NNTP-Posting-Date: 12 Jun 2000 14:15:31 GMT X-No-Archive: yes Xref: usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu chi.eats:7723 HI, Saturday evening we went to the recently moved Dave's Italian Kitchen. You walk down a set of stairs into the basement location. There is an elevator for those who need it. Right now there are no chairs in the waiting area, so everyone was clustered right in front of the door. Hopefully their traffic patterns will get better once chairs are there :) It also looks like they might be planning a bar for the waiting area, perhaps to serve waiting patrons? At the bottom of the stairs is a window into the restaurant (I think the only one) and the people sitting just below it were being blinded by the sun. They need some blinds or curtains there. When the patrons asked about it, the staff taped up a bunch of menus to block the glare. It seems like there are more seats than in the old location, and there is a room in the back that while not completely private, would be good for a big party (20 people?). The large woven swags that used to hang down and make dust are gone! The ceilings, as is standard for a basement, are very low and made of concrete. The noise level was very high, and it didn't seem like people were being expecially loud (sometimes large groups end up shouting at each other to hold conversations across a big table - it didn't seem like that was what was going on). But it wasn't terrible like it is at some Chicago hip/hot/trendy places (for example, we found the noise at Fahrenheit to be outrageous - we couldn't hear the waiter tell us the specials or have a conversation across the table) All the pictures, prints, and paintings are there from the old location as well as all of the wine bottles around the room. They even looked like they'd been washed. The rooms seemed brighter than in the old location, and there are new bread baskets and new, heavier plates. The food was as good as ever, if not better. They have new ovens, including some sort of grill (not charcoal). I love the chicken marsala/vesuvio/marsuvio variations, but they are usually soaked in butter. I asked if they could do it with a little less oil and butter and my chicken came grilled, on the same home-made pasta with mushrooms, onions, marsala, garlic and so on - it was not greasy at all. Excellent preparation! My husband had the rotini with pesto, good as ever - as was the spaghetti calimari diavolo and the spinach ricotta pie. The wine list is not quite as long as it was, they may still be moving their stock. What is there, however, is reasonably priced and almost certainly a tasty wine - but they still allow you to bring your own with a corkage fee of $5. Many of the same staff members are there, but they were also training new folk, so service was a little slow. I'm not sure if they expected quite as much business so soon after the move: they were full up with a wait by 7 pm. If you want to ensure you will get seated right away on a Saturday night get there NO LATER than 6:30. At that time they were still able to accomodate larger groups that came in (6, 10, 8). But by 7 pm there were NO tables available for any size party without a wait. It's definitely kid-friendly, there were quite a few families with kids there. However, it would not be great if the kids were wandering around. The waitstaff moves pretty quickly with big plates of hot pasta, and there isn't too much room between tables to dodge around. Dave's Italian Kitchen Chicago Ave., just South of Church St. (across from Whole Foods, downstairs from PDQ Office Max) Evanston 847-864-6000
Chicago, IL