member for 39 weeks 4 days
Rewind to three weeks ago. This is the time when my dearest girlfriend introduced me to this great guy. That night she chose the newly opened Italian Restaurant, Prosecco Ristorante and Bar, to review.
Freda: Zara and I didn’t set out to review Prosecco's but happened upon it at the last minute. We initially were going to try a new bar that carries only organic drinks from beer to wine to martini’s, everything is organic. However, it wasn’t opened at 7pm when we arrived and apparently they serve NO FOOD. Zara is the one who suggested Prosecco and I am glad that she did. First, I had so much to tell her that it really didn’t matter where we went to eat, the food was second to the steamy conversation that was about to ensue. Of course, I always bring the conversation with me.
I had recently been introduced to a guy and as you can imagine the conversation got heated very quickly. I was very excited and had to tell her every detail because that is what best friends do. It was exciting. Her eyes were wide open, barely taking even a slight second to blink. The conversation was intense. Now have you ever been in one of those intense conversations where you just wanted to talk without interruption? Well this was ONE OF THOSE TIMES. However, the wait staff at Prosecco’s was diligent about keeping us happy. Every time I would start to tell her a juicy detail the waitress or the sommelier would interrupt. It took almost twice as long to tell my story.
I had to come up for air several times to order appetizers, dinner and wine. I usually let Zara order everything for me otherwise I would more than likely just pick the same boring things that I always do and the entire exercise behind these reviews is for me to get out of my box and have new food experiences.
I really am a Pot Belly’s kind of a girl and that drives Zara nuts! So she is diligently bringing me up to her level of sophistication and taste in the foodie world and I gotta tell you I LOVE IT. She is turning me on to cooking in a whole new way. I often have stated that if I were to ever become a lesbian, she would be my woman. However, I don’t like fish. Although, Zara is even changing that for me.
First, Prosecco’s a beautifully decorated restaraunt. It has a full bar, quaint seating, cozy decorating and the food is pretty good. Remember though I am a novice at this whole review thing. I am happy eating at Pot Belly’s. That being said, I loved our first courses which were the avocado salad and the buffalo mozzarella with roasted red peppers, I thought they were delicious. I can live off of avocados, mozzarella, and tomatoes. Those are three of my favorite foods.
Upon sitting down we each received a complimentary glass of Champaign. Mmmmmm that sounds good right about now. It was a nice added touch to the start of our meal. I am not a big Champaign person but this was pleasant. The wine sommelier was very knowledgeable in his wine and was excellent at identifying what Zara wanted to compliment both of our meals, the Hanger Steak and Roasted Halibut which were both delicious in their own right. The wine Zara chose for us was the 1998 Taurasi Riserva, Vigne Cinque Querce. Zara and I have completely different tastes so it is a challenge for us to agree on a bottle. Zara has a much more sophisticated pallet than I and she likes earthier, dry wines, while I tend to like plumy, chocolatey, very berry rich, fruity but not sweet, red wines. This was a nice wine for both of our tastes.
I am going to let Zara tell you about the food. We drank to much, the conversation was full of juicy details and personal stories and I walked away closer to my friend that when we had started out. That night was a special night to me.
Oh and the complimentary desert wine was delicious. Neither of us eat dessert so we passed on the wonderful dessert menu. Nonetheless, the generous staff insisted on giving us some complimentary dessert wine which was Marenco Brachetto d'Acqui (I reckon we accidentally finished off the entire bottle!). I highly recommend this to finish your meal, it is a nice ending to a great dining experience.
Zara: One could walk straight past Prosecco and be unaware of the expansive restaurant housed inside. There are no signs out front and given the non-descript, beige brick exterior, it lacks any enticement to enter. But luckily we did.
When you first walk in you are welcomed by a long, dark timber bar and walls decorate with renaissance style paintings which are also available for purchase. We turned up without reservations at 7pm on a Wednesday night and the restaurant was near empty. I don't know whether this was because we were there early (it did not fill up that much throughout the evening) or that it was a week night, but it seemed the vacuous space had sucked the Italian ambience I think they aimed for. Well, at least it was quiet!
The staff was friendly and knowledgeable about all aspects of the food and wine menu. What truly impressed me was that while our server knew so much about Italian wine, she did not hesitate to bring out their wine director, Christian Hood, to ensure we found a wine that fit exactly what we were looking for. We started with a complimentary glass of Prosecco, a semi-dry sparkling Italian wine that instantly dressed the evening with a celebratory atmosphere. Christian suggested an interesting bottle of red that fit both of our requirements: Freda wanted dark fruit, whereas I had a penchant for forest floor. It was going to also need to pair well with Freda's hanger steak and my halibut. He recommended the 1998 Taurasi Riserva "Vigne Cinque Querce" - a perfect choice. The Aglianico grape from which Taurasi is predominantly made is native to the region of Campania in southern Italy. The grape has good levels of tannin and acidity which gives this wine great backbone. Deep red in color, its earthly minerality is well integrated with the warm, tart dark juicy fruit finish. For a 1998 vintage, this wine seemed to still have a lot of effusive youth. I am hoping they expand the countries represented on their wine menu; currently they only focus on Italian wines. Offering a choice of Spanish or French wine would allow the guest to hop off the Italian border without losing any of that Mediterranean flavor.
Our first courses were the avocado salad and the buffalo mozzarella with roasted red peppers. The avocado salad was served with chunks of lobster tail, prawn and sweet peppers atop of radicchio leaves, which added some bright color and pop to the plate. The salad was tossed in the right balance of basil oil and balsamic glaze which accentuated the flavors of the seafood so well, I would have been content having this as my main meal. The buffalo mozzarella unfortunately was nothing special. I could eat this all day but I wish chefs would apply some imagination in the preparation and presentation of this dish.
For mains we could not go past the specials of the evening: grilled hanger steak and roasted halibut. The steak was cooked to a perfect medium, and seared till it was slightly charred with just the right amount of salt to have you salivating for more. It came with a side of arugula and tomato salad topped with shaved Parmigiano Reggiano. The serving portion was generous but the steak tasted so delicious, I could have happily forced myself to eat it all. The halibut was served with shitake mushrooms and cherry tomatoes on a bed of asparagus puree. The garlic and cream in the puree made this dish taste decadently rich – we left nothing on the plate.
We could not squeeze in dessert, but from a quick peruse of the menu it offered the usual dolce you would typically see at an Italian restaurant. To finish off the evening (there is always room for more alcohol!), we were treated with a glass of Marenco Brachetto d'Acqui, a Piedmontese sparkling, sweet dessert wine that is an explosion of red fruits in the mouth. I do believe we consumed the entire bottle. That would explain the throbbing in my head the next morning.
The menu was generally reasonably priced, leaning a little on the high side particularly for the meat options. And while I thought the menu was short on originality, there were a number of options that would draw me back to this place.
Prosecco opens for lunch the week beginning May 12 - a welcome event given the dearth of good restaurants in the River North gallery district.
710 N. Wells Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
P: 312.951-9500
F: 312.951.9507
Comments
Login or register to post a comment