Birthday Lunch at Ella’s Western Springs

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”.

The menu is extensive, featuring pizzas and a broad selection of Italian cuisine. 

I ordered the Tagliatelle Bolognese, Italian Meat Ragu with Tomato Sauce and Parmiaganna Regiano with an addition of a veal meatball. It was delicious. 

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 - . 

 

Boroli “1661” Langhe Nebbiolo 2022

This 100% Nebbiolo varietal is from the Boroli family Piedmont estate that dates back to 1831. The family started their winemaking business in 1997 when Silvano and Elena Boroli felt stepped away from their publishing business to pursue their passion producing wine. They grew the company until their son, Achille, stepped in to run the wine-growing and production business in 2012. The estate consisted of 27 acres planted primarily to the native grape varietal Nebbiolo. Achille Boroli is joined by Enzo Alluvione in duties as winemaker.  Total winery production is 18,911 bottles. 

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.

Winemaker notes - “The Nebbiolo 2022 is an ode to lively freshness. With its bright ruby color, this wine exudes elegance right from the start. The bouquet is fresh and fruity, with notes of ripe strawberry, spring flowers, and a subtle hint of cinnamon. On the palate, it presents a youthful and vibrant structure, with agile tannins and a freshness that enhances the red fruit, mint, and a subtle touch of green tea.”

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. 

RM 90 points. 

https://go.cellartracker.com/wine/4778608

https://www.ellasitalianpub.com/menus

Vie Restaurant Gala Anniversary Prix Fixe Dinner with Wine Pairing

Vie Restaurant Gala Anniversary Prix Fixe Dinner with Wine Pairing

For our anniversary celebration, Linda and I dined at Vie Restaurant in nearby suburban Western Springs (IL), hometown of our daughter. We've dined at Vie and featured the Vie Culinary Wine Pairing Dinner in previous blogposts in these pages.

Vie is the flagship restaurant of Chef Paul Virant, who focuses on seasonal Midwestern selections featuring local sourcing utilizing traditional methods of preservation. He was a finalist nominee for the James Beard Foundation Award's Best Chef: Great Lakes in 2015, 2014, 2013 and 2011. He authored the 2012 cookbook, The Preservation Kitchen: The Craft of Making and Cooking with Pickles, Preserves, and Aigre-Doux.

Vie was the first restaurant in Western Springs to serve liquor since Prohibition. Vie opened its doors in 2004.

For our special occasion, intimate dinner, we opted for the Three Course Prix Fixe dinner with the curated wine pairing with each course. 

The wine pairings were selected by Vie Wine Director Grace Bradley, a Western Springs native. After passing her first sommelier exam in 2019, Grace passed the Certified Sommelier Exam with the Court of Master Sommeliers in 2022.

The Three Course Prix Fixe Menu offerings ...

The courses and wine pairings .... 

To start, complimentary sparkling white wine ... Portell Cava Brut NV

 Course One 

Corn Soup with Alesia Rhys Vineyard Santa Cruz Mountains Chardonnay 2018

Blackened seasonal vegetables, toasted pecans, smoked apple butter vinagrette paired with Babylonstoren Swartland, SA Viogner 2019.

 
Course Two

Pan seared scallops, curry roasted cauliflower, peach mustardo and mustard greens, paired with
Domaine Chevalier Les Pends Marsanne Crozes-Hermitage Rhone 2021. 

 This is the Marsanne white varietal label from Marlène & Nicolas Chevalier whose Syrah we've enjoyed at Chicagoland French Bistros Chez Joël French Bistro and Suzette's Creperie in nearby suburban Wheaton.

Salt roasted beets, burrata, blueberry, raddicchio, toasted hazelnut vinagrette, paired with
Pullus Rose, Styria SI. 

Course Three

Wood grilled CDK Beef Tri-Tip, roasted mushrooms, grilled green beans, sherry braised tropeo onions, green peppercorn beef au jus, paired with
Fattorio di Bascianno I Pinni Tuscan Red Blend 2018.

Wood grilled Sturgeon, basmati rice 'Tahdig', braised fennel, safron and preserved
cara cara beaue blanc, paired with
Emile Bayer Tradition Gewurztraminer Alsace 2019.

