Quartino is a recent arrival to the bustling State Street restaurant row north of the Chicago River. In addition to the sprawling, L-shaped dining room, the restaurant has a decent-sized bar with some seating available. Outside, under its awning, tables stretch along State Street.
We arrived on a Friday evening, quite early for our reservation, but were seated promptly...always appreciated! The proximity of other diners, hardwood tables and floors, and tin ceiling results in a somewhat noisy environment.
The menu features "spuntini" dishes, which are "small plates" meant for sharing...think "Italian tapas" and you have the drift. We focused on the spuntini plates, but did notice the entrees were modestly priced (none over $12) and, naturally, favored pasta and risotto.
Neopolitan Pizza: Strictly speaking, the pizza isn’t a spuntini, but we elected to start our dinner with a pepperoni pizza. The thin crust pizza has less sauce than an "American" pizza, but was very good. The crust was chewier (as opposed to crunchy) than a typical pizza, with a very good amount of pepperoni covering the mozzarella cheese. We force ourselves to stop after one or two pieces.
Veal Meatballs: Served with sun dried tomatoes and golden raisins, with a bit of olive oil, the meatballs arrived still sizzling in a small cast iron skillet. The veal was of course tender and flavorful, but could have been given a bit more time on the stove, to give them a bit more texture. Cutting the meatball with a fork tended to crumble the entire meatball.
Pan-Roasted Clams (or mussels): Either mollusk is served in its shell, in a pinot grigio and red chili broth. As we enjoy spicy food and like pinot grigio wine, and like mussels, this dish seem sure to please, although we opted for clams instead of mussels. Unfortunately, this dish did not live up to expectations; it was quite bland.
Gran Coppa: The disappointment of the pan-roasted clams was washed away by this dessert. A dollop of whipped cream rested on top of one scoop each of vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate ice cream; fresh blueberries and hazelnuts filled in the space between the ice cream, and a small biscotti teetered precariously over the edge of the chilled metal martini "glass" which held this combination.
We had three "quartinos" of wine: Trambusti Chianti, Ca Bianco Barbera, and a Vin Nobile. They don’t have wine glasses per se; you sip your vino from a tumbler instead. All the wines were decent, but none were particularly memorable. They ranged in price from $8 to $12, with each carafe providing three or so glasses of wine.
Overall, we enjoyed the meal and felt it was a good value for the money. We appreciated being able to try multiple dishes, with different wines, and not feel completely stuffed by the end of the night.