Day 8: Little Italy

At the beginning of this project, when I had decided that one day I should go to Little Italy, I pictured an area of town very similar to the Little Italy in New York City:


This could not be further from the truth. Little Italy is basically one street in Chicago, Taylor Street, that happens to have a few Italian bakeries and restaurants. The reason it is called Little Italy is because of its history. When Italians first started to move to Chicago, they moved to Taylor Street. By 1927, most of the grocery stores and restaurants were owned by Italian immigrants. That is why so many of the stores in this area are Italian in theme. Actually, this is the neighborhood in which Jane Addams created Hull House:

Because of the area's primarily Italian history, the neighborhood does contain many Italian restaurants, although many are fancy and expensive, and are frequently described as "romantic." Since my usual date, Brad Pitt, was busy, I had no need to go to a "romantic" restaurant. So, instead, I took my mom and my sister out for pizza. Ha! I said that like I paid. We went to a place called Damenzo's Pizza located at 2324 W. Taylor Street:


To get to Damenzo's, the internet told me to take the number 12 bus from Halsted and Roosevelt to Taylor and Ogden and then walk to Damenzo's. But, since I believe myself to be more clever than a bus, my sister and I walked. My mom, the lazy bum that she is, drove.

The restaurant itself is kind of funny. The left half is the pizza place that we went to, but the right half is a Mexican restaurant owned by the same people. Damenzo's is a hole in the wall, but with a lot of heart. Our waitress got really excited when I started taking pictures and took me on a tour of the restaurant. There is an area where you can go up to a counter to order pizza to take home:


I don't know if you can see it in the picture, but the walls are bright green! If you choose to eat there, you sit in a different room with plain white walls and plastic chairs. The inside atmosphere is not the greatest, however, if you want to have a party at Damenzo's, there is a nice patio area:


But, you probably would not go to Damenzo's for the atmosphere; you would go for the pizza. And the pizza is very, very worth it. The waitstaff is very conscientious and very friendly, but once you order your food, it takes a while to arrive. But that is just because they make the pizza fresh in the restaurant. At some pizza places (and by pizza places, I mean Little Caesar's) there are pizzas sitting around in boxes under heat lamps. But at Damenzo's, the pizza tastes fresh because it is fresh:


It was absolutely delicious. We ordered half pepperoni and half cheese because they do not offer pineapple, garlic, goat cheese, lemon peels, plastic, or propane, which are my personal favorite toppings. The bread was very fresh and soft, and the cheese was very greasy and thick, which is my favorite type. All three of us ordered diet virgin cuba libres, but we were all disappointed that they were made with RC Cola, which is kind of gross. Our total bill was $25 for three people. Plus we took about a third of our pizza home for leftovers.

For dessert, we went to an Italian bakery called Ferrara's Pastries located at 2210 W. Taylor Street:


I could live in this bakery. They had brightly colored cakes and cookies and candy... I'm getting food-horny just thinking about it:

So many of the baked goods looked fantastic and colorful and inviting, but I went in with a plan to order a cannoli, so I did:


Cannolis originated in Sicily, although they are considered a general Italian pastry. The name cannoli means "little tube" in Italian, which is exactly what a cannoli is. It's a flaky pastry tube filled with a ricotta cheese, chocolate, vanilla, and other flavorings. Sometimes chefs will put chocolate chips in the filling to add a little bit of texture. The ends of the cannoli (the cheese part that spills out of the tube) are typically dipped in some sort of nut. In this case, the cannoli is covered in peanuts, but in many cannolis, pistachios are used:


The pistachios add color to the cannolis. As you can see in the picture above, sometimes maraschino cherries are placed in the filling to add even more color. Cannolis can be dusted with powdered sugar, granulated sugar, or even dipped in chocolate.

After my cannoli, I was stuffed. But luckily, my sister does not like cannolis, which gives me the opportunity to tell you about Chicago's top Italian lemonade spot. It is called Mario's Italian Lemonade, and is located at 1068 W. Taylor Street:


It is structured like a lemonade stand that I set up when I was a kid. It has a giant sign above the counter that looks almost hand-made. But Mario's Italian Lemonade has been written up in many Chicago newspapers. They are busy throughout the entire day, and on especially hot days the line can be very long. But lines always seem to move quickly at Mario's. My sister ordered orange lemonade (orange-ade?):
The lemonade is always made from fresh fruit, which is very apparent with certain flavors. For example, in the orange-ade, you can clearly feel and taste the pulp. The man who was right in front of us in line ordered watermelon-ade, which had giant black seeds in it. The Italian lemonade cost only a dollar, and I thought it was delicious, but my sister got sick of it about halfway through.

Tomorrow I will be indisposed all day, but never fear, I will be back on Monday. However I do not know what I will be writing about. Perhaps I will be in Old Town on Monday. I guess it will be a surprise... Until next time, happy eating!