Last night, 7pm, we went to get pizzas, with no reservation and a convention in town, they were able to seat the two of us, very quickly I might add. No hassels from the hostess, just a friendly smile and the way to our table. Water, bread w/ super mellow olive oil and parmesan cheese quickly adored the table. Our waitstaffer told us about the specials of the day and was very nice. Watching her at other tables showed us she was very nice to everybody. Our carpacio salad was served to us very soon after we ordered. The salad was super!! The super thinly sliced rare beef was so soft it melted in your mouth. Crisp fresh 'rouggala' greens were nice and sweet. With the cheese,greens and sauce the salad came so nicely together. Well, the cappers were on the very salty side. But that was so minor because there probably were only 4 cappers on the plate. So far so good. Thin crust pizzas were next! Gee, what a bargin!! They had to be 12 inches across and the ingredients, the pizzas were created w/, fanatastic! One mushroom and one prosciutto, fresh everything, oh so good. They were very good. We each took 1/2 of our pies home. OK....the smoke from the kitchen. What's that about? Well we were seated on the level that the bar was and the kitchen was down one level, it is an open kitchen. The smoke from the cook staff, when they ""flamed up"" something in the pans overywhelmed the vent fans (I'm guessing) above the stoves which then rose up to the ceiling and then through the arched openings in the wall between the two levels to our level and filled the room. At times my eyes were watering from the smoke. You could see the smoke billowing from the kitchen it was that thick. The smoke did not have a bad smell to it, quite the contrary, a pleasent flavor of your backyard/deck grill. But still alot of smoke. Waitstaff was very attentive and nice. We'd definitely go back again. No we don't work there, we just live in the cily of Chicago. Enjoy as we did.
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