It Takes a Village…

By Rachelle Bowden in Food on Nov 30, 2004 4:51PM

So you’re downtown with the family doing the holiday thang, and you feel a bit famished. The line for the Walnut Room stretches to the Lake, and workaday sandwich options (Cosi/Baci/Panera/Subway) threaten to underwhelm you at every turn. What to do, you wonder. And then, you dredge up a faint memory of the Italian Village on Monroe and Clark.

Haven’t been since you went with your grandmother before seeing “Cats” in 1987? (Yes, it scared us too.) Go back immediately! Chicagoist and Co darkened the doorway of this restaurant this weekend for the first time since we were ten, and all we have to say is YUM. The Italian Village, Chicago’s self-proclaimed oldest Italian restaurant, does Italian right. Try, for example, treating yourself to the Insalata Caprese to start – big, juicy rounds of tomato topped with healthy slices of mozzarella, slivers of red onion, and a perfectly tart vinaigrette. Follow that up with a tasty plate of Lasagna al Forno smothered in a nicely spiced bolognese sauce and fuhgeddabout’it.

But here’s the best news. Get to the Italian Village in the next few weeks and you will still be in time for Mushroom-Fest 2004! Yes, right there on the front of the menu is so much ‘shroomy goodness you won’t know where to begin. Chicagoist indulged our penchant for comfort food with the mushroom and mascarpone risotto, a buttery and sweet treat whose earthly flavors were enhanced by the interesting addition of hazelnuts. And if Chicagoist were more like a cow, in the four stomachs sense, we would also have ordered the mushroom gnocchi starter. Alas, one stomach=no gnocchi.

It’s important to know that the Italian Village is really three restaurants in one. The one you want (read: remember) – The Village - is upstairs. With walls covered in small twinkly lights, the effect is evocative of either a) a hillside village or b) a ride at Disneyland – (think Pirates of the Carribean minus the animatronics), and the booths, designed to create small rooms within the larger room, come equipped with a call button that lights up to summon your waiter (which, incidentally, gets even more fun after the second bottle of Chianti). These touches alone would make the Italian Village a whole lotta fun, but when you add the almost unexpectedly good Italian food, you might just start making it a holiday tradition.

Thanks John & Susie!