Caliterra Virtue is its own reward, but Caliterra's fame and fortune are long overdue. By Nancy Ross Ryan Food photography by Laurie Proffitt Interior photos by Stuart-Rodgers Photography

Chef John Coletta and staff

For months after Caliterra opened in April 1999, it was well-reviewed -- as an excellent restaurant but a well-kept secret. Great chef, great food, striking display kitchen, handsome room, but still unknown. Hotel restaurants in general labor under the yoke of anonymity. Being inside a hotel, even a posh hotel, cloaks a restaurant, makes it invisible to the street where all the action is. When Caliterra first opened in the Wyndham hotel at the corner of Erie and St. Clair there was not only no street sign announcing the restaurant, but no upstairs signage either, prompting Chicago Tribune's Phil Vettel to write, "'Lord, give us a sign.' This, I imagine, is the prayer offered daily by the folks at Caliterra, a very fine restaurant that very few people know about." But once you have found Caliterra, you won't forget it. And this year it became easier to find because the restaurant's name is now prominently but tastefully displayed on the hotel. The dining room is handsome. Ample tables (even for two) are covered in crisp white linens, the comfortable upholstered chairs have warm cherrywood frames, and a huge bank of windows takes up the south and west walls. Even when the dining room is packed -- as it now is beginning to be -- the noise level is sweet and low. As you enter, the receptionist's lectern faces a very pretty display kitchen. More often that not Executive Chef John Coletta will be in the kitchen, supervising, coaching, encouraging and cooking his memorable food, a combination of California and regional Italian cuisines, prepared with classic French techniques. Coletta, whose parents were Italian and owned a restaurant in New York City, never considered any career except being a chef. His culinary degree came from New York City Technical College and he took pastry courses at the Culinary Institute of America. During his 20-plus years' professional experience he apprenticed under some of this country's and Europe's greatest chefs Among them were Arno Schmidt of the Waldorf-Astoria hotel and Seppi Renggli (who invented "spa" cuisine) of the Four Seasons restaurant, both in New York City; Joel Robuchon and Alain Ducasse in France. In the 1980s and 1990s he was a gold medal winner in international culinary competitions, and has traveled and researched food in a half dozen foreign countries. Prior to opening Caliterra, he was executive chef at Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore. Aside from being wonderfully well prepared, three qualities distinguish Coletta's food and menus. First, the dishes really are a fusion of California and Italian cuisines with some global flavors. Second, most of the dishes on the standing menu are Coletta's unique creations not to be found in other restaurants. And third, and most important, his menus are intensely seasonal. In addition to the regular menu with seasonal items. Coletta features special monthly menus that feature the season's best and freshest both at lunch and dinner. In January it was polenta: polenta soup with Tuscan kale, sundried tomatoes and garlic chips; polenta "fries" with curly frisse, pancetta, Gorgonzola cheese and walnuts; caramelized day boat scallops with creamy polenta, endive and blood orange "brodetto;" and aged Angus beef stew with braised root vegetables and glazed soft polenta. February brought an equally creative risotto menu; March featured an artichoke menu, and I personally ordered The Best Shaved Artichoke Salad with Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese and Lucini Extra Virgin Olive Oil every time I dined there in March. The little mountain of crisp, tender, baby artichoke shavings topped with incomparable Parmesan and lightly dressed was downright intoxicating in texture and flavor. April's menu was fava beans; May featured soft shell crab in every imaginable guise and June brings Summer truffles. In July diners can look forward to fresh seafood, and the August menu is a harvest of heirloom tomatoes in amazing hot and cold preparations. In addition, Coletta has a seasonal menu special daily