Frasca Pizzeria and Wine Bar
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At FRASCA, a month-old place featuring small plates and pizza from a brick oven, our youthful server enthusiastically raved about each of our “great choices.” We wisely chose the olive oil flight, three extra virgins served with semolina bread for $5, and discriminatingly sampled the prosciutto-wrapped fontina–though it’s hard to go wrong with meat and cheese on a stick. From the “Old World Farmer’s Table” menu, a selection of cheeses, meats, and bruschettas to mix or match, we selected three bruschettas at $3 each: white beans and balsamic, smoked salmon and capers, and, my favorite, ricotta topped with honey and pistachios. We could have made a meal out of this feast of appetizers, and perhaps we should have–the rest of our dinner was better in theory than in practice. When my pizza with clams, oregano, and garlic arrived it looked great, promisingly thin and just barely charred around the edges. But you could have teethed a baby on the crust, and I’ll be breathing fire from the garlic for weeks. Desserts also sounded intriguing, but the panna cotta was grainy (and arrived in a martini glass–enough already) and cinnamon doughnut holes, served with vanilla ice cream and a honey dipping sauce, were too eggy and chewy (though they were taken off our bill when we expressed dissatisfaction to our crestfallen server). Frasca’s mostly Italian wine list offers a good selection, including red and white flights with choices steering sippers away from your more typical Chiantis and pinot grigios. –Kathie Bergquist
Hamburger Mary’s, 5400 N. Clark, 773-784-6969
Treat, 1616 N. Kedzie, 773-772-1201
