CheekyChicago

I’ve been to Thyme. I’ve been to Timo. And now I’ve been to Piccolo Sogno. Well, guess what? Third time’s a charm for this somewhat off-the-beaten-path restaurant on the corner of Halsted, Grand and Milwaukee. They were not lying when they named this place Piccolo Sogno…and it didn’t take long for this Italian minor to realize that the restaurant lived up to its Italian moniker: Little Dream.

Chef Tony cooked the following meal for us, complete with wine pairings and tableside explanations. I hope my list does the meal justice:

Dream #1: Burrato con Culatello (Pugliese, hand-stuffed mozzarella and artisan-style prosciutto). I’ve known me to enjoy some mozzarella and prosciutto, but I have never had mozzarella this creamy and fresh in my entire life. I didn’t even know mozzarella could be creamy. It melted like a small cloud in my mouth.

Dream #2: Salsicce con Fagioli (grilled boar sausage, stewed with white beans). An obviously adventurous choice, Chef Tony recommended it so…I bit. And bit and bit and bit… until it was all gone.

Dream #3: Ravioli ‘Piccolo Sogno’ (four-cheese ravioli, pine nuts, butter, marsala glaze and parmesan shavings). This, too, was named appropriately. A little dream ravioli was precisely what it was.

Dream #4: Pappardelle con Cinghiale (wide noodles in a spiced wild boar stew). Chef Tony apparently turned me on to boar – this was, by far, my favorite pasta of the evening.

Dream #5: Black truffle risotto in a porcini broth. Definitely on a carbohydrate overload, the black truffles combined with one of my favorite textural foods, risotto, convinced me that I could never be a follower of that crazy Dr. Atkins.

Dream #6: Pesce Intero (whole roasted Mediterranean sea bass). Almost completely naked, this whole roasted fish was dressed in nothing but sea salt, braised fennel, a few blood orange slices and a very light caper reduction. With fish this fresh and so clean, clean, it needed absolutely nothing more. This sea bass was, for sure, my happy ending – it cleansed my palate more than sorbet, more than wine, more than water.

Dream #7: Tortino di Ciocolatto (chocolate hazelnut cake with gelato). They say the number seven is lucky. It must be because they (whomever they are) tasted my seventh course at Piccolo Sogno: dessert. I could never find anything wrong with chocolate and hazelnut, but I could never find anything more right than pairing it with homemade dark chocolate, vanilla and pistachio gelato. I take back my sea bass happy ending. This was the happiest of all endings.

Chef Tony Priolo and our obscenely awesome server, Rich, welcomed us into their little Italian home of dreams with open arms (and open bottles of wine). We left just a little bit fuller, a little more wine-drenched and a whole lot happier. It’s nice to see a restaurant live up to its name.