soups for spring, summer, winter and fall. One of the easiest and best ways to sample some of the season's best ingredients is to choose the menu option of letting the chef prepare a personalized, Five-course Tasting Menu for the entire table ($65 per person). I and dinner companions have ordered this on three different occasions and were carried away. But say you never order a Veal Pot Roast with Carnaroli (a variety of Italian rice) Artichoke Risotto ($17), or a Bone-in Venison Chop with an "Orgy" of Artichokes ($29). And suppose you would never hanker after a Fava Beans with an Orange-Onion-Bread Salad ($8), or a Pan-Seared Red Snapper with Braising Green, Fava Bean Broth and Fresh Truffles ($26). What if you're a middle-of-the road, pizza and pasta, meat and potatoes and proud-of-it kind of diner? Then Coletta's luncheon Aged Angus Cheeseburger with Lemon-Pepper Parmesan Fries ($12) will knock your socks, off, I promise you. The Parmesan fries begin life as freshly cut and deep fried potatoes that, at the last minute are sprinkled with a mixture of finely grated lemon rind, freshly ground pepper and freshly grated Parmesan -- which coats the crisp fries with a seductive crust. The Romano Crusted Chicken Breast Sandwich with Lemon Aioli on Grilled Fresh Country Bread with Summer Vegetable Slaw ($12) is another traditional sandwich with Coletta's special spin on it. And The Best Macaroni and Cheese Carbonara ($12) is pasta-lover's comfort food: macaroni with a creamy mixture of onion, pancetta, a little white wine, fresh green peas, a little cream, a mixture of Parmesan, goat and mozzarella cheeses, and tossed in a creamy cooked mixture of eggs and cream. This not-your-Aunt-Sally's mac and cheese is plated in a large white pasta bowl, sprinkled with Panko bread crumbs and lightly broiled to crisp the crumbs. The dinner menu has several starters that are customer favorites -- justifiably -- and cannot be removed. The Crisp Santa Barbara Shrimp 'Cigars' with Mustard Fruits, Spring Vegetable Slaw and Aged Balsamic Syrup ($10) look like cigars. Thin pastry is rolled around the shrimp, basil and sweet pickled fruits and crisply fried, then drizzled with a deep purple, sweet-tangy reduced balsamic syrup. Another standard is the Ahi Tuna Tartare with Cucumber, Avocado, Spring Radish and Native American Caviar ($11). Coletta picks the best and freshest American caviar to top the molded mixture of uncooked tuna, onion, radish, cucumber and avocado in a fresh lime juice dressing. This dilly is gilded with garlic croutons. Coletta's Caesar Salad ($7) is classic in that the Romaine leaves are young, tender and whole, dressed with a real Caesar dressing and topped with a crisp Parmesan wafer and shaved Parmesan. But the anchovies are white anchovies and they are presented on a crostini. Brick oven pizzas -- thin crust and tender-crisp, served piping hot -- are offered at both lunch and dinner, and at between $13 and $15 the 12-inch pizzas are a luncheon bargain. The classic Margherita Pizza is made with fresh Buffalo Mozzarella cheese, fresh tomatoes and fresh basil -- perfect and authentic. My personal favorites are two: First, the Grilled Organic Vegetable Pizza with the semi-hard Ricotta Salata cheese and pitted oil-cured black olives. The pizza is topped at the last minute with peppery fresh arugula. Then there is the Rock Shrimp Pizza with Fresh Portobello Mushrooms and Cross-cut Baby Leeks. No cheese is used (unless the customer requests it), which is true to the Italian culinary principle of not mixing seafood and cheese in one dish. Coletta offers a 14-ounce boneless sirloin: Grilled Organic Aged Angus Beef with Onion Marmalade ($27), which comes with a sweet-sour, house-made chutney, those lemon-pepper-Parmesan fries and a red bell pepper aioli. It's not your unadorned steakhouse steak, but a marvelous piece of meat, cooked to order, with colorful, flavorful accompaniments. The chef's surf and turf consists of Day Boat Lobster Risotto (perfect texture!) and Szechwan Peppered (for a fragrantly different flavor profile to the steak au poivre) Aged Angus Filet with a Classic Barolo Wine Sauce ($35). Left: Chilled rhubard soup with mandarin orange sorbet. Right: Sautéed filet of red mullet with roasted sweet potatoes and