Chicago Italians

When Alfredo and Ada Capitanini opened the Italian Village 79 years ago, Chicago's Loop was a far different place. Tall buildings were few, the Loop was the epicenter of Chicagos business activity and few people knew much about Italian food or wine. Almost none of the landmark hotels, restaurants and theaters that thrived in the Loop then exist today. So the longevity of the Village is a testament to strong family legacy, a philosophy of changing with the times and reinvesting energy and resources into the business. Thanks to a constantly evolving vision that has included adding two new restaurants and developing a premium wine program, Italian Village Restaurants thrives today.

Wine always has been part of the Italian Village menu mix, but forward thinking lead to the development of one of the best wine programs in the U.S. today.

"In the old days it was all Bolla, B&G, Ruffino and Gallo, the basic wines that everybody expected to get at an Italian restaurant," says Al Capitanini, managing partner, who runs the financial side of the business. "My uncle Ray had the foresight in the early eighties to see that wine was going to be a big thing. He bought wines in 1986 that we still have today in the cellar." The cellar was built in 1982, a move that has proven brilliant since it enabled the development of a premier wine collection that has consistently won national awards, including from the Distinguished Restaurants of North America and the 2002 Cheers Award for Best Independent Wine Program.

At the very core of the success of the Italian Village Restaurants wine program is the commitment to education. It was something they lacked before wine director Ron Balter came on board, and one of the big reasons he was hired. "Education is the number one most important thing. It's fundamental. You can have a billion wines, but if your staff doesn't know anything about them, or how to sell them, you are never going to move them," Balter says.

"Before Ron came, we would bring in the distributors to talk about grape varietals etc., but the staff only learned about the wines the sales person was trying to sell. Those wines would sell, but the other wines on the list didn't" Capitanini says. "We now have the luxury of having someone teach them about all wines. If we want to talk about Bordeaux or about charclonnay, they learn about all the wines in that category, not just one brand."

Balter's first task was to teach the staff about both service and wine varieties. He first taught a class he calls Vino 101 that covers the mechanics of how to taste wine, through the actual tasting including the how tos of seeing, smelling, tasting and asses sing the wine. Vino 201 covers how to serve wine-every thing from approaching the table to setting the table properly for wine, understanding glassware, knowing serving temperature, examining the bottle for problems and the actual service. A class in pairing wine with food follows.

These classes are taught to new hires as well as established employees, who must work one on one with Balter along with shadowing a seasoned server. "We like new hires to have some wine knowledge, but sometimes it's easier working with a blank canvas, with someone who hasn't developed bad habits," he says.

Twice a week, Balter holds classes for the entire service staff on a wine from a particular region. "We go in themes. One month we may cover Tuscan wines, another a month of dessert wine, a month of Burgundy etc. We cover wines from Germany, Spain, France, the U.S., all over," Balter says. In the months when a particular wine is covered, the sales for that wine can go up 80%

TASTE AND SEE

Twice a month he has the staff do blind tastings. Balter uses the protocol of a Master Sommelier analysis, teaching the staff to do blind tastings, to analyze a wine by criteria they learn in Vino 101 and draw conclusions so that they can identify the wine.

"Servers get good enough that they become quite accurate in the blind tastings," he says. "When you give people different cuts of steak to taste, they can evaluate based on fat content, flavor and sight. If people can tell the difference between different kinds of steak, they can do it with wine. People get intimidated by wine, but when they are trained and let their intuition take over, when you remove the pomp and circumstance associated with wine, they are able to trust themselves. It costs a lot of money to train this way, but you make so much more money if you spend the money to train."

FROM THEN....

The Village opened in 1927 with a philosophy of simple, good food, in ample portions with efficient, courteous service. The decor of that restaurant (reminiscent of a street in an Italian village, complete with a "star-studded" sky) along with the food, has changed little since its opening.

La Cantina Enoteca was restaurant number two, opened in the building's lower level by the second generation, Alfredo's sons Frank and Ray. The focus of this menu-seafood and fish dishes of southern Italy. The final addition, also opened by the second generation Capitaninis, was The Florentine Room with a focus on gourmet Italian cuisine. The baton was passed on to the third generation eight years ago, Frank's children Al, Gina and Frank, who in 1990, transformed the staid Florentine Room into Vivere, a showcase for contemporary Italian cuisine with a Baroque-Daliesque decor designed by Chicago designer Jordon Mozer.

Early Labor & Business
Italians worked in construction, on the railroad and in the factories that proliferated around the city while others went into the small trades. Before 1900, unskilled workers sometimes fell prey to padroni, labor agents who found work for their compatriots, often for an exorbitant fee. Women worked alongside men in the garment industry, second only to New York City, which spawned one of the largest strikes in Chicago history led by three Italians. Success came to early entrepreneurs such as Giovanni Garibaldi and Frank Cuneo, who together created the largest fruit and nut wholesale business in the United States.

Public Image
From the start, Italians were considered racially inferior to white Europeans and public debates in academic circles and the media carried on unheeded for decades. Rampant anti-immigrant sentiment brought about The Immigration Act of 1924 and Chicago’s Italian Americans moved to defeat it. The small percentage of criminal elements active in the Italian American community, Black Hand practitioners and those who came up during the Prohibition Era, only lodged prejudices more firmly in the public’s mind. The most publicized protest from the community came in 2001 when the Chicago-based American Italian Defamation Association (AIDA) sued Time Warner for distributing HBO’s hit series The Sopranos because of its negative portrayal of Italian Americans.

