First, I apologize for the terrible quality of the one and only photo we took together the night of our anniversary. It was a bit hectic with the girls running around like crazy and trying to photo bomb us. My dad was in town visiting, on sitter duty and managed to snap this while the girls were hanging on his neck just as we rushed out the door.
I’m sure Tim is not thrilled to be included in this week’s Fashion Friday post but ya gotta work with what ya have. You can’t really see my outfit that well so I’m breaking it down below by each piece.
We had dinner at Chicago’s latest hot spot – Top Chef restauranteur Fabio Viviani’s Cheeky’s Annual Real People of Style Fashion Show in March. You know a place is in demand when it took a few strings to secure an 8 pm reservation and patrons were still being seated at 11:30.
The vibe is industrial-chic, service is top notch (attentive without being obnoxious) and the food is what you’d expect from a Top Chef alum. With an impressive menu including housemade pasta, mozzarella AND pizza bar, entree selections (holla for the Double Cut Pork Chop and 12 Hour Braised Ossobuco), gourmet salads and appetizers, we were unable to make a decision opting to go tapas style.
The cocktail menu forgoes the foo foo names, simply being assigned a number 1 – 18. We began with a cocktail from the bar – I had the No. 1 – Absolut, ginger zest, lemon and sage tincture. What’s not to love about any of these ingredients? Mixed together creates perfection in a glass.
Once we were seated with drinks in hand, our waitress recommend the mussels and gnocchi to start. There was no way I was leaving without partaking of the Gnocchi with truffle cream, fried sage, crispy pancetta. That’s worth going off the Paleo wagon for sure.
The next course we shared two dishes – the Wagyu Beef meatball with roasted tomato sauce, melt in your mouth ricotta and basil and the Squid ink Linguini with grilled lobster tail and spicy lobster cream sauce. Both were heavenly but extremely rich.
When salty carmel gelato is on the menu how can you say no? This was probably our least favorite choice of the evening being much richer than expected. Tasted more like ice cream than gelato. Lesson learned, next time I’ll stick with something more traditional like Tiramisu.
While I loved the overall atmosphere and energy of Siena Tavern, the expansive venue is completely open including the bar area. With every table and bar seat at capacity, it makes for a less than romantic dining experience. I see this as a great option for a business lunch, couples or girls night out. Not necessarily the best choice to have an intimate conversation.
tunic | Cabi Clothing
necklace & earrings | here)
