THE DENUCCI WAY

DeNucci’s brings genuine Italian swagger plus gourmet pizza and an irresistibly lively Italian dining room to downtown Hinsdale.

There is no dining room—anywhere in the western suburbs—quite like the sprawling split-level Italian jewel box that is DeNucci’s in Hinsdale. One minute, you’re strolling along First Street in downtown Hinsdale—very Mayberry, very Rockwell. Then fwoosh, in the front door you go, and suddenly you’re Alice slipping through the looking glass.

All that order, tidiness, gentility—gone. This is pure Italian American theater. It’s like you’ve been invited to dine inside an oversized bric-a-brac painting. There’s Rococo floral wallpaper. An amaro-heavy cocktail list. Tongue-in-cheek signage: “Make pizza not war.” And beguiling second-floor trompe l’oeil artwork that tricks you into thinking there are huge kitchen knives and hunks of produce bulging from the drywall.

I’ve flipped through “Where’s Waldo” illustrations that offer less energy and visual eye candy to sift through. The room’s primary palette plays with greens and creams, hues inspired by fresh artichokes and wheels of aged Parmesan. Every ledge and shelf is lined with baubles and trinkets. Old wine crates. Checkered suitcases. Antique desk clocks. Weathered tool caddies. Water jugs. Giant wooden toy soldiers. Imagine some elegant Italian nonna being given a blank check to play designer.

Where the baubles end, the bottles begin—wine and spirit bottles glow carrot orange, olive green and emerald blue thanks to up-lit shelves and a main bar so grand and glittering it deserves its own photo shoot. Intentional or not, there’s something about the solid soundtrack of snappy tunes—a great American songbook of ’80s, ’90s and contemporary hits as well as Rat Pack favorites—that makes you want to cut loose, order a bottle of wine and paint the night ragu red.

The menu is aggressively welcoming. No dish or preparation requires an explanation from the waitstaff. This is a restaurant that’s committed to ensuring your kids have as splendid a time as their parents do. Warm garlic knots, hand-pulled mozzarella sticks, and fantastic pizzas share menu space with more refined offerings, including a long list of pastas that run the gamut from spicy crab campanelle to tonnarelli bathed in a sun-gold pomodoro.

But beneath all that familiarity lurks something even more interesting: a number of offerings that pay homage to the early 2000s, when starred chefs helped drag Italian menus away from Cal-Ital influences and toward American reinterpretations of Old World recipes.

I contend, for instance, the early 2000s were the golden age of Italian risottos in Chicago, when chefs reinvented what was long viewed as a humble Northern Italian staple into blank canvases that could showcase the most expensive ingredients in their walk-ins. Truffles. Zucchini flowers. Exotic mushrooms. Suddenly, risottos stopped being a supporting player and became a marquee attraction.

The same principle applies here. The lobster risotto, available only as a Saturday night special, is one of DeNucci’s most complex and inspiring dishes. Built atop a rich lobster stock that’s as thick as a zabaglione, it arrives saffron gold and studded with enough buttered lobster to build an East Coast lobster roll. But it’s the risotto’s top layer of flavors, bits of tarragon and a smooth spritz of lemon agrumato (a condiment made by crushing lemons and olives at the same time), that gives the whole affair a Meyer lemon undercurrent of sweetness. It’s the spirit of the restaurant poured into a very deep bowl: fun, over-the-top and rich, but never ostentatious or showy.

The same goes for the house branzino: a whole skin-on butterflied fish deboned for easy eating that’s pan sautéed then nested in a loose mild piccata broth that offers just the right wine and brine energy.

That confidence comes through in the house’s homemade tagliatelle Bolognese. This is not your typical meat-heavy Bolognese. The DeNucci’s version is gentler and sweeter and practically screams out for a bottle of red wine. Go with the affordable house vino if you’re on a budget or the Tenuta Sette Cieli Super Tuscan if you want to celebrate.

If you order a bottle, reserve a few sips to pair with one of DeNucci’s pizzas, which are the brainchild of Palermo-trained pizzaiolo Chef Salvatore “Sal” Lo Cascio. Born in Sicily, Lo Cascio became VPN-certified (Verace Pizza Napoletana) in Naples before heading stateside. Today, he works and tosses all sorts of styles (Sicilian, gluten-free, focaccia, and tavern-style pizzas), but the everyday DeNucci’s pies are pure New York. There are no stunt toppings here—no caviar, salmon, East Coast clams—but Sal employs a three-day fermentation process using premium flour, before crowning the dough with plum tomatoes and premium mozzarella. The result is a glorious hybrid, which boasts a big, barreled crust line and a foldable crispy undercarriage.

A handful of Sicilian and Taylor Street classics round out our other recommendations, including a fried artichoke bathed in a light white wine Vesuvio broth. DeNucci’s immaculately pudding-like salted caramel budino and pistachio-studded blondie also made it onto this summer’s must-order dessert list.

Credit must be given to Ryan O’Donnell, who, along with his business partner Jon Farrer, has transformed their Ballyhoo Hospitality Group from a scrappy upstart into one of the Chicago area’s premier restaurant groups. Back in 2023, he launched the first DeNucci’s in Lincoln Park after staring wistfully at a building across the street from his longstanding Gemini Bistro. He knew the concept he wanted to launch: an approachable and family-friendly trattoria that was anchored by classic Italian recipes and lots of Chicago soul.

He’s achieved his aims. Somehow, the charms of the concept have survived a series of expansion efforts. DeNucci’s has enjoyed a warm welcome in three very different neighborhoods—Lincoln Park, Highland Park in the northern suburbs and now Hinsdale. That’s not luck. That’s a winning formula, much like the artifacts on the wall, that I suspect will only grow more charming with every passing year.

DeNucci’s Hinsdale is located at 8 East First Street in Hinsdale. denuccisitalian.com

---

LIMONCELLO SPRITZ

Marry it with grilled calamari or the branzino. It’s a simple blend of limoncello and ginger beer with prosecco for some extra fizz. It’s crisp, light, not overly sweet, a drink for fresh-squeezed lemonade drinkers who like their lemons with a little kick. 

AMALFI SUNSET

Note that beautiful color: a blushing princess pink which evokes Sorrento at dusk. But the flavors are pure Italian citrus: tequila blanco with orange liqueur and hints of cherry. A fantastic pairing with pizza.