Cicchetti

I didn't see a thread for Cicchetti so ...

For restaurant week a friend and I both put Cicchetti on the top of our wish list as we wanted to try someplace neither of us had been before. We headed in for lunch today and are so glad we did.

The restaurant is on the first floor of the Northwestern medical faculty building on St Clair at the corner of Erie. It's a relatively small space - half very nice looking bar, good design without being too design-y, a few large communal tables in the bar area -- and the other half a really lovely restaurant space with lots of wood and clean lines. We both liked the overall look - a touch modern, a touch rustic, not overwrought, comfortable.

Service was also really nice - our waitress friendly and attentive without being intrusive and definitely well educated on the menu. Other staff who brought courses or simply filled water glasses were also friendly and enjoyable to interact with.

The food is Italian small plates, Venetian inspiration done by Chef Michael Sheerin who was chef de cuisine at Blackbird and then opened Trencherman. The food was superb at lunch and I hope to try dinner soon. While the restaurant week lunch menu was brief, it offered a good range of options with a first course of pork cracklings, followed by some interesting options. I had Nonna's Meatballs for my second and a Pear Salad with chicken for my third while my friend had the Prosciutto with sweet potatoes and then the fritatta for her third. While the RW menu does not include a dessert at lunch. we ordered the Reverse Affogato to share which is house made coffee ice cream with a malted creme anglaise poured over and three luscious house made cinnamon donuts.

Aside from dessert, I was really happy with how light all the food was - even the Pork Cracklings with Parmesan and Rosemary are somehow airy and tasty munchy rather than heavy. It's a course I would not have ordered but now want more of! The meatballs were filling without being too much and have a sauce I could live on - and I did get every last drop with the ciabatta served with this dish. My salad was great - moist chicken breast, tasty greens with a nicely assertive yet smooth gorgonzola dolce dressing. My friends frittata was tasty and her prosciutto dish delightful.

This was a real pleasure of a meal - and while quite new, the place seemed to already be together and to have a real and enjoyable personality. I'll definitely be back to try much more of the menu - and I'll also be suggesting the bar for afterwork drinks and snacks as the offerings look great.
.

Cicchetti
671 North St. Clair,
Chicago, IL 60611

312-642-1800
http://cicchettirestaurant.com/

{LUNCH}
MON - FRI 11AM - 3:30PM

{DINNER}
SUN - THU 5PM - 9PM
FRI - SAT 5PM - 11PM

I've been working on my post for a few days and then this thread popped up. Outstanding!

4 of us stopped in for dinner last week and had a very positive experience.

We started at the bar with a few cocktails. My favorite was the sweet and slightly effervescent Stilleto (Brachetto d’acqui, Carpano Antica, bitters). I also tried a Bello Vechio (Four Roses bourbon, Carpano Antica, Amaro, maraschino) that I liked but not as much. I really liked the bar manager, Daniel Casteel. He's got an interesting and distinctive program, and was very enthusiastic to share his thoughts about it.

After drinks, in the dining room, our meal started out with a tremendous sequence -- some of the best food I've had in a long time. I mean these plates were downright phenomenal. There are so many talented chefs in town but we all have those certain chefs whose palates match up with our own. Mike Sheerin's food has always spoken to me over the years. It's inventive but also homey and comforting. His dishes are filled with little touches -- things no one else does -- that make you say "of course!" It was a refreshing joy eating these dishes. We started out with several items from the 'Antipasti & Cicchetti' and 'Insalate' sections of the menu:

Aged Hanger Steak Carpaccio | crispy cauliflower, sorrel, raisin caper aioli
This was a delectable combination of flavors that just worked great together. Aged hanger was a great, intensely flavorful foundation for the dish.

Charred Baby Squid | squid ink, black garlic, creamy polenta
The menu kind of buries the lead here because as tasty as the squid (charred and cooked in its own ink) was, the star of the dish was the creamy polenta that, again, had intense flavor. There was a sharp cheese in it that just sent it over the top.

