Cafe Buonaro's-Back with Gusto

I love Cafe Buonaro's. I point to it about what makes a great restaurant great. Ron Buonaro was one of the finest restaurateurs I've ever met in both how he approached the restaurant, his life and his community. His passing left a great hole in Naperville. When Ron passed away, I worried about Cafe Buonaro's. But change is the only thing that is constant especially for restaurants. I'm very pleased to say that Cafe Buonaro's appears to be alive and well. It is like going home to go in there.

If you haven't been to Buonaro's, here is the layout. It is in 5th Avenue Station towards the Loomis side. It is tucked in the corner of the building but a large sign is over the best doorway. They use the natural brick of the building as the dominant decor, but it still has that Taylor Street look to it. There are no menus just a number of wipe boards with the appetizers, entrees and wines. There is a wine list on the table to see more detail.

The food is old school Italian. Good old school Italian. When Ron passed away, my fear was the food would go downhill without a steady hand in the kitchen. Mama Buonaro (Regina) had the sense to rehire a former chef back. The food is still wonderful. I taste some differences from the past, but the basics are there and it is worth it.

We were there a few weeks ago and my wife had the Baked Spaghetti. This seems lighter than it did before, but still delicious. This is a perennial favorite to us. I had the scallops with roasted red peppers and spinach over pasta and a broth. The red peppers balanced well with the scallops. I had over 12 scallops in the bowl, not bad for $21 or so. The Baked Spaghetti is about $14.

The service is always been good. When Ron was sick, I could tell, their hearts weren't there, but now that it has been a year, they seem to be back in the groove.

This is a strong recommendation from me. It is good old fashion red sauce kind of place. They are very independent and so much better than any Rosebud or such. Give it a try.

Sola - Chicago - What a great place!

As a fuss for my birthday, my wife and I pick somewhere sort out of our sphere for my dinner. This year, we picked Sola, in Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. I have to confess that our niece used to serve there and raved about it, but we never got the time to go when she was working there. What a big mistake for us. It is a great semi casual place with wonderful servers, wonderful drinks, more wonderful food and overall a really enjoyable experience. I strongly recommend that people try it.

They have a great bar and wine list. We opted more for pre-dinner drinks than wine because of the weather and the distance. I had the drink of the month which is the Absent Minded which has Bulleit bourbon, housemade sweet potato -caramel syrup, ginger ale, absenthe, and lemon. Absolutely perfect. Powerful, but perfect. We started with the artichoke fritters which where a great start. I had the tuna which I found to be perfectly done and like almost all the items, a sort of Californian, Hawaiian, Asian twist. My wife had the Ocean Trout. The dish was great, but the fish was a little strong for her tastes and almost a little strong for mine. On the other hand, the presentation and the taste was wonderful. Son 1.0 had Lamb Chops. They looked great, but I don't eat meat, and I was seriously disappointed to not be able to try. Sometimes I put my chef hat on and nibble to see how it was done etc.

For dessert, I ordered one of the items that has a featured ingredient which in December was Chestnuts. I had the Apple-Chestnut Crepe with rum - cider sabayon, vanilla crème fraiche ice cream. Very nice finish.

The service was top notch. The room is tasteful and mildly hip. The layout was well conceived. The clientèle ranged from the tragically hip to older folk (older than me). I saw men in jackets to t-shirts.

The only connection to Naperville is that it isn't that far to find outstanding, independent restaurants doing outstanding food. Darn shame, Naperville attracts the chains and the look-alikes.

Try Sola, 3868 N Lincoln Ave. You will need reservations. They even have valet for we who don't live in the city. I want to go back and will try soon .

Grumpy Bulldog Bar-Downtown Naperville

Last night as a fling, we decided to go to the hotbed of over priced chain restaurants in downtown Naperville and go to the Grumpy Bulldog. Located on Jackson, next to Tango replaced the Red Door.

The location is small and is basically a bar, but with the twist that they have a huge selection of beers on tap and bottled. We both like craft beers and were surprised to see the huge list for a little place. They have a decent kitchen and we enjoyed the evening. I hope as a cute independent place that they can survive.

OK, this is a great place to play pin the tail on the beer menu and see what you get. They have those almost beers like Millers and what ever, but you can see that this place is about craft beers. I saw a decent back bar as well. We had four different beers last night, Shiner Cheer, Left Hand Milk Stout, Magic Hat #9 and a Unibroue Brewery (this in a bottle). All were good, or good enough to talk about and enjoy.

We had the Fish Wrap and the Eggplant Parmesan sandwich. I love Eggplant Parmesan sandwiches and hold all competitors to a little joint in the Loop that closed, Rosie's. This was very good. The marinara sauce was very good. If it came from GFS, I'd be shocked. The fish wrap was well done and very tasty. The choice of sides made it easy to not just get fries.

The server we had was very knowledgeable about the beers and made it fun.

My complaints are few. The noise was a little loud even for a football game (nice TVs). I think the menu is an evolving thing based on changes from the web page to the real menu so adding a Veggie Burger would be nice as well as maybe another veggie option.

