The Francesca’s chain began with the white tiled noise-a-torium on Clark street, eventually spawning the more sedate and romantic versions on Taylor Street and Byrn Mawr and coming full circle back to the noisy vault that is the Wicker Park location. Housed in a dream spot at the corner of Milwaukee and Damen, its floor-to-ceiling windows look out on all the percolating action of Six Points, but the room is a bit Spartan, all dark wood tables and hard wood floors with nary a scrap of curtain or fabric to enrich the décor or absorb the racket.
In spite of their annoying assumption that all Wicker Park diners prefer to shout their conversations, the good folks at Francesca’s are diligently about what they do best, offering tried-and-true signature dishes to devotees of good solid Italian fare, like the marvelous carpaccio di manzo, thinly sliced raw beef enlivened with lemon, capers, shaved parmesan and arugula; and the pinoli e caprino, a wonderfully cool, fresh salad of watercress, endive, arugula, pine nuts, julienne pear and goat cheese.
As a chain, Francesca’s takes full advantage of one of the few non-pecuniary advantages that chains enjoy, the ability to hone a dish in several different locations before several different audiences until it is very good, and so that it can be reproduced efficiently without losing its sincerity and authenticity. When you eat a dish at Francesca’s, you are eating something that has been given the thumbs up by hordes of diners before you, yet has not been cheapened for mass production. It’s a faithful reproduction of an ethnically correct formula that works. And Francesca’s rarely screws it up.
Case in point, the bucatini all’amatriciana, a zesty sauce of basil, onion and chili over long hollow pasta with pancetta and romano, scrumptious. Or the spaghetti al funghetto, wild mushrooms, mascarpone cheese, marjoram, brandy veal sauce and white truffle oil, magnifico! Francesca’s ranges into seafood, while remaning solidly within the realm of pasta. The lingini con frutti di mare combines shrimp, scallops, mussels, clams, squid, chili flakes and tomato sauce in a swirl of toothsome pasta.
There are other tempting pasta-seafood choices but only one dish of fish by itself, which underscores the fact that Francesca’s is an Italian-American restaurant catering to yanks who mostly think of Italian food as pizza or pasta. Nothing wrong with that as long as it’s done well, and Francesca’s does it better than most. Francesca’s pizzas also earn high marks. In fact, there are very few losers on Francesca’s menu.
Francesca’s will not bowl you over. It’s unlikely you will deem it the best Italian you’ve ever eaten. Heck, it’s not even the best Italian in Wicker Park/Bucktown. But it’s right up there. Francesca’s takes traditional red sauce Italian to the next level, offering interesting dishes, well vetted and faithfully prepared, and it does so with remarkable consistency.
Francesca’s is a keeper.
Francesca’s Forno
1576 N. Milwaukee Ave
773-770-0184 / Reservations Accepted
Hours: M-Th 11:30am-10:30pm; F 11:30am-10:30pm; Sa-Su 4pm-11:30pm; brunch 10am-3pm Sa-Su
Features: Brunch, Carryout
Avg. Price of a Meal for Two Including Drinks and Tax $99
Website: www.miafrancesca.com
Comments