Favazza’s Restaurant: Watch the Video

A friend stumbled upon the website for my family’s restaurant today–and it reminded me that I should post it here. My dad Tony and brother Mark did a fantastic job here:

TheFoodventure.com Hits the Road Again

I just posted some thoughts on the Italian food I ate in Chicago last week. Tomorrow, Frank and I are meeting some friends in Philadelphia for the day. I don’t know where we’re going to have lunch yet, but we’re definitely open to suggestions. Dinner, however, is non-negotiable; in fact, eating at Villa di Roma is about 75 percent of the reason we’re driving 2.5 hours each way to Philly in the first place. (I hope our friends are not offended by that comment. I suspect that they would agree and thus will let it pass.)

Stay tuned for a post on Sunday about our Philly Foodventure. If you have any suggestions for a great lunch spot (remembering that we can’t hit a cheesesteak-only spot because of Lent, sigh), please post a comment below.

Italian Foodventures in Chicago

I’ve long criticized the fact that it’s hard to find good Italian food in Washington, D.C. and northern Virginia. The best I’ve found–excluding the Italian sub scene, which is for another post–is at La Piazza, next to the Braddock Road metro stop in Alexandria, and Alberto’s on Barracks Row.

Because the Italian food in D.C. is famously below par, I sought out Italian food on my business trip to Chicago last weekend. I ate three different Italian restaurants and wanted to share some brief thoughts about those restaurants here.

On Thursday night, I had dinner at Vivere, one of the three “Italian Village Restaurants” that boasts the largest wine selection in the entire city. I started with a small Caesar salad and my entree was the oh-so-delicious Linguini con Gamberi e Pomodori Secchi, which featured linguine, sauteed shrimp, toasted garlic, extra virgin olive oil, chili flakes, and Sicilian sun-dried tomatoes. In our group of 8, three people ordered this and if you could taste it, you would understand why. Read more »