There’s a new Italian in town, and it goes by the name of Pelago Ristorante. Appended to the Raffaello Hotel on East Delaware Place, this restaurant offers much to love.
(Tom Cruze/Sun-Times)
201 E. Delaware Chicago,60611
Phone: (312) 280-0700
Cuisine: Italian
Parking: Yes
Serving: Breakfast Lunch Dinner PHOTO GALLERY
• Pelago Ristorante's fresh new fare
If you are of a mind to try new restaurants, I would highly recommend that you snag a reservation as soon as possible. Next, be prepared to step into an intimate (only 60 seats), bilevel dining room that is cool, calm and quite collected. There are no jarring notes in the decor (I am thinking Milan contemporary). Everything, from the crisp tablecloths to the table settings and comfortable seating, is tutto a posto, or “in its place.” This is a smart restaurant.
The restaurant is part of a hotel, but I would no more call this a hotel restaurant than I would call risotto a plain rice dish. You enter through a door that is apart from the hotel, so you are not doing the lobby lambada trying to figure out where to go.
The maestro behind the menu magic here is Mauro Mafrici. Chef Mafrici knows his Italian as well as any chef I have come across.
Now, about that zuppa di fagioli e cozze, which was the first of many dishes to follow. The broth, rich and perfectly seasoned, gave up tidbits of pleasure and textural enjoyment with each spoonful. A tender mussel (out of the shell), meaty borlotti beans, perfectly al dente cavatelli. How delicious it was.
Ah, the pasta choices — exquisitely conceived, most made in-house, and done with a fine sense of Italian know-how. Check out what Pelago offers as a trio of tastes: small yet adequate portions of selected pasta creations laid out on a long rectangular plate. One night the trio boasted: Troife al pesto e fagiolini, cappelletti con ricotta e spinaci, and malloreddus con salsiccia. The translation: troife is a deliciously delicate pasta (small, squiggly shaped) peculiar to Liguria and was classically paired with a pesto sauce, string beans and tiny cubes of potato. Cappelletti, or “little hats,” has always been the pasta of the Emilia-Romagna region. Pelago stuffed these “little hats” with ricotta and spinach and gave them a gentle glaze of a pleasing butter/marjoram sauce. And the malloreddus had “delicious” written all over them. These Sardinian dumplings (made with flour and water) got a light coating of sausage ragu and a bit of pecorino cheese. I could never pick a favorite out of these three, because each was outstanding.
Entrees, with a slight dip of the nautical flag toward seafood (Pelago translates as “open sea”), are eater-friendly and Italian sensible. Ossobuco di coda di rospo was amazing. Coda di rospo (a k a rana pescatrice, monkfish, “frog fish”) is a fish where only the tail (coda) is edible. In the style of ossobuco, the fillet has a bone in the center, so in the roasting process the flesh picks up flavor and moisture from the bone, which in turn makes it quite delicious. Served with a saffron risotto (as it would be with veal shank), sauteed carrots splashed with Marsala and split-down-the-middle green beans it was a pure delight. I would have enjoyed the luxury of this ossobuco a lot more had there been some crispy chips of pancetta thrown in, but that’s a personal preference.
And then there was maialino e anatra arrosto all maggiorana. —roasted rolled pig and duck with fresh marjoram. The chef fused pork loin with duck breast, rolled it, roasted the roll, then sliced it into meaty rounds. I went at this creation with unbridled enthusiasm, the contrasting textures and flavors quite unique. Whipped potatoes, broccolini and braised fennel were the tasty accompaniments.
Desserts offered just as much enjoyment. A delicate sugar cookie cylinder filled with a mascarpone and banana zabaione was a knockout, and the small knobs of blueberry sorbet perched on top were the perfect crowning touch.
Even more enticing was the gianduiotto. A silky-soft square of chocolate-hazelnut cake got together with an Amarena cherry ice cream, and it quickly became a matter of who got to have the last bite.
But then Pelago managed to raise the sweets music to another level with a gratis offering of bocconcini, four sweet miniature delicacies arranged on a small glass-domed pedestal dish. I can’t list them all (and the offerings may change), but I do know that the miniature lemon meringue pie was the best of the lot, followed by the Valrhona chocolate tart with raspberries.
Pat Bruno is a local free-lance critic and author. E-mail brunoeats@aol.com. Listen to Pat Bruno talk about food and wine Tuesdays at 6:23 p.m. and 10:23 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 7:53 p.m. on WBBM News Radio 780-AM.
