Angelo Caputo’s Fresh Markets recently opened its eye-catching 10^th location, in Norridge.

The chain’s namesake founder and his wife opened their original store in 1958 in Elmwood Park. Over the decades, the business expanded to Addison, Bloomingdale, Carol Stream, Hanover Park, Mount Prospect, Naperville, Orland Park and South Elgin.

The building at 4410 N. Harlem Ave. has a wavy shape designed by architect Peter Theodore, whose inspiration was the landscape of Mola Di Bari, Angelo Caputo’s hometown, the Chicago Tribune reported.

“We have spent a lot of time in Norridge, and we know it’s a great town with people who look for those imported and specialty items that we offer,” Caputo’s Marketing Manager Rossella Romana Presta says. “In addition, this location is close to the expressway, which makes it easy to get to for everyone.”

The store offers fresh produce and juices; an international deli; homemade baked goods; seafood and meats, including homemade sausage; prepared foods made with no preservatives; a variety of imported items; a coffee bar with gelato case; and hot foods, pizzas, panini and more.

The founders’ descendants continue to own and operate the chain, which is the key ingredient to its success, Romana Presta says.

“We have the values of hard work instilled in us, and we put personal touches on everything we do,” she says. “We are hands-on.”

For more, click here.

https://www.shopcaputos.com/

A new restaurant in Elk Grove Village was born out of a galvanizing family trip to Sicily. Cefalù Seaside Sicilian owner Tom Cirrincione and his wife took their three adult children — Jodi Curry, Ben Cirrincione and Carolina Eimerman — to visit Altavilla Milicia, Trapani, Palermo, Taormina and Cefalù last year. “They were so inspired by Sicily and the great food,” Cirrincione said. “That’s how they came up with this new concept.”

The restaurant with bar and patio seating meets the community’s need for a unique and more upscale eatery, says Curry, who runs the establishment with her siblings.

The pasta lineup includes cacio e pepe bucatini; orecchiette with mild Italian sausage, rapini, garlic and ricotta salata; and mezzi paccheri with tomato sauce, aged pecorino and chili pepper. Pizzas include the Cefalù, topped with Sicilian pesto, mozzarella and smoked scamorza cheese, and infused with eggplant oil. Other pizzas have ingredients such as black truffle, prosciutto, gorgonzola and salame piccante. Seafood fare includes octopus, branzino and cod, while meats range from chicken to veal to chopped sirloin and more.

The lunch menu includes sandwiches like the “meatball bomber” and a Cefalù burger made with sirloin, wild mushrooms, truffle boursin cheese and pecorino on brioche.

For more, click here.

Italian-born chef Fabio Viviani and his business partners have launched Jars, a gourmet dessert franchise whose first location opened earlier this year in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood. Presented in glass jars, the desserts feature rotating flavors such as tres leches, tiramisù, red velvet cheesecake, apple pie, banana cream pie, churros, rocky road, blueberry cheesecake, strawberry sorbet and many more. “We team up with the biggest and best names out there in the baking industry, and they provide all the components in our desserts,” Viviani told QSRweb. By August, Jars had sold more than 100 franchise units nationally and internationally. Locations in Fort Worth, Texas, and Laguna Niguel, California, are coming soon. For more, click here.

RPM Italian in Chicago’s River North neighborhood was ranked the best Italian restaurant in Illinois by the finance website 24/7 Wall St. The restaurant at 54 W. Illinois St. describes itself as “modern in approach and Italian in spirit, featuring a contemporary menu with dishes meant to be shared.” The website rates the best Italian restaurant in every state based on data from food rankings in Eater, Yelp, The Daily Meal, Fodors and Gayot and other sources, as reported by NBC5 Chicago For more, click here.

An iconic Italian restaurant that attracted a faithful following over nearly four decades is no more.

Ristorante Agostino owners Agostino Fiasche and his wife, Anna Longobardi Fiasche, announced the “bittersweet ending” of their “second home away from home” with a Facebook post on Aug. 1, marking the closure of their restaurant at 2817 N. Harlem Ave. in Chicago.

