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Refreshingly, The Bristol team is choosing to roll out menu items and other details for their upcoming red sauce Italian joint, Formento's, in plain sight—to those who attend the Sunday supper series at their flagship mainstay in Bucktown. The first of such dinners, held last night, revealed a few tidbits such as address, configuration, and a taste of dishes to come.
For starters, the exact location of Formento's is 925 W Randolph. The large 9,600 square-foot space on the corner of Sangamon is actually a marriage of two spaces, one of which used to house Hebron Kebabs. It will now be home to Formento's spacious main dining room, bar and lounge, second-floor event space, and patio.
Chef Tony Quartaro's food will often be of the throwback go-big-or-go-home variety reminiscent of 1950's Italian-American restaurants. Formento's meals begin with a gratis amuse bouche of sorts—halved-loaves of buttery garlic bread paired with thinly-sliced circles of spicy fried zucchini. Other dishes unveiled at last night's dinner include a massive whole-bird chicken vesuvio, a 96-layer lasagna, similar to the 100-layer variety popularized by Mario Batali at Del Posto in NYC, and a decadent nine-layer chocolate cake.
Vintage Italian dishware are the serving vessels for these items. The beverage menu will include a variety of wines—not just Italian—as well as house-made limoncello.
They're targeting an October opening, as of now, so don't be surprised if some of the dishes and preparations undergo some tweaking before then.
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