I took one of my dealers from the far western suburbs out to dinner in St. Charles one evening not long ago. St. Charles has a lot of good dining options and my dealer suggested we have dinner at a place that I have passed a number of times over the past few years, an Italian restaurant by the name of La Za' Za' Trattoria. I was up for some good Italian that evening and we went there for an early dinner.
Dino Sisto loved the food his mother prepared for their family since he was a little boy. One of 10 siblings, Sisto's mother Dottie had a number of family recipes she had gotten from her mother who had grown up in Italy. Dino loved his mother's cooking so much that he learned how to make many of the items she had learned from her mother. Wanting to take many of those recipes and share them with the public led Dino Sisto to open La Za' Za' Trattoria - named after his grandfather - in 1995 in downtown St. Charles at the corner of W. Main and S. 1st Street next to the Fox River. (see map)
Sisto and his brother, Joe, partnered up to open other Za' Za' restaurants in the western suburbs of Chicago including the now-closed ZaZa's Italian Steakhouse in Addison that I used to frequent when I stayed in that far western Chicago suburb for a number of years when I first started to call on accounts in the area nearly 16 years ago. (Click here if you want to read a very early entry from Road Tips - circa December 2006 - on ZaZa's Italian Steakhouse.) Joe and Dino Sisto split their partnership a number of years ago and I believe that the only ZaZa restaurant that is still open is the La Za' Z' Trattoria in downtown St. Charles.
Pictured right - Dino Sisto. Photo courtesy Kane County Chronicle.
Urban renewal in downtown St. Charles threatened the La Za' Za' Trattoria location and Sisto thought he was going to have to move his restaurant. However, he came up with a plan and the cash to buy the building and salvage it from the wrecking ball that took down many older buildings in downtown St. Charles.
We were able to find parking in a city lot to the west of the restaurant at the corner of W. Main and S. 2nd St. and we walked over to the front door of La Za' Za' Trattoria that is located on the back of the building on S. 1st St.
There's a front dining area and a back dining area where the bar is located. We were seated in the back dining area near the window. We were given menus - both food and wine - and we were greeted by our server for the evening, a nice lady by the name of Kathy. We started off with a nice bottle of California cabernet from La Za' Za's short, but interesting, wine list.
You'll find traditional Italian food on the menu at La Za' Za' including pasta dishes, chicken entrees, a veal dish, a filet mignon, and pork chops. They have a couple of seafood items on the menu, as well. Antipasti appetizers such as deep fried shrimp, stuffed artichokes, beef carpaccio with arugula, and mussels served in a spicy tomato sauce were available as well.
We started off with one of the chef's antipasti specials that night - the burrata and tomato salad mixed with greens in an olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar. My guest wasn't certain what burrata was, but when I told him that it was basically a soft cream cheese encased in mozzarella he was sold. And the salad was very good. The tomatoes - for the time of year - were very ripe and fresh tasting. The burrata was just wonderful - my guest was very impressed with the taste of it. He said, "I can't believe I've never had this before." I told him that if burrata is available on a salad, I usually always get it. Along with the fresh greens mixed with the extra virgin olive oil and the aged balsamic, this was a very good salad.
For dinner that evening, I wasn't overly certain what I wanted. The pan-roasted veal medallions served with wild mushrooms with linguine sounded very good. The sautéed Manilla clams and Prince Edward Island mussels in a white wine and garlic sauce with linguine also sounded very good. But we were having a meaty red wine and I thought pasta with a red sauce would go well. I ended up getting the chef's pasta special that evening - cavatelli pasta in a bolognese sauce. I asked Kathy if they could put a couple meatballs on the plate, as well.
My guest went with the lamb chops. It came with roasted veggies and mashed potatoes in a lemon white wine sauce with fresh chopped oregano. He told me that his wife doesn't like it when he orders lamb or veal when they're out, so the only time he orders something like that is when he isn't dining with her. "I like lamb," he said as he cut into his first chop. "But she frowns on that when I've ordered lamb in the past." The lamb chops were big and meaty, and he said they were very good.
I was equally impressed with my cavatelli and bolognese sauce. The meat sauce was thick and flavorful - the hearty red we were drinking that evening was a perfect compliment to the sauce. The meatballs were some of the best I've had - they were tightly packed made with (I'm guessing) a mixture of ground pork, veal and beef. They held together very well and weren't dry at all.
We both thought our meal at La Za' Za' Trattoria was outstanding. My guest was very happy with his grilled lamb chops and he thought the mixed vegetables were not overcooked or mushy. I was more than happy with the chef's special cavatelli pasta in a bolognese sauce with meatballs. And the chef's special antipasti that evening - the tomato and burrata salad - was top notch, as well. The meal was matched by the exceptional service we received that evening. If you're in the far western suburbs of Chicago and looking for a great Italian restaurant, I would highly recommend La Za' Za' Trattoria.
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