About a year ago, my wife and I were in Chicago for our anniversary weekend and we went to Taylor Street in the heart of the present day Little Italy in Chicago to have dinner one evening. We didn't have reservations, we thought we'd see if we could get into a place, even if we had to wait at the bar for awhile. We started out toward the west end of Taylor Street in Little Italy and we went into a little place on the north side of the street around 6:45 that evening. The place was small, cozy and quaint - and it was less than half full. We thought we'd hit the jackpot on the first place we had stopped, but then a lady came out from the back of the restaurant to ask if we had any reservations. When we told her we did not, she said, "I'm sorry, but we probably won't be able to seat you until after 9 p.m." I was incredulous, pointing out the empty tables and she said, "We have a number of reservations starting at 7:00 p.m. and going through to 8 p.m. We just couldn't get you in until after 9, but possibly earlier." We decided to trudge on to look for another place, which we found down the street. But this little place was also in the back of my mind, and on a recent trip into Chicago with my wife we ended up going back to RoSal's for dinner.
Salvatore "Sol" Perry was born in Chicago to Italian immigrants who lived in the present day Little Italy. When he was growing up, his father bought a bakery and the young Sol worked in the bakery until he graduated high school in 1957. After graduation, he worked at the South Water Market, a large wholesale produce market. Sol entered the Army in 1959 and did a two year stint. Not long after he got out of the Army, he bought a small grocery store called West Side Foods in 1962.
Rosanne Raimondi was also born in Chicago and grew up in the same neighborhood a few blocks away from the Perry family. She was raised in her grandfather's four-flat building and she learned how to cook from her family who had old-time recipes from when they were growing up in Italy. Rose and Sol were married in November of 1962 and they had two children, Cindy and Sal, Jr. The Perry family all helped out in the family's grocery store, known in the neighborhood as having the freshest meats around.
By 1990, Rose and Sol were looking for a change in life. Rose was known as a wonderful cook and the couple thought they'd like to have a place where the could entertain people and serve some of Roseanne's old time Italian specialties. They found a small building big enough for nine tables along W. Taylor Street and it was said that Rose literally moved her whole kitchen from her house to the restaurant to get things going. Combining their names, they named their little restaurant RoSal's Italian Cucina.
Of course, Roseanne's cooking became a hit and it wasn't any more than a year later when she said that she desperately needed help in the kitchen to keep up with the demand. A young chef by the name of Anival Sanchez answered an ad and started to help Rose out in the kitchen. Soon, Anival was taking charge of the kitchen making many of the Raimondi family dishes and adding a few of his own including the long time favorite Shrimp alla Anival that featured a pasta dish with grilled shrimp, prosciutto ham, and toasted pine nuts in a lemon cream sauce.
In 1995, Linda Haile came to RoSal's to wait on tables. She proved to be a proficient server with an outgoing and pleasant demeanor toward her customers. Linda took on other duties at the restaurant over the years including becoming the front of house manager.
In addition to Anival and Linda being a big part of RoSal's, the Perry's son, Salvatore, Jr. helped out when he could - that is, when he wasn't working as a tattoo artist. And their daughter Cindy, and her husband, Joe Fulco would help out from time to time, as well.
By 1999, Sol and Rose were looking to spend less time in the restaurant and they enlisted the full-time help of Cindy and Joe Fulco to take over the operations. Joe's first job is as a locksmith. He works as a independent contractor in the day, then trades in his locksmith hat for a chef's hat at night after 4 p.m. Up until they fully retired in 2008, Roseanne and Sol continued to have a hand in picking out the meats and produce used at RoSal's, and Anival Sanchez and Linda Haile continue to work at the restaurant today.
We had made reservations via Open Table earlier in the day for 7:30 p.m. We really didn't know if we needed reservations on a Sunday night in the winter time, but we thought we'd better at least have something in place just in case. When we pulled up to RoSal's on W. Taylor, we were able to find parking right across the street. (see map) And when we went in, we were greeted by a young man who said we could sit anywhere. There were only two tables occupied in RoSal's and we soon figured out why. They closed at 8 p.m. on Sunday night.
It turned out the young man - Phil - would be our server for the evening, as well. I profusely apologized to him for coming in so late and he said it wouldn't be a problem. After telling him that we'd try to hurry up the best we could, Phil sort of waved his hand and said, "That won't be necessary. We're going to be here well after 8 p.m. cleaning and closing."
