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HOME > HISTORY > HEART OF ITALY |
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Heart of Chicago community revels in rich history |
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The avenue of stars
Movies and TV series have been filmed in the Heart of Chicago, including Next of Kin starring Patrick Swayze; The Women of Brewster Place with Oprah Winfrey; The Jackal with Richard Gere; The Untouchables with Sean Connery, a movie that also included a scene at nearby old St. Paul’s Church; the 1990s version of The Untouchables TV series; and Men Don’t Leave with Jessica Lange.
All the restaurants in the area have celebrity customers who dine there regularly. Dennis Farina lived on Leavitt Street, and his relatives continue to do so; he still eats in the area when in town and is said to often appear at Bruna’s, the oldest existing eatery on the street, dating from 1933.
Mayor Richard M. Daley, when State’s Attorney earlier in his career, also was known to frequent area restaurants.
A photo of comedian Bob Hope, eating spaghetti and sporting a mustache that made him look Italian, hung for decades at Toscano’s Restaurant. Now closed, it was a hangout for other movie stars as well, such as Dorothy Lamour and Jimmy Durante.
 A Toscano’s menu from the 1930s shows offerings seldom seen today such as Greek peas, pasta with white mushrooms, a parmagiana cheese sandwich, a cold pork sandwich, and egg lemonade. A Toscano special sundae was 25 cents, ravioli was 40 cents, and most soft drinks were a dime.
But good eating is far from a thing of the past in Heart of Chicago. Miceli’s Deli, located in what was a cooperative grocery store during the Great Depression, features “OHD”— “one hot dish” for lunch. The homemade meatloaf is heavenly, as is the Sicilian wedding soup with mini-meatballs.
Ignotz often has straciatelli soup with pastina shredded like rags; Emil Bracco, the bartender, makes the best Americano cocktail in town. The muraled walls remind one of old-style Italian restaurants. One mural shows a flying goddess holding a carafe of olive oil—after three drinks, you’re sure it’s a bottle of chianti. See if you can find the error in the flag of the ship in the painting.
Bacchanalia is nearby; during a restoration, a mural of Bacchus, the god of wine, was found. The restaurant features pan-Italian cuisine.
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