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.
ivo vino! Chicago's Italian Village Restaurants toast 79 years with a primo wine program
