Cafe Spiaggia, the less self-important sib to high-end Spiaggia—just a walk down the hall— turns out terrific Italian fare. (In Italian, spiaggia means 'beach,' and both restaurants have a pretty look at Oak Street Beach and The Lake off their large picture windows.)
Cafe Spiaggia is a very pleasant experience all around: the food is delicious; the staff, very professional; and the dining environment makes terrific use of a difficult space.
And it is an odd space: two wings, like a V, off a most deadpan entrance, two dining rooms trying to be one. Nonetheless, they have a truly Italian feel. The floors are magnificent. And I love the murals—they move the eye away from the place's geometry.
I like most the use of the triangle at table: the Parmigiano crisps in the bread basket, the way the napkin is folded, the three-point arrangement of the flatware, even how the window-side two-tops form wedges at their round tables.
You'll find some of Chicago's sharpest servers at Café Spiaggia. They balance that special sense of appearing never to be right there, even though they are, and just when you need them—to answer a question about a preparation, say, or (in their favor, too) ask if you need a glass of something to match your choice for dinner.
The menu has a sense of itself. It's all about Italy, down to the impeccable spelling of the Italian language.
This may sound odd, though I think it not, but the one thread running through the entire menu that really makes a difference is the constant use of different acidities (tomato, balsamic, lemon, caper berries, sherry wine vinaigrette, and so on).
Acid does so much to 'lift' the other flavors with which it is used. Perhaps this is one overall reason that the food at Café Spiaggia has so much flavor—which does sound odd because anyone would expect a restaurant to simply cook like that, though few do.
The bread basket is great. I'm guessing that part of it is the no-salt, Tuscan style bread—a perfect foil for food. And the Parmigiano crisps are both dramatic, the way that they sit in the basket, and delicious.
Some starter dishes:
There's a nice poaching job on the Gulf shrimp (neither under- nor over-cooked). Its tomato 'vinaigrette' tastes surprisingly fresh, given the overall sorry state of wintertime restaurant tomatoes, and the avocadoes are ripe and yummy.
Insalata tricolore: The authenticity of the mozzarella is so apparent. This is one time when a balsamic reduction works. Using good olive oil as it is here—as a dressing—is a perfect addition of flavor. All in all, a nice mélange of flavors and textures for a simple dish.
The crab cakes are generous with the meat (of course, you pay for it, too), though very salty, too. The octopus salad sports great texture for what can be a tough cookie. Super-thin slices help. And the mini-dice on the peppers makes them like eating little exclamation points.
For pasta, try the perciatelle, sort of a hollow spaghetti. Its treatment is spicy, and there's a nice flat grill roast on the serrano peppers. What looks and tastes like pancetta is guanciale, cured pork jowl, but it tastes like pancetta and that's all that matters.
The signature gnocchi are mixed in nicely with the meaty flavors and soft texture of long-braised beef shoulder—the broths and reductions that the kitchen uses are splendid all around—though the individual gnocchi are a little too pillowy. It's nice that they are light, but they don't give the teeth much resistance at all and, so, the impression is that they lack substance.
The ragu on the goat cheese crescents is delicious and very generous with wild mushrooms.
If it's offered, especially at lunch (because it's fairly light for a pasta dish), try the spaghetti all chitarra (in the manner of guitar strings): a combo of finely sautéed spinach; perfectly made and boiled pasta; and tender clams and many of them.
Entrees quite roam the sea, farm and coop.
The wood-roasted prime strip steak is a nice cut of well-aged meat, well charred and crisped on its outer skin, super tender and cooked as ordered.
The lamb chops are somewhat chewy and could be charred more on their outsides for reasons of both texture and flavor. But the Chianti wine sauce packs a lot of flavor.
And the wood-roasted filet of salmon is a prize: it's great looking dish, with the salmon riding high and proud over a bed of root vegetables and panzanella, a Tuscan bread 'salad.' There's less panzanella than I wish for (it's soooo good ). But the golden beets are like sugar cubes; just terrific.
The short wine list (you may command the larger list from Spiaggia Restaurant) is spot on. It even has a sense of humor, something wine lists aren't traditionally noted for (listing indigenous Italian grape varieties that are made into wine in far-flung places such as Oregon, Canada or Mexico).
It's fairly broad for an Italian list. This is a country that produces wine in each of its 20 regions, and many of them make it on this list.
And the producers listed (those I know) are excellent, noted for doing well in their area.
It's also good to see the range of prices. A friend ordered a glass of the Inniskillin pinot grigio. The bartender gave him a generous pour for the money, and the wine was at a perfect temperature—neither too cold nor warm.
Café Spiaggia makes a lot of points: for food, a comfortable and even dramatic space, good wine, terrific service and that special Italian sense of bella figura.
Café Spiaggia
980 N. Michigan Ave.
(312) 280-2750
Contemporary Italian
Dinner entrees from $15.50-$26
Dinner, Monday to Thursday, 5:30-10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, to 10:30 p.m.; Sunday, 5:30-9:30 p.m. Lunch, Monday to Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Brunch, Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Noise level: Comfortably animated
Full wheelchair access
Smoking at bar only
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