Davanti Enoteca

Beet Salad

We went to dinner at Davanti Enoteca in Western Springs.  We had seen it featured on Check Please (but for their Chicago location).  We recently learned they were opening a location in Western Springs so waited until it opened to go.
Davanti Enoteca has been open just over a month now so we figured it would be nice to go after they worked out any kinks.

Tuscan Toast with Ricotta

The restaurant serves food in what they call small plates style, meaning the items are a little smaller and so you should order more than 1 dish each.  We would definitely agree with that for the pasta and the salad we ordered but the other items didn't seem that small. Also for a "small plates" concept restaurant some of the dishes seemed to be priced a little high.

We had looked over the menu ahead of time plus listened to the Check please recommendations and new that we were going to order lots of carb/cheese combinations.

What we ordered:

Beet salad - with cheese and maple butter.  Basically we ordered this just so that everything we ate wouldn't be carbs and cheese.  But this did come with cheese, didn't it? Well it was a nice and refreshing dish; the maple butter was unique and different.

Vasi of ricotta cheese and honeycomb - the cheese mixture was served in a cute mini mason jar over Tuscan Toast.  The toast was awesome; what you would have with bruschetta. We wished there were more honey because that tasted great with the cheese and toast. This would be a fun dish to duplicate at home.

Focaccia

Focaccia bread with cows milk cheese - This is slightly different than the focaccia bread we are used to: it is from the Ligurian region of Italy and bit thinner and crispier.  The cheese was stuffed inside the bread and served warm.  For an extra charge you can get it with honeycomb also. We didn't order it with honey because we were having the honey with the other dish.  But they brought us honey anyway without charging for it.  It really did taste great with it.  (But once again would have liked a little more with it - and it if is so great together why is there a separate charge; just include it all in one price). But overall this dish was really the best of all we ordered and we would order it again.

Focaccia

Cacio e pepe - Spaghetti with pecorino cheese and pepper.  A very simple dish but nicely prepared. Tasty but not remarkable.

Pizza D.O.C. - we don't know what DOC stands for but it was a margherita pizza - with fresh mozzarella and basil.  It was cooked in their wood burning oven. It had a super thin crust.

We did both order dessert also.

Cacio e pepe

Torta Bacio - Chocolate hazelnut mousse with a crunchy crust on the bottom.  It was nice and smooth with a great crunch from the cocoa nibs.

Carrot cake - also served in a mini mason jar with caramel mascarpone "icing" and candied carrots on top. Nick says it was one of the best carrot cakes he has ever had.  The cake was moist and had great spices in it and with the mascarpone, the dish was a bit elevated over other carrot cakes.

Pizza DOC

We somehow survived, even with all of the carb and cheese overload.  Neither of us had eaten much of a lunch so we finished everything off without any leftovers.

Final thoughts on Davanti Enoteca:

Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse

Food - great food.  The focaccia was definitely our favorite. We would return to this establishment for the food, but also because it is so close to us. We already picked out a few items we would like to have for the next time.  There were a lot of people ordering the ragu over polenta so that will be on the list next.
Service - good service.  However, there was a little mixup with the honeycomb.  When they brought out the vasi they didn't have the honeycomb at first and then had to get it.  Then with the focaccia they brought it without us ordering it (maybe due to the previous mixup?).  But for a restaurant that has only been open a month the service was fairly seamless.

Carrot Cake

Atmosphere - the restaurant is located in downtown Western Springs right by the train stop. The interior is very interesting and has different Italian and winery type decore.  There is a large bar area in front with long communal tables.  There were all sorts of people at the restaurant including a lot of parties with small children, including infants.  It wouldn't ordinarily be the sort of place for children but all of the children were well behaved and it was probably a nice outing for the whole family.