"Our customers love what we do in Oak Brook in a casual setting, so I think they want more, which is more full service," said Rich Labriola.
That means chef-driven dishes with a higher level of skill behind them. But before anything arrives at the table, there is bread service.
"I designed a sourdough bread and a rustic Italian bread, the chef created this great cultured butter he makes from a buttermilk he gets from a farm in Southern Illinois," said Labriola.
As for starters, hard to go wrong with a house-smoked swordfish carpaccio, draped with pickled fennel and blood oranges; from the list of a half-dozen or so pastas - all made in-house - consider thin and delicate sheets of fazzoletti, embedded with pumpkin, hazelnuts and slowly-braised rabbit. Even more impressive, straight from their fancy extruder, campanelle pasta turned jet black with squid ink. Once tender, grilled calamari is cooked with a lemony anchovy butter, the cooked pasta is added, along with peppery arugula and oven-dried tomatoes. The dish is finished with tiny breadcrumbs, which isn't surprising, considering the entire business was built on bread.
"Butter and bread is a great experience as it should be if you walk in the door of something that says Labriola on it," he said.
So this Labriola a little bit different than the one in Oak Brook, in the sense it's really two restaurants under the same roof - a more casual caf doing breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week. Then in the back, a slightly more upscale restaurant doing lunch and dinner seven days, and if you happen to be walking down Michigan Avenue, a pretty good call.
The restaurant also has a few options for private dining and he says save room for dessert, because the gelato bar is open year-round.
Labriola Restaurant & Cafe
535 N. Michigan Ave.
(312) 955-3100
http://www.labriolacafe.com/chicago