House-Cured Sardines | horseradish gremolata
These sections of firm, meaty fish were insanely delicious, and not mentioned on the menu were the 'crackers,' which were actually pieces of pumpernickel that had been sent through the pasta roller to thin them into wide, curled ribbons, and toasted. Amazing stuff.

Handmade Pizza | aged provolone, pancetta, pickled red onion
A very nice crust and deliciously pungent cheese.

Shaved Root Vegetable Salad | light parmesan vinaigrette
A great salad in which the vegetables were truly accentuated by the well-balanced dressing.

We also had a few other dishes from these sections of the menu that I liked, but not quite as much. Pork Cracklings were very tasty. They were in a form that almost resembled funnel cakes and were dusted with a light coating of parmesan and rosemary. As Siun posted, they were quite light and not dense at all. Pancetta & Brandade Croquettes with Pickled Aioli were also very good. I though the aioli was spectacular. Nonna's Meatballs (pancetta tomato sauce, ciabatta) were really interesting but not necessarily for me. The sauce was intensely clovey and clove is just not my thing. A trio of Bruschette ranged a bit. The one topped with Tuna Conserva (pickled shallot, parsley) was sensational. The fish was fresh, firm and delicious. The pork bellly bruschetta (fennel, golden raisin agrodolce) was a little too sweet for my palate and I found the one topped with Duck Liver (cocoa nibs) very salty.

Next up was one of the pastas . . .

Squid Ink Orecchiette and Lamb Soppressata (brussels sprouts) - I loved this dish, especially the way the chewiness of the pasta matched up with the denseness and funkiness of the soppressata.

The rest of our meal, which included a couple more pastas, was also solid but a few of the dishes, while thoughtfully conceived, were too salty for where I was on this particular evening . . .

Braised Short Rib Ravioli (house tomato sauce)
Scrambled Egg Agnolotti (parmesan broth, guanciale, freshly shaved black truffle)
Venetian Seafood Stew (Madagascar prawns, lobster, mussels, octopus, in a piquillo pepper tomato stew, Italian couscous, puffed wild rice, fresh herbs, ciabatta loaf.

Desserts, for the most part, did not disappoint. Even though we were pretty full, we tried a few.

Reverse Affogato (coffee ice cream, malted creme anglaise, seasonal doughnuts) - the coffee flavor of this ice cream was intense and I loved it, in combination with the rest of the composition.

A trio of Gelati -- Vanilla, Pistachio and Cherry. The vanilla was my favorite. It was very judicious on the sweetness. The pistachio had a great aroma and a nice level of salt to bring out the flavor. The cherry was a bit medicinal IMO but my tablemates enjoyed it.

Chocolate Sorbet was as rich as a gelato and satisfyingly bitter.

After the meal we were served some house-made Limoncello, which was tart, aromatic and boozy. It was a great finish to our meal. I cannot recall our server's name but he was stellar. He knew a ton about every dish on the menu, answered endless questions from us, and gave us great advice on how we put our order together. He was no small part of why I enjoyed this experience so much.

I'm really excited to return. There were several interesting things we didn't try, including entire sections of the menu we never even tapped into.

=R=

So glad you liked it too Ronnie ... I've been thinking about my lunch since and woke wishing for more of the meatballs. Interesting comment on clove - I did not feel it was clove forward so I guess I really must rush back to verify!

Also looking at my post, it could read as not liking the Reverse Affogato so I want to say that I loved it and would happily dash in any evening for dessert!

What a good addition to our dining options - such finesse with such comfort.

I had a really great meal at the bar here last night. The carpaccio was one of the best I've had, a delicious meat festival balanced just enough with some acidic aioli. The sardines were my favorite. Their flavor was so refreshingly bright and I loved the contrast with the delicious crispy rye crackers. The pile of pork cracklings were a great crispy and slightly cheesy snack. I got the trio of bruschetta and those were all really good, except the pork belly one was slightly too salty. The best was the tender tuna conserva, another outstandingly well-flavored seafood dish. The pate with cocoa nibs was great too. For dessert I had the tiramisu sundae, which I loved. It was not a typical tiramisu flavor– it was much more muted, which I prefer, and had crunchy nutty pieces mixed in and fernet branca fudge. I only wish Cicchetti was in a more convenient location, because I definitely want to come here often.

