Of the making of Italian restaurants there seems to be no end. For the past few years in Chicago the trend among new establishments has been upscale–haute cuisine at prices that challenge, if not menace, the bank balance. The mom-and-pop eatery on whose lasagna, ravioli, and spaghetti with meatballs many of us cut our culinary teeth has, it would almost seem, become something of an endangered species.
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Though the restaurant is new, the family that runs it has been providing pizza to those in the know and in the neighborhood for four decades. The owners of Pat’s Pizzeria, a fixture in the Sheffield-Belmont area, created Pianetto’s by adding a kitchen and a dining room up a canopied stairway from the pizza joint. The dining room seats 54, and its amenities are simple–oilcloth-covered tables, paper napkins, and rough-and-ready cutlery. But there’s ample space between tables, which have fresh flowers on them. The result is a welcome civility. An added attraction is genuinely friendly service and considerable enthusiasm about the food–with good reason.
Almost as soon as one is seated, a complimentary plate of raw vegetables, delicately flavored with balsamic vinegar and fruity olive oil, is brought to the table, followed quickly by a crusty loaf of bread fresh from the pizza ovens downstairs. The bread and veggies were so good we were tempted to stop right there, but the menu beckoned. Of the half-dozen appetizers, we can recommend fried squid ($5.50), light, crisp, and just a touch oily, served with first-rate tomato-horseradish sauce, and insalata di frutti di mare ($8.95), shrimp, squid, and scallops on a bed of greens, drizzled with olive oil, lemon juice, and fresh herbs. Insalata spinaci ($5.25), fresh spinach, mushrooms, and sweet-red-onion slices, is accompanied by melted Bel Paese cheese in olive oil and lemon juice, which is spooned onto the greens at the table. It’s hard to imagine anything more unctuous.
The limited wine list seems to have been prepared with the budget-conscious in mind. The house libation, Villa Banfi, can be had for $2 a glass or $8 a carafe. We prefer the more balanced Pinot Grigio at $12 a bottle or the Chianti Classico at $13.