RoSal's was exactly as we remembered it to be from our brief visit now a year ago. It was a small, intimate place with seating for around 40 people. It turned out that they also had a upstairs seating area with 15 more tables. Linen table cloths covered the wooden tables. Sconce light fixtures hung on the wall along with numerous pictures of Perry family members from over the years. The kitchen was in the back of the restaurant with an open high counter where servers could talk with the cooks.
We both figured that we'd be eating something with a red sauce for dinner that night so I had Phil bring us a bottle of the J. Lohr Vineyards Seven Oaks cabernet, a good and reasonably priced hearty red that we've had in the past. By the time he brought the bottle to our table and opened it, the party of six sitting in the corner near us and the party of two seated up front were gone. We had the place all to ourselves. Yes, our own intimate little Italian restaurant. My wife really dug that. And so did I, actually.
The menu at RoSal's featured a number of classic Italian dishes including eggplant parm, chicken marsala, a number of pasta dishes, veal entrees, steaks, seafood with pasta, and antipasti starters such as sausage and peppers, baked clams, and a stuffed artichoke. There were a number of items that caught our eye as we were looking through the menu. I must have changed my mind three or four times as I kept looking over what they had to offer.
We started out by getting a basket of warm freshly baked bread that was outstanding in taste. We each got a RoSal's special salad that consisted of mixed greens with chopped artichoke hearts, pepperoni slices, red onions, black olives, chopped tomatoes, with fontinella and provolone cheese topped with a house oil and vinegar Italian dressing and served to us in a family-style bowl. The greens were crisp and cold, the pepperoni had a bit of a spicy bite, the artichoke hearts weren't mushy, and the red onions had a great forward taste. Along with the wonderful bread they served with the salad, this was a great start to the meal.
My wife had gone into the evening thinking that she was going to get something with a red sauce, but she ended up getting the veal piccata - two boneless veal chops sautéed in a white wine lemon sauce with capers, topped with melted provolone cheese and served on a bed of pasta tossed with garlic and oil. She declared her meal to be wonderful, but very rich. She couldn't remember having veal piccata with cheese on top of the veal before, but she really enjoyed the flavor.
I went the red sauce route with the veal parmesan with pasta shells and a basil tomato marinara sauce. My veal was also topped with melted provolone cheese. Like my wife's veal, my cut was tender as I could easily cut it with my fork. The marinara sauce was rich and flavorful with chopped fresh basil sprinkled over both the veal and marinara. My meal was simply outstanding. I was able to eat the veal parm along with much of the marinara sauce on the plate.
Of course, we had to have dessert and we got a large chunk of RoSal's tiramisu. The taste was heavenly and sinful at the same time. The tiramisu was spongy, but wasn't mushy like it was two or three days old. But it was so rich that we were having trouble finishing it up, especially after our wonderful and filling meals we had just had.
While we were finishing up the tiramisu and the rest of the wine, Joe Fulco came out of the kitchen and introduced himself. He asked how our meals were and we told them they were outstanding. We apologized for being there so late - it was well after 8 p.m. when he came over to talk with us, but we never got the notion that he was trying to hurry us up at all.
We continued to talk with him and he took a seat at our table for awhile. He talked about the history of RoSal's, his other job as a locksmith and his love of working in the kitchen. Joe also talked about how tough it is to run a restaurant these days with the demands of diners and how social media can portray a restaurant in a - sometimes unwarranted - bad way. I didn't have the heart to tell him that my hobby was blogging about restaurants that I visited, but he shouldn't have to worry about me. This was a great dining experience all the way around.
My wife and I couldn't have been more happy with our meal and the service at RoSal's. The restaurant had a great intimate and cozy feel to the place. My veal parm dish was outstanding and my wife was more than impressed with her veal piccata. The tiramisu was a wonderful end to the meal. The hospitality shown to us by our server Phil and later on by owner Joe Fulco was a nice touch. Not once did they try to hurry us along as we got in late and were there well past their closing time. I can understand the owner's frustration with snippy or sour reviews on social media sites, but he doesn't have to worry about that with me. We an outstanding meal and dining experience at RoSal's.
Update - May 2018. A couple days after publishing this post on RoSal's, I was informed that the Fulco's announced back in April that they would be closing RoSal's on May 13. This isn't the first time that I've wrote an extensive review on a restaurant, only to have it close between the time we were there and the time it was published. And my wife and I are really sad, too. It was the last old world Italian restaurant on Taylor Street. While we really liked RoSal's, we found another place in Chicago recently where we thought the food and ambience was on par - if not a little better - than RoSal's. Look for that entry on Road Tips in the coming weeks.
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