Osteria Via Stato

What has been going on recently? You know, I used to be able to go to a restaurant, and then once I'm in there, I'm like "Oh, okay - this is a Lettuce Entertain You Restaurant. Okay - it sucks, but at least I know why." Now, every time I walk into a restaurant and love it, I go home, do a quick Google and BOOM - It's a Lettuce Entertain You!! It used to be just TGI Fridays and the sort - but here's a quick list of River North L.U.E.Y. spots that I adore:

-Big Bowl

-Brasserie Jo

-Nacional 27

-Osteria Via Stato

-Scoozi

-Tru

-Wildfire

-WowBao

I mean, you may have an argument against maybe one or two of these, but in large, this is a great list of fine dining establishments that serve a VERY wide and special variety of goods with fantastic dining environments. I've got no worries endorsing any of these.

But this post isn't an unpaid advertisement of L.U.E.Y. (although if anyone from the corporation would like to add me to the pay roll, I'd be more than happy to keep pumping these out (or as Ben Folds says: "People tell me Ben, just make up junk and turn it in/But I never was alright with turning in a bunch of shit/I don't like wasting time on music that won't make me proud/But now I've found a reason to sit right down and shit some out. ")) So let me continue with what we're all here for, my heartbreakingly truthful review of Osteria Via Stato.

I decided to go here only after Quartino had a 50 minute wait. I fully expected Osteria to be even longer, and actually wondered why when I heard the wait was only 10 minutes.

I had walked by Osteria about a hundred times before, thinking that it would be a typical, fairly commercial River North tourist trap. But every time I looked through the windows, it was dark (a big plus) and people were always smiling. How bad could it be? Well, as it turns out, not bad at all - in fact, it was one of the nicest dining surprises I've had in a long, long time.

We were taken to our table through a couple of doorways and hanging clothes. It was quite a treck - a really cool way to start a meal. As I said, it was really dark and furnished with rustic wood dining furniture. We sat at a six-person rectangular table with a divider in the middle and shared it with a different couple. A bit different from what you'd expect, but another cool difference. Once we sat down, I, as usual, immediately took a look at the wine list. After my many years of ordering, drinking and loving wine, I still have NO clue how to differentiate wines beyond the simple Cabernet/Pinot Noir, etc. So when I saw that they have a wine flight option for $15 where they give you three wines, getting more dark and bold with each new wine and partially paired with your meal, I was over the moon. I ordered it, and Mrs. Architecturefootballandfood ordered a Pinot Grigio, straying from her usual, time-tested choice of Chardonnay. We ordered a cheese plate to start, with Robiola (basically an Italian Brie) and the must-have Parmesano Reggiano. Then for the main course, we ordered the hand-rolled Cavatelli with mushrooms and brown butter, and Parmesan-crusted Filet Mignon. This is quite an authentic Italian dining experience, so they encourage A) eating in courses and B)sharing plates. So we shared all these plates and my God were they phenomenal.

The wine: The first was a white called Suave - too fruity for me. The second was a Cabernet called Memo - phenomenal - crisp and dark - perfect with the pasta. The third was not much different from the second and I didn't get the name. Not good enough to write about. So overall, I've had better wine, but the progression just works so well. I love wine flights and really recommend them when possible.

The cheeses: Robiola was fantastic, especially paired with this great fig sauce that they brought with it. They gave us pear and roasted nuts to cleanse the pallet.

The pasta: So tender and flavorful it's hard to describe. You could really tell that it was hand-rolled and it just felt like it came straight from somebody's grandma's farm in Santa Brigida or something.

The meat: ordered medium rare, and the flavor just flew off my fork and punched me in the tongue. This filet was freaking unbelievable. I wanted to get a different crust on it but was OH SO GLAD I didn't when I took the first bite. This was one of those steaks that was so good, A) the back of my mouth starts to ache because the saliva can't come out fast enough just thinking about it, B)I didn't want the meal to end because I wouldn't be able to taste the damn thing if it did, and C) once it did end I refused to eat or drink anything for a couple hours (i'm only human!) because I wanted to keep it in there before having to revert to memory. This was an 11/10. This was freaking 3 thumbs up. If you're in Nova Scotia reading this, this steak is worth the trip to Chicago. (Maybe not. Please don't blame me if you actually come here, order the steak, and actually say, seriously, to yourself "I don't know - I mean, the steak's good and all, but with the price of oil being what it is currently, that was one expensive plane ticket.")

My fingers hurt. Go to Osteria Via Stato. Just - shhhhhh - just go.