With the Democratic National Convention in town starting Monday, you can bet local steakhouses will be busy. That includes Tre Dita, a new establishment that’s an option worth exploring.
For the first portion of a two-part story, we visited the restaurant inside the St. Regis Hotel, and the theme is really more about Tuscan tradition than it is traditional steakhouse fare.
When Chicago’s Lettuce Entertain You group reached out to L.A. Chef Evan Funke about a new project, food pros knew there would be pasta. But transforming the second floor of the Jeanne Gang-designed St. Regis Hotel in Lakeshore East isn’t something you take lightly. The mission at Tre Dita is about something bigger than just steak and pasta.
“It’s about transporting people out of their daily lives and into the center of Tuscany through wood fire and handmade pasta and storytelling at the table; plus, the spectacular room,” said Funke.
Spectacular is an understatement, with its rich wood, upholstery and views of Lake Michigan and the Chicago River. Funke insisted on a pasta lab for starters.
“This is my fourth laboratorio in the U.S. It’s part of the daily rituals to make pasta in this way, so humidity and temperature-controlled,” he said.
Nearly a dozen pastas emerge from it, including a chestnut flour lasagna with wide sheets, presented simply, nestled into verdant green pesto featuring Sicilian pine nuts. Beef tartare is showered with fried artichoke leaves, served with toast points for scooping. But you know steaks are the focus when you see a backlit trophy case of the raw product just outside the dining room.
“Our namesake is tre dita – three fingers – it’s the measure in which a Tuscan measures their steak; otherwise it’s considered carpaccio,” said Funke. “We wanted to frame it as a Tuscan restaurant that just so happens to specialize in the Bistecca.”
The Bistecca Alla Fiorentina is a 60-day, dry-aged, 42-ounce porterhouse. It’s the calling card of any butcher in Florence, and here, it’s grilled over hardwood until medium rare, then sliced and served next to humble sides like greens or potatoes. A smaller option is the Costata, a 32-ounce Prime bone-in ribeye. But Funke says Tre Dita isn’t a steakhouse.
“When you say ‘steakhouse,’ you think creamed spinach, you think sides and a la carte. We didn’t want that. We wanted to promote the sequence of Italian dining,” he said.
That means multiple courses, enjoyed slowly. Finished, perhaps, with an elegant tiramisu, served in an etched glass coupe; a far cry from other local versions. Bottom line: Chicago now has a glorious space to dig into Tuscan food culture.
“It’s a really easy place to tell good stories about Bistecca, you know?”
Here’s where you can go:
Tre Dita
St. Regis Hotel
401 E. Wacker Dr.
312-725-1724