After opening two Stan's Donuts and signing the lease for a third, owner Rich Labriola is opening his first full-service restaurant in the city today. And Labriola is doing it with a splash, bringing an expanded version of his popular Oak Brook Italian restaurant to the bright lights and tourist crowd on Michigan Avenue.
Labriola Ristorante & Cafe is a three-pronged full restaurant, cafe, and bakery, with a streetside patio on the corner of Michigan and Grand. The restaurant portion opens daily for lunch and stays open all the way to 11 p.m., while the bar will keep slightly later hours. The bakery, offering the bread guru's pastries, breads, sandwiches, and coffee, begins daily service at 7 a.m.
Former Bin 36 chef John Caputo executes mostly traditional Italian menus at the restaurant and cafe. House-made pastas, meat and seafood entrees, and antipastos encompass most of the menus, highlighted by a meatball tasting ($12); agnolotti pasta with short rib and quadrelllo di bufalo cheese, turnips, and pear mostarda ($25); and a seasonal lasagna ($19) at dinner. Neapolitan pizzas ($11.95 - $15.50), sandwiches ($10.95 - $14.95) and five types of burgers ($9.95 - $11.95) anchor the cafe's lunch menu.
For drinks, there's an Italian and California-heavy wine list, beer, and specialty cocktails. Read all the menus below.