I went to the preview for the brunch menu. Because I was comp'd I couldn't really say that much about it on Chicagoist in terms of what I did and didn't like. I wasn't very impressed with the poached egg rialto which was very bland and I was confused about the inclusion of a pot of butter on a plate of enormously buttery croissants. With the prosciutto...I mean it's La Quercia Prosciutto so there was nothing wrong with that, but I laughed when I saw someone tweet it as "seasonal" because there was nothing in-season there unless you are thinking of California's seasons. Hopefully they can include some local strawberries when they are in season because there is nothing good about bland California strawberries.

But the fried chicken, that is really really good. It's boneless, which seems to be a trend, but it's more like a roulade than any of the other boneless fried chicken I've had. It's silky and fatty. And the crust is really nicely spiced. The polenta is the same fantastic buttery stuff with the nice fresh corn flavor that comes with the squid at dinner.

I had dinner at Cicchetti this week with a group of 7 and I have to say I was disappointed. Maybe my expectations were just a bit too high going in, but I found both the food and service to be underwhelming. We also started off on a bit of a bad foot, having to wait 35 minutes for our reservation. They did come around to tell us they would give us a couple appetizers on the house, but that never materialized when the final bill came. I do have to say our waitress was quite friendly and knowledgeable, but there were other service issues that also put a damper on things, such as difficulty getting water glasses refilled and not having service items removed after we were finished.

As for the food, we started with the focaccia and warm olives, mozzarella tomato pizza, meatballs and baby squid. They all tasted fine, but were nothing special, and the squid was quite salty. The salads we ordered were incredibly overdressed to the point of being mushy, specifically the root vegetable salad and the pear salad. The sunchoke and artichoke salad was really nice and flavorful. The mains were also hit or miss. The Hake was significantly overcooked and chewy, the gnocchi was swimming in a creamy dill salad (again overdressed). I enjoyed the squid ink orecchiette with lamb, it had a crunchy garlic chili on top that added a nice texture. The other dishes people seemed very pleased with were the trio of duck, the Venetian stew and the braised shortrib ravioli, unfortunately I did not try these.

We shared several desserts, the riccotta cheesecake and the reverse affogato were excellent, however the cannoli (which were beautifully presented) was not nearly as good as it looked and the sundae's gelato didn't taste like tiramisu.

Overall, I left feeling no need to go back again.

I had the squid last night, which I previously loved, and like Raydle's it was much too salty and lacked the spiciness I liked so much. Too bad.

Per eater and the two empty boxes on Cicchetti's website (http://www.cicchettirestaurant.com/about), Chef Sheerin and sous chef Sarah Jordan are out at Cicchetti. Sous chef Phil Rubino (shown below) is stepping into the Sheerin's position.




Phil Rubino

Sadly closing this weekend per Eater:
http://chicago.eater.com/2014/10/13/697 ... shuttering

I loved this place in the beginning but I definitely saw this one coming. Had a lackluster brunch there a few weeks back, days before the big names departed. Then went back a week or 2 ago for brunch and they were closed. Ended up having an amazing brunch at Nico instead.

Sad, but I'm also not surprised. Last time I went it was pretty bad. A lot of the dishes I loved at the beginning had been ruined. The staff seemed kind of unhappy. And the meal ended with probably the worse cappuccino I've ever had in my entire life. I'll still dream about their original carpaccio and squid dishes.

I was there once in the beginning, back in February. I thought it was great. A wonderful effort for it's location and surroundings (lots of to-go joints, chain joints, etc) and thought it was a great addition to the Northwestern area. Had some great dishes like the pate and, also squid as mgmcewen writes. Though, it lacked decent press in recent months and once the announcement of the chef shake-up, I felt the writing was on the wall. Hopefully a thoughtful concept takes the space over.