oil-cured olive tapenade. The dinner menu is rich with meat: Spring Lamb Boil with Barley Caponata Risotto and Exotic Mushrooms ($28); Seared Veal Bone-In Rib Eye Chop (a hefty 14 ounces' worth), with fiddle head ferns and sweet little cipollini onions that have been braised in balsamic vinegar and red wine, some fresh pea shoots and an unctuous foie gras jus ($29). Coletta makes this velvety sauce by heating veal jus and whipping in some fresh foie gras just before serving. There is also a huge Grilled Pork T-Bone, Pork Fiorentina ($22) with fork-mashed Yukon gold potatoes (that are also "stuck" with crisp gaufrette potatoes). The seafood offerings vary seasonally, but you are sure to find Pan Seared Wild Salmon ($23), perfectly cooked, crisp on the outside and juicy and tender on the inside. It sits on a bed of herbed risotto and is topped with feathery crisp celery hearts that have been shaved and placed in ice water until they curl. The sauce with this fish is called simply "Celery-Saffron Juices," but it's not as simple as it sounds. The chef puts fresh celery through a juice extractor, then sautes separately in olive oil some shallots and herbs, adds white wine and saffron, cooks and reduces the sauce, strains it, adds the strained celery juice, and a very little bit of butter and emulsifies it with a hand blender until it foams. Desserts -- from 10 to 12 of them as the seasons dictate -- live up to the savory menu in creativity and quality. I am very partial to Caliterra's Panna Cotta ($8), a silky classic molded creamy dessert served with a compote of warm, diced seasonal fruits. The Mascarpone Cheese Cake ($8) is lighter and richer than New York Style cheesecake. It has a graham cracker crust and comes topped with a banana-caramel sauce. Chocoholics (I'm one) can become addicted to the Hot Chocolate Bread Pudding ($8) made with rich Italian panettone. It's unmolded onto the plate and served with three scoops of chocolate ice cream. Wines by the glass, including Champagne, are plentiful, change often and the servers are ready and willing to offer a taste and make suggestions to accompany the meal. The wine list itself is very user friendly. White wines are listed under three descriptive categories: Crisp, Lean, Refreshing Whites; Medium-Bodied, Rounder Whites; Rich, Buttery Whites. Red Wines: Light, Fruity Reds; Medium-Bodied, Dry Reds; Weighty, Powerful Reds. Prices range from $30 to $180 per bottle, with more than half in the under $50 bracket. There is a nice list of half bottles and, predictably, except for the French Champagnes, most still and sparkling wines come from Italy or California with a few from Oregon and Washington State. If you need any more reasons to discover Caliterra, here are three. Breakfast is served daily and, in addition the the usual hotel breakfast fare, there are temptations such as Panettone Fresh Toast with Sliced Bananas and Orange Mascarpone Cream ($10), and Crisp Pancetta or Country Sausage topped with your choice of American or Cheddar Cheese ($9). There is a special Bar Menu consisting of starters, brick oven pizza, sandwiches and Martinis. The bar offers live jazz and from time to time a local professional-cum-pianist wanders in and plays (well) for the sheer joy of it. And, every Sunday Caliterra offers a "Cal-Ital Brunch on Wheels" ($28 per person, $10 children under 12). Carts come around to the tables laden with a selection of several courses in the following categories: Starters, Savory (such as Flat Iron Steak Salad, Seared Tuna Nicoise Salad), Pizza, Pasta, Specialties (such as Polenta-Crusted Halibut, Roasted Organic Chicken Breast, Spring Lamb Roast), and Desserts. Inconspicuous the restaurant may be, but there's nothing unassuming about tantalizing treats such as these.

	Caliterra Wyndham Chicago Hotel 633 N. St. Clair 312.274.4444 Hours: Breakfast - Mon.-Sat. 6-10:30 a.m. Lunch - Mon.-Sat. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Dinner - Mon.-Sun. 4-11 p.m. Sunday Brunch 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Accepts: All major credit cards Reservations: Recommended on Friday and Saturday evenings Valet Parking at hotel entrance Rating (on a 5-star scale):

DINING OUT - June 2001

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