Due Lire

There are few things I love more than good northern Italian food. The flavors are brilliant, simple and fresh. The cooking is thoughtful, but without pretense. Plainly put, it's just delicious.

Lucky for me, Lincoln Square now has a solid, authentic northern Italian restaurant option. Due Lire is a recent addition to the neighborhood -- so much so that it's still B.Y.O.V. (Bring Your Own Vino) until the liquor license arrives.

Jeff and I wanted some delicious Italian food, but didn't feel much like traversing the city this frigid Wednesday night. We were having our usual "where to eat, it's already getting late" debate when I remembered two things: 1. A month or two ago, we'd noticed that a place called Due Lire was set to open on Lincoln, near his place in North Center and 2. It had just been listed as one of the restaurants featured in "The Hot List" for the February issue of Chicago magazine.

As a result of the latter fact, we decided to call the restaurant and were thrilled to learn that they could accommodate two people at 8 pm. Perfect. We grabbed a delicious bottle of Burgundy Jeff had on hand and headed out to meet the new neighborhood Italian.

The place was bustling -- on a Wednesday. Clearly, this little neighborhood spot is benefiting from both the heavy foot traffic on Lincoln Ave (located right near Tank, the popular Lincoln Square sushi spot) and its debut in Chicago Magazine. As we waited for our table with a few others awaiting seats, a patron leaving assured us that it was "well worth the wait." That's a good sign.

Neither Jeff nor I was particularly starving, so we ate pretty lightly. I started with the rucola salad, comprised of arugula, grape tomatoes and sharp parmesan cheese. It was very tasty.

For his entree, Jeff ordered the ravioli rustici, which is ravioli that's been stuffed with short rib and served in a flavorful mushroom-laced ragu. It was very good. Smallish portion by typical American standards -- definitely meant to be a starter plate followed by a meat course, but perfect for us this evening.

I had the gnocchi in a Bolognese sauce. The gnocchi was perfect. And as someone who's worked very hard to perfect homemade gnocchi, I know firsthand how hard it is to get it right. (Too much flour and the "pillows" sink like lead. Too little and they're gummy and gross. Gnocchi done well is truly an art.) The Bolognese sauce was good -- a little salty for my taste, but I certainly acknowledge that I am overly sensitive to that sometimes. Most people would probably think it was perfect.

Lastly, we had the cioccolatissimo! for dessert. That's a chocolate lava cake with delicious homemade whipped cream and a touch of amarena cherry sauce drizzled on the plate. It was quite tasty.

At Due Lire, a meal is definitely meant to be a multi-course experience so the portions are manageable. Our experience isn't typical -- on most days, we'd have needed to order (or at least split) a meat course as well to ensure that we left with full stomachs. And I can't wait to go back and do just that because the meat courses looked amazing. I especially want to try the filetto manzo, a pancetta-wrapped fillet with sauteed mushrooms and a red wine reduction.

For a salad, two pasta dishes and a dessert, the bill came to $49 with tax. (This also included a $5 glass fee.) As I noted, we'd need more food to feel satiated on a normal day, but it was perfect for tonight. Overall, Due Lire was quite reasonable... and quite tasty.

We'll definitely be back -- and I'm looking forward to it already.

Stumbling Upon Greatness: Fiddlehead Cafe

The other night, I joined my friends Jeff and Mike for dinner at one of my favorite BYOBs, Mediterranean Grill, in Lincoln Square. After dinner, Mike's wife Kristen decided she wanted to join us for a drink. As Mike, Jeff and I had already gone through both of the bottles of wine we'd purchased to accompany our meal, we decided to head to Fiddlehead Cafe across the street.

I was pleasantly surprised when we walked in. The place has a cute atmosphere that's more stylish than I'd expected. However, I was even more pleasantly surprised by their drinks list, their butternut squash soup and their service. Our server was fantastic. She was attentive without being overbearing, friendly and extremely knowledgeable. Best of all, she went above and beyond to ensure that we were having a great experience.

She brought us menus promptly after we sat down and to my delight, they have wine flights! And not "wine flights" poured from dusty bottles no one ever actually drinks, but real, interesting wine flights. One had a Chilean Cabernet and I remarked I'd never seen that before. The waitress volunteered to bring me a taste so that I could try it -- even after I decided to order another flight. I went with the "Jammy Reds," which I enjoyed very much and would highly recommend. I liked all three wines in the flight, which were true to their name and all big, jammy reds.

My favorite of the three happened to be the wine our server had cited as hers: the NV 2 Cocky Sisters Red Wine from Paso Robles, CA. That's right it's a blend -- a big honking blend of six (6!) different wines. (The breakdown is apparently 46% Counoise, 22% Syrah, 20% Grenache, 4% Viognier, 4% Cab Franc and 4% Petite Verdot.) What really matters though is that it's reminiscent of juicy black cherries, which are almost always my favorite base for a nice weeknight glass of wine. So much so that I decided to have a glass after I finished my flight. Highly recommend.