I judge a place, even a joint like this by will I come back, will I tell anyone else and finally who will I bring back. We will be back, I plan on telling my neighbors because I think they might like a place like this and finally when our kids come into town around the holidays, we will all come in.

Not a dress up place, not fancy. My only thing I might say is I'm sorry it isn't located closer or at least someplace easier to get to. But frankly, it is places like this that make me believe that the wasteland of downtown Naperville can be recovered.

And I love the name. Check this one out.

Web page is thegrumpybulldog.com

What Makes a Great Restaurant?

Every so often, I wonder why I like some place that no one else seems to like. I used to assume it was personal taste or my quirky views on things. But there are some places I really like that fly under the radar. So why do I like these?

Of course, the food. If the food isn't at the level I assume for a place, then the deal is off. You can have exquisite settings, wonderful service, but ok food, I'm not going to like it.

Next is the service. From the moment I hit the front door, I want to feel like I'm being welcomed. Both family type dining or fancy. I don't expect a family place to be expecting me, but I want someone to greet me with a real smile and a welcoming greeting. I want a server to say hi, like they mean it. I want people to be polite and smile and not interrupt etc.

I want a clean place. It doesn't have to be scrubbed down and polished bright, but if I go into a Burger King, I really want to be clean enough to eat there. And clean enough to go to the bathroom. I've been in pretty nice restaurants that needed to have someone from the staff go in there and clean it thoroughly, please.

This isn't too much to ask, but frankly, few places do this. I guess training isn't what restaurants spend money on. Or the management is well trained either or just doesn't get it. I don't really want much, I just want to feel like I'm at someone's home.

100 things restaurant staffers shouldn't do

I ran across this blog at the New York Times a few days ago and loved it. There are a number of so so basic items and a few odd balls, but they add up to great ideas. The link to the first 50 is http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/one-hundred-things-restaurant-staffers-should-never-do-part-one/ while the second half is at http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/one-hundred-things-restaurant-staffers-should-never-do-part-2/. The
comments after these are also as odd as some of the comments. Some of my favorites are

18. Know before approaching a table who has ordered what. Do not ask, “Who’s having the shrimp?”

98. Do not wear too much makeup or jewelry. You know you have too much jewelry when it jingles and/or draws comments.

Every owner, manager and server should read these and do these. These apply to casual dining, family dining and finer dining. If a fine dining restaurant needs these, it has already probably failed.

I would add my own ideas. One of which is: dress your servers like you want the diners to be dressed. Never have your diners better dressed than the servers (Francesca's?). Also have your management dressed better than your staff.

When is a restraurant a Chain Restaurant

There is probably a definition in the business as to what is a chain restaurant, but I've thought about this a lot lately. We have a number of multi-location restaurants in Naperville, because we have dollars and diners. Some of these multi-locatoin restaurants are here because we have diners that are into the name not the food. Most of these are chains in m definition. I look at the control of the restaurant and especially the ability of an executive chef to manage a restaurant well. Can the executive chef of Ted's Montana Grill manage the quality of the food at the Naperville and Bolingbrook locations to the exacting tastes of the executive chef's I know. No, not from some corporate headquarters. He or she might wander through a few times a year look around and make a comment or two to improve the restaurant. But the exec in this case is setting an image, not judging every plate that leaves the restaurant. I remember being in the kitchen of a nice restaurant where the chef or his sous-chef saw every plate that left his kitchen and they also looked at most of the plates that came back to see what people left.

So what about the interlopers that come from Chicago? Most to me are chains since there is no way the chef can come in every day and check on things, let alone be there during many services.

And frankly, quality revolves around the fact the executive chef will watch every plate carefully for everything from presentation to cleanliness as well as watching that sauces are not too thick or thin and that portions are controlled etc. Most restaurants have someone, usually called chef du cusine, which means assistant executive chef whose job it is to run the restaurant. But you are paying for the executives reputation.

My ideal chef is Rick Bayless. This guy is a god to me because he didn't open a restaurant in Las Vegas and New York and Miami, but three in a row. He Controls the restaurant. When yo ugo there you know he was actively involved in the menu, prep and presentation.

City Meat Market closed

The only reason I know that City Meat Market is closed because I read it in the Sun. And it appears that a lot of people found out from the Sun. Hmmmm. The old fogies are lamenting the loss of yet another Naperville landmark, but let's face it, it closed years ago when it was sold and he moved from downtown to Cress Creek. That was the kiss of death. So that leaves Casey's as the place to buy meats. I haven't tried Whole Foods, but frankly I can't see how they have a real butcher in there. There might be a few others, but I use Casey's if I need meat.

City Meat left downtown because (Shock) the rents were going up. And so that space is now a shoe shop. I think an upscale shop that never seems to have a lot of traffic. But the closing of City Meat reflects a changing Naperville and one that I think may have changed too much. I'm not someone who can sit back and chew the fat about the old days in downtown Naperville. I've only lived here for about 30 years. I remember Ceebee's Grocery and a few other nuggets, but old downtown Naperville was catering to that crowd that lived in Old Naperville. And times have changed, but did they have to change so much that the stores and restaurants are boring?