115235 Fri Feb 20 08:53:52 -0800 2004 4 7 Chicago Area 0 628164 For her birthday, the Bride wished to dine at this historic N'ville spot. Formerly Washington Square, a very servicable upmarket continental place run by a nice Greek fellow that had been there for years. Steaks, chops, and a few greek-ish and french-ish dishes in a plush setting in downtown Naperville. But apparently he wanted to get out of the business and sold it to Clara's - an Italian place on route 53 in Woodridge, also older than creation, primarily notable because, it is said, Clara was Mama Celeste's daughter, and, more importantly, because of the family portraits on the walls. These portraits show clearly that the family shares a proclivity for strong chins (the kind that really needs a well-chewed cigar hanging above it) and this shows through for all ages and both sexes. The baby picture is a classic. The food, on the other hand, always left me cold. Badly seasoned, over-sauced, over-priced pasta. I swore off Clara's a decade ago. But the Bride wanted to try the new one. What to do? Carlucci in Downers called, and she bit. But for purely practical reasons (a 20% discount, and proximity) I wavered and off to Clara's we went. Dumb. The meal started pretty well. We brought the wine ('96 Miramar Pinot), so it was good. An order of Bruschetta with a sprinkle of goat cheese was quite good. And the clams in butter, wine and garlic were very good, indeed. The 16-year-old son was even being gracious, open and amusing. Things looked very good. Then came the main courses. Son's meat ravioli in meat sauce (won't say bolognese, Antonius) was tasty. Large raviolis with a savory filling, lightly sauced. Should have had that. My grilled salmon in "mushroom merlot sauce with angel hair" was actually two courses, primi and secondi. Served on a long plate, there was a mushy pile of angel hair with a nice sauce and slices of mushrooms on one side, and fingers of salmon, grilled to a tee, with the same sauce on the other. The salmon was very good, and the sauce quite tasty. The angel hair was sad. The bride went with angel hair with pesto and grilled chicken. Shall we just call this a bowl of glop? Swimming in pesto, overcooked (can you get this stuff al dente) angel hair and chunks of chicken. The taste was not bad, but the totality was awful. Maybe with linguini cooked properly and 1/4 the sauce this could have been okay, but it was not. Finished with pedestrian desserts - a comp'ed Tiramisu for the birthday girl and Chocolate Mousse for the teen. They have a full menu of steaks and chops, and the place looks exactly like it did, no change. If I have to go, I am having something grilled, or maybe ravioli. Probably much better than Sullivan's which is around the corner. That's the best I can say. Clara's on the Square Washington Street downtown Naperville. d Fri Feb 20 08:53:52 -0800 2004 0 dickson d 1 628167 Thanks for the update D. Before Clara's took over I loved the lamb chops there. Are they still available? Flip Fri Feb 20 09:15:13 -0800 2004 628164 0 Flip 2 628218 As dickson d mentioned, they have a full menu of steaks and chops, and also have many of the "continental" dishes that were served by Washington Square. We've eaten at Clara's on the Sq. several times, and my parents hosted a private party there as well (in the back room, which is nice). On each of our visits, I was very pleased with the food and service. The atmosphere and decor are very similar to Washington Square, but, in my opinion, the food and service are much better. Frankly, I think that the steaks probably are better than the Italian dishes, and are the way to go. The steaks aren't cheap, but they are much better than Sullivan's. Although I haven't yet tried them, I think that non pasta-oriented chicken and veal dishes probably also would be very good. Fri Feb 20 14:10:36 -0800 2004 628167 0 Ron A. 1 628198 d: Uh oh... What am I being blamed for?... Hopefully nothing worse than long-windedness, which I will confess to suffering from on occasion... Nicely detailed report on Clara’s... On the pasta front, you seem to have fallen prey to something I was railing against a couple of days ago: angel hair in a restaurant. This form of pasta is simply too delicate to survive the violence the average restaurant does to pasta. Even in the home kitchen, capelli d’angeli are tricky, for the slightest distraction can lead to hideous overcooking. I would even go so far as to say that one must be careful with the bowl you serve angel hair in; it shouldn’t be warmed nor should it be too deep or heavy, for the poor little fellows can continue to soften beyond an acceptable texture while awaiting their final disposition in the human alimentary canal. Please allow me more a few further remarks on this important topic. I suggest that one can take as a rough measuring guide of the authenticity and thus, to some degree, of the likely quality of an Italian(oid) restaurant by perusing the menu. If angel hair turns up in preparations with pieces of meat or fish, I would say that either the owner/chef doesn’t really know that much about Italian food OR (s)he has made a conscious choice to be Italianoid and not Italian, presumably for (understandable) commercial reasons. Such food can, of course, taste good, but I like honesty in advertising and such abuse of angel hair is most definitely un-Italian. I will endeavour to test this hypothesis by checking some menus around town.... I suspect (and hope) that places such as Coco Pazzo and Spiaggia don’t offer the aforementioned kind of pasta dish, and I bet that places such as Gennaro’s on Taylor Street (which, from what I hear is genuinely Italian-American) don’t as well, though I suppose requests by customers for more angel hair forces unwilling chefs to give in. (Assistance in this regard from Chicagoland ‘bracchi da cibo’ would be appreciated!) A final note here. Angel hair is good stuff, especially if one wants to diet, for it absorbs a higher proportion of water and one can fill up more quickly and less ‘calorically’ on angel hair than on thicker shapes such as spaghetti or perciatelli. But in the Italian tradition, such thin pasta, precisely because of its delicate nature, isn’t ordinarily served with anything big or chunky. Finally, for what its worth, what Neapolitans call ‘vermicelli’ and ‘capelli d’angeli’ are actually a bit thicker than what we get here under those names --they’re more like what we get packaged as (thin) spaghetti and spaghettini, respectively. In my experience, what is called ‘angel hair’ here is not widely used for pasta asciutta in the old country – at least not in the regions I know best. As an inveterate maccheronaro, I find it an extremely limited form of pasta, best used in soups or else with minimalist sauces (e.g., aglio, olio e alici or pomodoro e basilico). And no matter what, keep the kids out of the kitchen once the pasta is in the pot... A Fri Feb 20 11:46:16 -0800 2004 628164 0 Antonius 2 628232 Antonius, I was only referring to the recent dialogue concerning angel hair and mixing meat with the noodles - blaming it on you with tongue fully in cheek... Flip, and others: I do not specifically remember whether they offer lamb chops, but I suspect they do as they still had the veal chops, which is the one thing I might go back for. The pasta offerings are almost all seafood and creamy - almost no basic sauces other than with stuffed pasta and "al forno" offerings. Lastly, I have no doubt the grilled meats are better than the pastas, and next time I go (as somehow I will end up going), that is what I will have. And if the appetizers are any indication, it may well be an excellent meal, I agree. Sadly, that does not change what I ate, even if it was solely an ordering defect on our part. If only I had just gone to Capri. d Fri Feb 20 15:33:40 -0800 2004 628198 0 dickson d