Sidenote: The Chilean Cabernet I sampled (thanks to our fab server) was also good. It's the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, Agustinos Reserva, from Aconcagua, Chile and it's featured in the "South Americans" flight. I plan to try that flight the next time I'm there.

Jeff did the Unibroue Beer Flight... Mostly because they actually HAVE an Unibroue beer flight! Unibroue is one of my all-time favorite breweries and not something you see on just any beer list. I was extremely impressed by the presence of such greatness -- 3 different Unibroue beers at one time! -- and was not disappointed. (I mean, clearly Jeff knew I'd be sampling his order.)

Unibroue Ephemere is one of my favorite beers and it happened to be the first in the flight. Ephemere is a white ale that's brewed with apples, which makes it a great Fall beer, but it's not sweet like a cider, which makes it really interesting. The next beer is their Maudite, which is a red amber. Also delicious and well-balanced -- definitely a step up in hoppiness from the Ephemere. It makes for a great transition between the relatively mild-mannered Ephemere and the dark and stormy Chambly Noir, the third beer featured in the flight. The Chambly Noir is a rich black ale that has some coffee notes (though they're not overwhelming) and is deepened by rich toffee flavors. For the life of me, I can't remember what the carbonation factor was like on this beer, but I did really enjoy it.

It should be noted here, however, that Jeff also liked the 2 Cocky Sisters red from my wine flight so much that he ordered a glass of that following the Unibroue trio -- even though he liked all of the beers and in general is a beer freak.

Mike and Kristen both stuck to Daisy Cutter, which they love, and which as of circa a week ago, Fiddlehead still had. As we were discussing Kristen's hilarious pairing of Daisy Cutter and butternut squash soup, a true blend of the seasons so indicative of the in-between time of year that is early September, the waitress mentioned that they'd just gotten all of their pumpkin beer samples in that day and were trying to decide which to feature on their Fall beer list. Since they had some extra, we got to taste a couple of those, too. Just loved her. And their Fall beer list is going to be a-mazing.

Now I must make further mention of this butternut squash soup. It was deeeelicious. If I hadn't just eaten an entire BBQ chicken schwarma sandwich, I'd have ordered a big bowl after trying Kristen's. It was rich (just buttery enough) and filled with the flavors of Fall. Then it was topped off with a hint of Sriracha crema, which is like pairing fire and ice -- a complete contradiction in and of itself that works beautifully with the soup. Brilliant.

This place made me so happy. Fiddlehead Cafe appeals to beer geeks as much as it does wine geeks -- and especially to those of us who happen to love both equally! Plus, I absolutely cannot wait to try more of the food.

DEAL ALERT: All wine flights are $8 on Tuesdays. This is definitely a great value... I guess I'll be visiting on a Tuesday in the very near future!

Mediterranean Grill: BYOB(omb)

I had planned on eating at Tank Sushi in Lincoln Square tonight, but unfortunately, I didn't make a reservation and the foodie gods were not on my side. Upon entering at 7:00 p.m., we were told that they were completely full until their last seating at 11 p.m. Note to all: make reservations if you want to dine at Tank.

Fortunately, one of my absolute favorite BYOB restaurants is located nearby -- just steps away from my favorite wine shop in the city. We made a beeline for Fine Wine Brokers and the owner helped us pick out a fabulous bottle of Barbera to go along with our upcoming meal at Mediterranean Grill. (He also made some menu recommendations. Love him.)

Mediterranean Grill doesn't look like much from the outside, but I love me some Mediterranean food and it has gotten great reviews on Yelp. Yelp didn't lie -- this place is the bomb.

Tonight, we got the Mediterranean salad, the chickpea salad, the hummus, an order of falafel, a lamb schwarma sandwich and a BBQ chicken schwarma sandwich. That sounds like a lot of food for two people -- but it was perfect because I loved every single thing we ordered. And the total was a whopping $29 for all of it!

Everything was wonderful, but the highlight of my meal was the new entry on the table -- the BBQ chicken schwarma sandwich, which comes in a pita. I'm not sure what else is in that pita, but it is delicious. The BBQ sauce -- as well as the chicken -- is out of this world on its own, but it's accompanied by a super savory side sauce with just the right amount of heat to add entirely new levels of complexity to the dish. I ate the entire thing and I'll admit that I was completely stuffed after the first half of this sucker. Way too good to waste.

Mediterranean Grill really is one of the best BYOs this city has to offer. Highly, highly recommended.