Dessert 

https://vierestaurant.com/

https://twitter.com/vierestaurant

Previous Vie Restaurant Blogposts 

Vie Restaurant Western Springs Restaurant Week Price Fixe Dinner

Vie Culinary Wine Pairing Dinner

Signorello & Del Dotto Napa Wines Paired with Vie Western Springs Fine Cuisine

https://www.paulvirant.com/

https://twitter.com/jarstarvie

 

Vie Culinary Wine Pairing Dinner

Vie Culinary Wine Pairing Dinner

We dined at Vie Restaurant in Western Springs to celebrate several birthdays, most notably, Sean and Michelle's, and post Erin's from two weeks earlier and Linda's coming up a week later. Vie were featuring their Chicago Restaurant Week Special dinner with wine pairing. This is the second time in recent years we've dined at Vie for such an occasion that occurred during their restaurant week special.

We love Vie's cozy atmosphere with its' chic, stylish, cosmopolitan, contemporary setting. There are  tables and settee's around a fireplace, dining settings surrounding the bar, progressing further inward to several interior dining areas and rooms, each artfully decorated with stylish wall coverings or black and white framed photographs.

Vie normally offers a five-course and an eight-course chef's tasting menu, each available with optional wine pairings. Tonight, they offered a limited selection that regrettably failed to showcase their culinary capabilities.

The last time we dined there, it was also during the Restaurant Week special feature with the same result. That night, they featured two of the four courses with the same profile of a heavy emphasis on smoked pork.

This night the limited menu selection featured some strange flavor pairings where the quest for elegance or imagination seemed to miss the mark and resulted in dishes that were lackluster and uninspiring.

My first course was crunchy rice 'tahdig',  braised chicken leg and smoked chicken breast, saffron, roasted turnips, and pickled baby summer squash. As with our previous experience, smoke was the featured and most predominant flavor. The 'tahdig' was crunchy but flavorless, an uninspiring start to our dinner flight.

The course was appropriately paired with 2015 Johann Geil Bechtheimer Heilig-Kreuz Scheurebe Rheinhessen Kabinett.

The highlight of my course selection was the roasted carrot soup with the cherry bomb pepper and caramel, an explosion of a trio of competing flavors, accented by textures of spiced pumpkin seeds which was a bit annoying.

This was an interesting combination of dueling contrasting flavors - the sweet caramel and the spicy cherry bomb pepper. To my taste, the pumpkin seeds pushed it over the top.

The wine pairing for this course was a 2015 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Côtes du Rhône Parallèle “45” from the Rhone River Valley in the south center of France

Once again, as with our earlier visit, pork loin was the feature, this time complemented with cannellini beans and slow cooked greens. The highlight of the course was an andouille sausage which actually outshone the pork in flavor and pairings. There was also listed a blueberry aigre doux pork sauce which might have been a savior but I don't recall it being apparent or having an impact.

This course was paired with 2015 Montinore Estate Pinot Noir from Oregon's Willamette Valley, a thoughtful and appropriate pairing selection.

Apparently, it is hard to showcase their culinary artwork at a reduced price point that is the Restaurant Week feature. This is unfortunate because we love the atmosphere and independent upscale fine dining experience with the talent and professionalism that Vie offers, that is so needed in the near west suburbs.

The dessert course was a lemon creme donut. Really? A donut? Yes, but, the saving grace was the accent of gedeo coffee ice cream and milk chocolate gianduja ...

The highlight of the course was the thoughtful wine selection to accompany the course - 2017 Maculan Moscato Dindarello Passito from Italy.


Its easy to select wines to pair with food when you have a budget to choose $50 wines. Its a challenge to select and offer appropriate wine pairings when you're offering sub twenty dollar wines. Vie did a commendable job offering interesting and acceptable wines to pair with each course.


The wine pairings for the dinner were:

2015 Johann Geil Bechtheimer Heilig-Kreuz Scheurebe Rheinhessen Kabinett 
2015 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Côtes du Rhône Parallèle “45”
2015 Montinore Estate Willamette Pinot Noir 
2017 Maculan Moscato Dindarello Passito Italy

https://www.cellartracker.com/w?2668673

 
https://www.cellartracker.com/w?2596010

https://www.cellartracker.com/w?2421058

https://www.cellartracker.com/w?3148458

https://www.vierestaurant.com/