“When we migrated from Italy to start a new life in America, little did we know we would own a successful restaurant together with our family, cook for thousands of people, and meet so many wonderful clientele and staff we would call friends,” their post said.

The couple’s son, Anthony Fiasche, told Eater Chicago that his father thought of selling or retiring even before a yearlong closure following a kitchen fire in June 2021. “It was hard for them because they love the place so much, but I feel like it was the right way to do it because they went out on top. No one could ever say they had a bad meal there.”

Ristorante Agostino “ruled Harlem Avenue,” said Jim Graziano, whose family owns J.P. Graziano Grocery Co.

“I’m happy for Agostino. Selfishly, it bothers me, but I’m ecstatic for him,” Graziano told Eater Chicago. “He fought through the pandemic and came back from a massive fire, and now goes out on his terms.”

Two veteran chefs have opened Tutore, an Italian cooking school at 2755 W. Belmont Ave. in Chicago, in the space that used to hold the Italian restaurant Pisolino. Pisolino Chef James De Marte partnered with his mentor, Dean Zanella, former executive chef at Chicago Cut Steakhouse, for the joint venture.
Zanella met De Marte in the early ’90s when he hired him as his sous chef at Grappa, a now-closed Italian restaurant in Streeterville, Eater Chicago reported. The two bonded over their Italian heritage, passion for cooking big meals and how they tweaked their grandmothers’ recipes to make the dishes their own.

Executive Chef Marco Di Benedetto owned Joe and Joe’s pizzeria on the Northwest Side and then spent 23 years at Gibsons Restaurant Group before his latest gig at The Bellevue, a restaurant and lounge that opened in May at 1031 N. Rush St. in Chicago. Di Benedetto told WGN Radio 720 that for him The Bellevue is “a way to spread your wings and look at ingredients and how you can bring great things to make exciting foods.” When he goes to Italy, Di Benedetto said he travels with a suitcase inside of another suitcase, which he fills with cheese to bring back to Chicago.

After growing up eating Italian beef sandwiches in McHenry, James Beard Award-winning Chef Jonathon Sawyer gave the Chicago staple “a massive upgrade” at Kindling at 202 S. Franklin St. in downtown Chicago. Sawyer told NBC 5 Chicago that he uses 8 ounces of Wagyu beef lightly poached in broth. He coats the bun with raclette cheese and adds local giardiniera from J.P. Graziani. “Spicy, beefy, cheesy … all the things we’re looking for,” the chef decanted. “To traditions, living on in a different form.” The Italian beef sandwich was born in the early 1900s in the Italian immigrant community in Chicago.

Portillo’s restaurant chain, headquartered in suburban Oak Brook, and Quartino restaurant, in Chicago’s River North neighborhood, have opened locations in The Colony in suburban Dallas. Portillo’s “was the biggest restaurant opening in early 2023 in North Texas,” with hourlong wait times initially, The Dallas Morning News reported. That was followed by Quartino’s July opening in a 15,000-square-foot, two-floor restaurant with dining rooms, bars and kitchens. Quartino Founder and Executive Chef John Coletta, a native of New York City, designed a menu that includes a salumeria case, homemade pasta, Neapolitan-style pizza and wines from all over Italy. The original Quartino opened nearly 20 years ago.

Angelo Caputo’s Fresh Markets turned 65 this year, celebrating the milestone by opening a new store in Mt. Prospect. Founded by Bari native Angelo Caputo, the local grocery empire got its start in 1958 as a small produce market on Harlem Avenue in Elmwood Park. The chain is now nine stores strong, with additional locations in Addison, Bloomingdale, Hanover Park, Naperville, Norridge, Orland Park and South Elgin, as well as an expansive grocery store, warehouse and corporate headquarters in Carol Stream. The family business is now run by a second generation, with son-in-law Robertino Presta Sr. at the helm. For more information, click here.