Italo Balbo’s Flight
Balbo’s headline-grabbing transatlantic flight from Italy to Chicago during the 1933 World’s Fair brought unprecedented prestige to the Italian Colony. While it reinforced italianità among Chicago Italians, their reaction to the escalating threat of war in Europe would soon demonstrate their overwhelming allegiance to America.

Neighbhood Life
Popular processions of saints, or feste, brought the community together each year to celebrate deeply held traditions and customs and enjoy favorite foods with family and friends. Hundreds of organizations from mutual-aid societies and sports clubs to business groups and regional associations helped Italian Americans maintain strong cultural ties. The love of opera cut across class lines and many Italian Americans grew up listening to the great voices of a bygone era like Enrico Caruso, Luisa Tetrazzini and Chicago’s Vivian Della Chiesa, who made her debut in the Chicago Opera in 1936.

Our Lady of the Angels Fire
On December 1, 1958, fire swept through a Catholic grammar school in a West Side neighborhood with a large Italian-American population, killing 92 children and 3 nuns. The tragedy brought about changes in fire safety standards in American schools, but it also sparked a mass exodus of families from the neighborhood, a trend that brought about the demise of the city’s Italian Colonies in the ensuing decades.

Politics
Before World War II, the Italian American community produced only a handful of political leaders, among them Vito Marzullo, a strong ally of Mayor Daley who went on to become a state representative and alderman. Frank Annunzio was the most visible political figure for many decades who fervently promoted Italian American causes throughout his three decades in office. One unwitting figure to venture into local politics is Florence Scala. A tailor’s daughter, Scala took on City Hall to protest the building of the University of Illinois campus, which eventually destroyed her Taylor Street neighborhood and most of the Hull House complex. Today’s Italian Americans leaders like Senator James DeLeo, Senate Majority Leader Debbie DeFrancesco Halvorson, Representative Skip Saviano, and Schiller Park mayor Anna Montana remain committed to serving diverse constituencies while maintaining close ties to their ethnic identity.

History

Italians first began coming to Chicago in the 1850’s. By the end of the 19th century, they were immigrating to Chicago from Italy in rapidly increasing numbers. In 1900, there were 16,008 Italians in the city. By 1930 that number had multiplied by almost five. Most of these immigrants held labor-intensive jobs; they worked for the railroad, for factories and at construction sites.

While Italian immigrants settled all over the city, the area now known as Little Italy saw the greatest concentration. As these immigrants settled and became more prosperous, they began to have an impact on the city. The Italian Socialist Federation was established in 1908, and by the early 1900’s there were several Italian parishes around Chicago. The increased activity of the Italian mafia in the 1920’s also brought Italians to prominence. The Italian Welfare Council was established in 1945; this was changed to the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans in 1952, and along with over 150 other Italian organizations, caters to the cultural and professional needs of Italian Americans in Chicago.

Little Italy is bordered on the north by the Eisenhower Expressway, on the east by the Kennedy Expressway, on the south by Roosevelt Road and on the west by Polk Street.

Community

The Little Italy community is densely populated and diverse. While many of the inhabitants of the area are students attending the University of Illinois at Chicago, there remains a significant number of Italian families living in the area. As the neighborhood becomes more affluent, young professionals have also begun to buy condominium space in the area.

The University of Illinois at Chicago is a major part of Little Italy; with over 25,000 students enrolled at the university, it is one of the largest in Chicago. A university with a strong reputation, UIC attracts a mix of students. UIC Medical Center is part of the largest medical district in Chicago; it also includes Rush University Medical Center and Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Hospital, the Illinois Medical Center, Cook County Hospital and the Veterans Administration Hospital.

Little Italy is a proud neighborhood; there are landmarks around the area that showcase Italian nationalism and culture. The National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame, founded in 1977, is “dedicated to preserving and promoting the history and heritage of Italian Americans in sports.” The Hall of Fame includes the Tommy and Jo Lasorda Exhibit Gallery, the Grand Piazza Ballroom, the Salvatore A. Balsamo Rooftop Terrace and the new Frank Sinatra Performing Arts Center.

Across the street from the Hall of Fame is the Piazza DiMaggio, built in 1998 as a gift from the City of Chicago to the Little Italy area. In the piazza is a much-photographed sculpture of Joe DiMaggio. Another landmark in the area is the Our Lady of Pompeii Church, a community center and shrine to Mary. Open to people of all faiths, the center is devoted to providing a refuge for prayer and education. Nearby is Arrigo Park, a 6-acre park whose main attraction is a large sculpture of Christopher Columbus. Named for Victor Arrigo, an Italian American who served as Illinois State Representative, the park is a picturesque haven in the midst of Little Italy.

While Chicago’s Little Italy is not a large neighborhood, it is well known in the city for its excellent cuisine. Certain restaurants along Taylor Street are especially well-known; these include Rosebud’s, Pompeii, Tuscany and Francesca’s. Dining at one of these, there is a sense of history and pleasure mingled with the knowledge that the establishment has been around for a long time. Serving good, hearty food is something the neighborhood does well.

Although less-exclusively Italian than in its early days, Little Italy is a popular part of the city offering a proud Italian culture and cuisine to locals and visitors alike.


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