Food expert Steve Dolinsky visits Tre Dita, Chicago’s newest steakhouse that everyone is talking about – NBC Chicago

With the Democratic National Convention kicking off in town on Monday, you can bet that local steakhouses will be packed. That includes Tre Dita, a new establishment that’s an option worth exploring.

For the first part of a two-part story, we visit the restaurant inside the St. Regis Hotel, and the theme actually has more to do with Tuscan tradition than traditional steakhouse fare.

When Chicago-based Lettuce Entertain You approached Los Angeles chef Evan Funke about a new project, the culinary 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 to take lightly. Tre Dita’s mission is bigger than just meat and pasta.

“It’s about transporting people out of their everyday lives and into the heart of Tuscany through the wood fire, handmade pasta and storytelling at the table – and the spectacular dining room,” Funke said.

Spectacular is an understatement, with its high-quality wood, upholstery and views of Lake Michigan and the Chicago River. Funke insisted on a pulp lab to start with.

“This is my fourth laboratory in the United States. It is part of the daily rituals to make pasta this way, with controlled humidity and temperature,” he said.

Nearly a dozen pastas emerge from there, including a simply presented, wide-sheeted chestnut-flour lasagna nestled in a deep green pesto with Sicilian pine nuts. Beef tartare is drizzled with fried artichoke leaves and served with scoopable toast. But you know the steaks are the center of attention when you see a backlit display case of trophies of the raw product just outside the dining room.

“Our name is tre dita (three fingers), the measurement by which Tuscans measure their steak; otherwise, it’s considered carpaccio,” Funke said. “We wanted to present it as a Tuscan restaurant that happens to specialize in bistecca.”

The Bistecca Alla Fiorentina is a 1.1-litre steak, dry-aged for 60 days. It is the calling card of any Florence butcher shop and, here, it is grilled over hardwood until medium rare, then sliced ​​and served alongside humble sides such as vegetables or potatoes. A smaller option is the Costata, a 900-gram bone-in prime beef steak. But Funke says Tre Dita is not a steakhouse.

“When you say ‘steakhouse,’ you think of creamed spinach, side dishes and a la carte dishes. We didn’t want that. We wanted to promote the sequence of Italian food,” he said.

That means several courses, enjoyed slowly. Finished, perhaps, with an elegant tiramisu, served in an etched crystal goblet, very different from other local versions. In short: Chicago now has a glorious space to delve into Tuscany’s culinary culture.

“It’s a very easy place to tell good stories about Bistecca, you know?”

Here’s where you can go:

Three Little Bites

St. Regis Hotel

401 E. Wacker Drive.

312-725-1724