Every quarter at work, a select few managers get together and we go out to dinner. Each meeting we choose who will be picking the next place we dine at and as a group we pick discussion topics on items and or tools if you will to help us better ourselves,help us grow as individuals and as a team.
This past Wednesday, the other Sous Chef at our hotel had the honor of choosing the restaurant. He chose DaVanti Enoteca, a corner plot on taylor street on the out skirts of the city of Chicago.
The layout is L shaped, you walk in, bar to your left with some really cool glass orbs if you will looking light fixtures. The kitchen is next on the left and walking by you do a double take, first you see they have a al Forno, then you see the line. The line is tiny, like the size of my make shift kitchen in my studio apartment. For those of you who have seen my place, you know what i mean. The stair are next on your left continuing down a narrow path as the place fills up with people is a staircase. From what i gather, they have a outdoor patio on the roof top, how cool is that!!! The layout finally goes left to complete the L shaped layout of the restaurant. The wood floors bring a comfortable atmosphere to the place. It has a unique style, a old yet modern Italian thing going on, all the way down to the sign saying bathrooms.
We all sit down by the kitchen, forgot to mention above it is a open kitchen, foodies tend to hover around the area of a kitchne even if they are not working.
We sit down and begin or meeting while looking over the menus, since my coworker Sous Chef chose the place, he was in charge of placing the order. Our server was very knowledgeable, yet stumbled when he first approached the table by not knowing the ragu of the day and or the pizza toppings for the pizzas of the day.
I grab a menu, and immediately begin to scan the selections, with items sticking to me like crispy pork belly, sea urchin and chicken liver. Per the waiters suggestion, we order a varirty of plates to share; It was explained to us the portion sizes were small on almost all items except the 1/2 roasted chicken and the gourmet burgers. This in turn makes it reasonably priced and plates that are sharable with a large group of people, say 4 or more.
One i hear this i put in my two sense on what i would like to see at the table for dinner as did others.
The following items are just a few that came to the table for us that evening, with a few of my insights on taste and appearance.
-Meat and Cheese: 3 cured meat, prosciutto, boars summer sausage and a sausage with fennel that when in your mouth reminds you of eating a bratwurst. La Tur goat cheese, out of this world, creamy, tangy, perfect.
-Focaccia with a soft cow cheese and honey comb: this was a hit at the table, so delicious, we ordered another one.
-White anchovies, celery, pecorino sardo, leccini olives: this was out of this world, anchovies were fresh, not overly salty, believe it our not with the the cheese being salty as well, eating with the celery helped soften that sense on the palate.
-Crispy pork belly, apple mostrata: everything was delicious, this hot the spot, two hugs chunks of pork belly that was ever so crispy on the out side as it was soft ans tender on the inside. A classic apple pairing with the mostrata.
-Linguine, sea urchin, crab: On this dish the linguine was cooked perfectly, crab soft, moist with a delightful fish aroma and flavor of the sea urchin that just melted into this fantastic pasta dish.
-The classic margarita pizza, known as Pizza D.O.C: With the al forno, and high heat you create the perfect pizza crust that is and always will be unique to DaVanti.
The evening was a success, we accomplished our meeting set the goals for the next meeting and enjoyed some great food with great people. This place has been put on my hit list so a return in the near future is imminent.
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