Cafe Spiaggia - a Tuscan foodie approved restaurant

During my more than 10 years in Brussels, I very rarely went out eating at Italian restaurants. I cannot remember of an Italian place in the “Old Whore” (my nickname for Brussels) whose flavors were really authentic. Even those restaurants that came with very good recommendations always had that little touch that ruined everything: cream in the carbonara sauce, cinnamon (cinnamon!!!) in the arrabbiata sauce, stuff like that.

When I moved to Chicago I kept the same approach. For a few months I refused to go to Italian restaurants. I would hear comments about “Cafe Spiaggia” or “Piccolo Sogno” or other places being described as authentic, and I would just laugh. Then home sickness won me over: if in Brussels I could hop on a plane on a Friday night and be in Pisa in less than two hours, I could hardly do the same from Chicago. I had to adapt. And the adaptation was surprisingly smooth, because I soon discovered that (at least a couple of) Italian restaurants in Chicago really cook authentic Italian food.

Nothing that I tested in Brussels or Paris in over ten years taste as authentically Italian as Cafe Spiaggia. I still have to try Spiaggia, the upscale version of the Cafe, but I am planning on doing it soon.

The good

Well, the food, and more specifically the pasta dishes, are good, very good. Nothing fancy, nothing that blows your mind away in terms of dishes, but this is exactly why I like it. These are simple dishes, that are very difficult to get right. If they are good, it is because the cook is using the right ingredients and it is not trying to be arty-farty.

Example: the pasta with guanciale (pig's cheek) and tomato is just how it is supposed to be: the fresh tomato gives it a very good texture, and the guanciale adds that meaty yet delicate taste. Again, the gnocchi with wild boar ragu are extremely well made: the gnocchi are soft like my grandma used to make them, and the wild boar tastes like...well, wild boar in a light tomato sauce. Again, this is how it is supposed to be.

The portions of the main dishes are of the right sizes, neither too big nor too small.

The bad

The menu doesn't contain many options, and it doesn't seem to change that often (I have been twice, once in May and one in July, and the menu was exactly the same). I may be wrong on this one, though: maybe the menu changes every season. I will have to go back in autumn to be sure. Also, the main dishes do not look that appetizing on paper. Again, we may be wrong, and they may taste deliciously, but on the menu they do not stand out as well as the pasta, and they do not sound very appetizing.

The service is ok, but not fantastic. I found myself having to try to catch the attention of our servers on both occasions we dined there. The first time I actually got very annoyed, because by the time I was able to track down our waiter (any waiter...) to ask for some Parmesan cheese, my pasta was cold. No joke.

Also, while the wine list is very interesting if you want a full bottle, the choice by the glass is extremely limited.

There is no valet parking, but you can park in an underground parking nearby, and you get a reduction by presenting the ticket to the restaurant. To me that's annoying, but I am picky when it comes to my car. I either want easiness of parking, or valet.

I want to stress though that these negative elements are far outweighed by the positive elements.

A message to the owner: just keep on doing what you do! Maybe recommend to your servers to come more often checking on their tables. Or hire more waiters.

Overall score: 8 out of 10

Cafe Spiaggia

980 North Michigan Avenue

Chicago, IL

(312) 280-2750‎