First Look: Quartino, an Italian Restaurant and Wine Bar from Chicago, Lands at The Grandscape

Quartino opened on State Street in Chicago in 2005, promising an authentic neighborhood restaurant, wine bar and pizzeria in a slightly upscale yet casual environment. Recently, a second location has opened at The Grandscape in The Colony. There, you’ll be rewarded with freshly prepared Italian fare where quality and flavor contrast with the relatively low prices on the menu.
It's a rather large space located right at the heart of The Grandscape with two levels of dining areas, both inside and out. The interior beckons with refurbished subway tile, glass, wood and mirrors. The tables are plentiful but not too close together, and the many windows fill the dining area with warm, inviting light.
There are also several open culinary stations. You can watch fresh pasta being kneaded, rolled and cut at the pasta station, peer into the large open-flamed pizza oven and see Neapolitan pies being fired up, or look at all the salumi, cheese and spuntini behind an old-fashioned deli case in the back. A bread-slicing machine is prominently displayed, which can be a bit noisy. The freshly sliced product it produces is worth it, however.
Quartino is also a wine bar with several varieties of light, medium and full reds and whites available in quarter-, half- and one-liter servings as well as by the bottle. We visited recently for lunch and opted for a grapefruitcello martini, which swaps out limoncello for house-made grapefruitcello along with Absolut ruby red, fresh squeezed grapefruit juice and Aperol liquor. Light and refreshing.
For a starter (called “wine bar plates”), we decided on the white bean garlic dip. Coming in at just under $10, this was prepared with cannellini beans, garlic and olive oil and came with several pieces of hearty toasted sourdough for dipping. Other options include veal meatball sliders, polenta fries and fried calamari, the last of which the party seated behind us proclaimed the best in Dallas.

There are also several varieties of cured meat and a salumeria-tasting plate that includes two salumi and two cheese choices as well as an assortment of olives. We wanted to try the duck prosciutto but, alas, it was not available that day.
Next, we ordered a margherita pizza, a 12-inch thin pie that more closely resembled a cheese pizza with shredded basil on top rather than the more traditional version. Still, it had a good chew/crisp ratio with a cheesy topping and the right amount of spice.
For our mains, we went with a couple of pasta dishes. Quartino offers both made-in-house pasta and imported varieties. All are meant to be shared (each table has an ample supply of plates to use throughout the meal), and all are affordably priced at just under $15. But what we really love is that you can ask for half-orders of all of them, so we were able to sample two different house-made pastas: the tagliatelle alla Bolognese and the pappardelle al sugo di manzo. Both were wonderfully fresh and cooked al dente as well as being perfectly portioned for sharing. The pappardelle was especially good; the wide pasta ribbons were covered in a braised beef sauce that was rich and complex enough to evoke memories of my nonna.
Other house-made pastas include gnocchi, fettuccine and tortellini, and imports include orecchiette, linguine and a gluten-free fusilli. Next time we’re ordering four half-orders.
For dessert, we chose the torta al cioccolato, a take on a chocolate lava cake: a still-warm chocolate creation served in a ramekin topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, dusted with powdered sugar and filled with a rich, warm chocolate sauce. Again, it was just enough.

Quartino is still in the phase between soft opening and officially announced grand opening. The friendly staff, affordable and fresh pasta, decent wine list and warm and inviting dining space make this a no-brainer for those in or near The Colony.

Quartino, 5754 Grandscape Blvd., No. 200, The Colony. Sunday – Wednesday, 11 a.m. – 11 p.m.; Friday – Saturday, 11 a.m. – midnight.