Marco Schiavoni thought he couldn’t take another January in Chicago. A 31-year-old baker from Rome, Schiavoni moved here in 1996 and got a job cooking at Bice. After one winter he’d had enough, and the Bice restaurant group transferred him to Los Angeles, Vail, and finally Miami. But when he heard a space was available on Division near Milwaukee and Ashland, directly across from Mas, he saw an opportunity. Schiavoni placed an overseas call and got his 36-year-old cousin Fabio Marogiu, another baker, on the line. Soon they were both headed to Chicago.
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Opened last September in the former home of Cafe Scruffy, the sandwich shop specializing in Irish breakfasts, Pizza Metro is all about baking. According to Schiavoni, the breads and pizzas of Rome are rivaled only by those of Naples. “Our good things are our pizza, gnocchi, and pastry, because they come from flour,” explains Schiavoni. “Anyone can make lasagna, and we do, although we only serve it like my mom used to make, without ricotta cheese. Frankly, we only serve Caesar salad because Americans like it. It’s what we can bake that makes us different.”
They also offer a short menu of lasagnas, eggplant Parmesan, salads, and soup. Minestrone is made thick the traditional way, with the broth reduced to enhance the flavor. Specials, served after 5 PM, are listed on the blackboard behind the counter and include a pasta and gnocchi with meat, marinara, or four-cheese sauce. While the pasta is pretty unmemorable, the gnocchi–a traditional Roman favorite made from semolina flour and potatoes–are light and tender and melt in your mouth, just as proper gnocchi are supposed to.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Cynthia Howe.
