Gaetano Di Benedetto made his name known to Chicagoans as the executive chef of the wildly popular and Zagat-praised La Piazza, but he's been a chef at world-class restaurants around the globe for years, even cooking for Italian presidents and Olympians in Salt Lake City. This impressive resume, coupled with the fact that there are only 60 seats available at his namesake restaurant, keeps the tables full and the reservation book filled out for weekends to come. But a name only goes so far, and while Gaetano’s has a notable one, does the food stand up to the chef's previous work?
The decor in the restaurant is hardly showy; artists paintings are for sale around the walls, and a strangely pleasant stained-plywood drop ceiling showcases creative ambiance on the cheap. The antipasti offer a promising variety of directions to take the night's meal. Standouts include the salmon belly carpaccio with spicy peanut sauce and crystallized garlic for $11, as well as the panzotto with stracchino cheese, wild mushrooms and champagne butter for $14. The wine list is extensive and not for amateurs; merlots and cabernet sauvignons are nowhere to be found. The dishes continue the focus on fresh ingredients and blends of flavor rather than avant-garde food sculpture. The closest thing the chef offers to a gimmick is the boneless half-chicken marinated with herbs, crushed red pepper, garlic and lemon under a brick, and the tender, flavorful result is quite worth the trick. As always, save room for dessert; the almond semifreddo with chocolate sauce is flamed with rum tableside, and disappears almost immediately after the flames do.
Average cost: $21-$30
Centerstage Reviewer: Dan Morgridge
