2148 W. Chicago Ave. (map)
(773) 276-7567
www.atavolachicago.com
$$$

In 1987, Navy Electronic Warfare Technician Dan Bocik spent his days watching electrons zip by on his oscilloscope– and reading Rolling Stone magazine in his spare time.  An article on the CIA (the Culinary Institute of America, that is) caught his eye, and after his six-year hitch in the Navy was over, he ended up at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco.  Stints in Paris, Milan, and the Caribbean followed.  He eventually returned to Chicago and opened A Tavola restaurant in the Ukranian Village in 1995.  Four years later he bought the quaint row house next door and then personally renovated it into the intimate and elegant space that A Tavola is today.

The menu is brief, which Dan explains was originally born out of the need to run a frugal kitchen.  Without a walk-in cooler, he survived the crucial early years of the restaurant by shopping the markets daily, sometimes with just the previous nights receipts in his pocket.  The limited menu allowed him to always use only the freshest ingredients and to consistently showcase what he was best at– which is treating things as simply as possible to bring out their full, rich, and unmasked flavors.

Most of Dan’s dishes are classics and remain on the menu year round.  His gnocchi with browned sage butter and parmesan are often considered the city’s best, and the high-temperature roasted chicken with polenta and garlic spinach crackles with flavor.  The specials are seasonal, and might include a grilled sardine appetizer, or braised short ribs cooked osso buco style over saffron risotto, or assorted shellfish in a classic Ligurian treatment of oil, garlic, wine, spicy marinara, and parsley.  In the fall his signature gnocchi are prepared with pumpkin or butternut squash; in winter there’s a citrus risotto, with tangerine and grapefruit.  For dessert the perfectly caramelized apple pie and flourless chocolate cake are divine.  In the summer, Dan’s herb garden in back shares space with tables for dining al fresco.

The reasonably priced wine list includes 24 nicely selected bottles, almost all Italian.