Birthday Lunch at Ella’s Western Springs
We met with several of the kids and grandkids for a birthday lunch celebrating Linda’s and granddaughter Marilyn’s birthdays. We met at Ella’s Italian Eatery in Western Springs, the renovated make-over of the previous Vie fine dining restaurant. What a transformation! They completely gutted and built a whole new restaurant with wide open views from the kitchen view seating in the rear to the front - one large dining room in the rear and the large bar and adjacent seating in the front half. Remarkable and well done, a huge improvement over the chopped up segregated multiple dining rooms of the previous configuration.
Ella’s is the latest addition to the family of “family-friendly dining” establishments, adding to their existing locations in nearby Elmhurst and in Geneva, IL. They promote an “experience starting with (our) handcrafted dough, accented by creative Italian pub-style street food offerings along with an extensive wine list”.
From the wine list, I ordered a BTG - By The Glass selection of an Italian Piedmontese Langhe Nebbiolo to compare with recent tastings of the Massolino wines from this varietal and region, as featured in several recent posts in these pages - .
With the 2012 grape harvest Achille decided to radically change the methods used in vineyards and wineries, aiming for the highest quality in Barolo and its crus. He cut production levels, updated the winemaking technology, and focused on low intervention methods to raise the quality of the Boroli wines striving to be on par with the finest Barolo wines.
The 2021 release of this label was awarded 94 points and an Editors Choice by Wine Enthusiast, 91 by Wine Spectator, and 90 by Wine Advocate.
Bright ruby red color, medium bodied, bright vibrant red berry and currant fruits with earthy notes of spice and herbs with smooth velvety tannings on the lingering finish.
