My two colleagues and I had finished setting up for our trade show at the Renaissance/Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg around 7:30 on a recent Thursday evening and we were tired, hungry and thirsty. I suggested Italian earlier in the day and my two work friends - one from Montreal and the other from Los Angeles - were definitely down with that. I knew of a couple Italian restaurants in the vicinity, but I did a quick search on the computer for alternatives. I found a place that was about two miles away in Rolling Meadows - Casa di Luigi. I wasn't familiar with the place and I'm always up for finding new restaurants along the way.
One of the reasons I didn't know about Casa di Luigi was that it's less than two years old. Husband/wife owners Luis Diaz Hernandez (the Luigi in the restaurant's name) and Susana Arceo Sanchez opened the restaurant in July of 2023. Both were veterans of restaurants in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago and were able to find a small restaurant space on New Wilke Ave. in Rolling Meadows to open their own Italian eatery in a building that had previously housed Mexican restaurants for a number of years.
It was less than 10 minute drive from the convention center to Casa di Luigi located just south of Algonquin Road/Illinois State Highway 62 at New Wilke Ave. (see map) We pulled into the parking lot and found a small building that looked like it may have originally been a Long John Silvers restaurant. On the front of the building was an enclosed area that appeared to be a seasonal patio. There was a heating tower in the enclosure, but I doubted they were using it with the structure closed up.
The restaurant was small, quaint and cozy. It sat - maybe 36 to 40 people, tops. The restaurant featured a low-slung ceiling with two walls that had banquette seating. An open kitchen was off to the side of the dining space. Music from 60's Italian crooners such as Jerry Vale, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra played softly in the background.
It turned out that our server that evening was the co-owner Susana. After she showed us to a four-seater table along a short wall and dropped off menus, my Montreal colleague and I immediately each ordered a Peroni. My friend from Los Angeles doesn't drink, so he was fine with water. Later in the evening, my friend from Montreal ordered a glass of the Capo Zafferano cabernet from Italy, while I ordered up an Italian Terredirai pinot grigio with my dinner.
The menu wasn't extensive, but there were a number of interesting items to choose from. Appetizers included fried calamari, crab cakes, and a pound of Mediterranean mussels served in a garlic, white wine and tomato sauce. Salads included a carpaccio salad with beets, a gorgonzola salad, and a caprese salad, and for soups they had a seafood soup, a poblano pepper cream soup, and - quite interestingly - they had gumbo made with ground Italian sausage and vegetables.
For main entrees, Casa di Luigi featured land and sea choices such as an 8 oz. beef tenderloin filet, chicken saltimbocca, veal scallopini, a Mediterranean sea bass, and an Atlantic salmon sautéed in olive oil, garlic and chili pepper flakes. And they had a few pasta dishes including rigatoni with Italian sausage and mushrooms in a tomato cream sauce, a tagliatelle pasta dish with shrimp and lobster meat, and a seafood risotto.
I was sort of up in the air as to what to get. I thought about getting the pappardelle pasta dish with a lobster tail and shrimp, and the homemade butternut squash gnocchi served with a beef short rib and mushroom ragout really sounded good. But in the end I ordered the fettuccine alfredo with shrimp. The ridge of the pasta bowl was sprinkled with paprika and there were a lot of shrimp included with the pasta. And I mean a lot of shrimp. There was at least 10 medium-sized shrimp included with the fettuccine alfredo. Susasa provided some red pepper flakes to give the dish a bit more of a kick. It was simple, yet delicious. And the slightly-chilled Italian pinot grigio went very well with the meal.
My vegetarian friend from Montreal got the risotto ai funghi - Italian rice mixed with mushrooms sautéed with shallots and garlic in a white wine demi glace. It was topped with parmesan cheese and a truffle pesto. He said that the risotto was "excellent". And it was exactly what he was looking for. But it was also very rich and he ended up eating all but about a quarter of the dish that was given to him.
And my colleague from Los Angeles had a special order for Susana. "I see that you have an arrabbiata sauce. Can I just get some fettuccine noodles with the arrabbiata sauce?" Susana asked him if he wanted some sausage or chicken included and he said, nope - just the fettuccine with the arrabbiata sauce.
And that's exactly what he got. His dish was also sprinkled with paprika on the ridge and garnished with a parsley. After a couple bites, my friend stopped and said, "Oh, you guys. This is hotter than hell! But I love it!" He offered me a single fettuccine noodle and put it on the ridge of my dish. I twirled it up and ate it. Oh man! Was it EVER spicy! I said that the chef had to dump at least a couple of tablespoons of spicy red pepper flakes in the sauce. But, hey, my friend was happy with what he got. (Although he said he suffered the next morning from the meal.)
I have to say that Casa di Luigi was a good little find for us. First of all, the service we got from Susana was impeccable. She was accommodating, considerate and just a sweetheart all evening long. We told her we were over at the trade show at the convention center and she gave me some of their cards to hand out to other people looking for a good meal while they were in town. And I did! I can't say that the food at Casa di Luigi was the best Italian food I've ever had, but it was well above average with plentiful portions. Casa di Luigi is one of those great little family-run places that I love to find when I'm on the road.