Day, but in my Chicago family, the day after Christmas is something else entirely: Beefmas. The rules of this sacred, completely-made-up holiday are pretty simple: every Dec. 26, my brother and I go see a movie, and then we get Italian beef sandwiches. The tradition began about 10 years ago, when I first...

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When customers lined up at Emilia Pontarelli’s cash register at Tony’s Italian Deli on Northwest Highway in Edison Park, they felt like they’d been adopted by an Italian nonna. She’d ask when they were going to get married. If they bought her homemade lasagna, sugo (sauce) or giardiniera, she’d say approvingly: “Mama’s cooking for you tonight.” If...

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You can’t go to Riviera Foods without getting a Diavolo ($6.50). That’s just the food rules, I don’t make them. The sandwich (formerly known as the Will Special, named after the late regular who created it) takes a 9-inch length of crisp-crusted French bread, then fills it with fatty layers of spicy soppressata, hot capocollo, salty prosciutto, cur...

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Fred Rosati loved people. Even in his last few years, the patriarch of the Rosati’s Pizza restaurant group—who died March 30 at age 102 in Cave Creek—would strike up conversations with fellow shoppers at area stores. “He’d go to Walmart with his caretaker, get a motorized cart and talk to everyone” said his daughter, Regina Rosati, with a laugh. “H...

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Five-time Oscar winner Federico Fellini once said, “A different language is a different vision of life.” As a world-renowned film director, Fellini captured many aspects of life through his lens, immersing us in various cultures. Fellini believed that exposure to different languages forces us to see the world from the perspective of the people who...

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If you didn't know that actor Joe Mantegna played in a garage band called the Apocryphals in high school and college, you're not alone. I had the privilege of getting the story from the man himself, and as far as I'm aware, what you're about to read is the most detailed account of the group's history published anywhere. Mantegna was born in Chicago...

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As local hospitals respond to the coronavirus pandemic, a Jeffersonville restaurant is showing its support by giving out free meals to healthcare workers. Parnelli’s Chicago Eatery, a restaurant that opened three months ago on 10th Street, is providing lunches and dinners to staff at Clark Memorial Health through its “Feed A Floor” campaign, and it...

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Giovanni Insolia grew up in Solarino, a small Sicilian town in the province of Siracusa. One of six children born to Paolo and Sebastiana Teodoro Insolia, he was surrounded by extended family throughout his childhood. Insolia’s father made very little money as the town barber, in most cases receiving goods like wheat in exchange for his services. W...

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