Terzo Piano, Chicago/ by Shelley Lance, Blog Editor
Terzo Piano is the restaurant in the brand new Modern Wing of the venerable Art Institute of Chicago. Designed by award-winning architect Renzo Piano (by the way, I believe Terzo Piano references both the architect’s name and restaurant’s location on the “third floor”), the Modern Wing is a clean, classic, modern triumph of a building that enhances the already astonishingly beautiful set-up of Millennium Park, Michigan Avenue, and Lake Michigan. (How many major cities have, like Chicago, dramatically and gorgeously improved their public spaces over the last 2 decades?) The restaurant, run by Tony Mantuano, chef of the prestigious Spiaggia, is located, as mentioned, on the third, or top floor, and has an inviting patio overlooking Millennium Park (photo top shows the view from the patio). Since Chicago was enjoying perfect high 70′s summer weather (while Seattle was a 103° inferno!), we chose to eat outside. The all-white indoor dining room is cooly minimalistic and modern.
Similar to Seattle, Chicago’s hip restaurants are loaded with the names of local farms, organic vegetables, and artisan cheeses. My husband, Frank, ever nostalgic for Midwest fish, ordered both the crispy fried Lake Erie perch (as an appetizer, photo second from top) and the sesame crusted Lake Superior whitefish with eggplant, organic cucumber, and charmoula. (Photo third from top) Both were nicely cooked and tasty. I ordered the handmade spaghetti with La Quercia pancetta, egg, peas, and sheep’s milk cheese (photo fourth from top). “Uno, Due, Tre Burgers” (photo bottom), is a signature dish that features 3 mini burgers: Midwestern beef, Wisconsin lamb, and shrimp. (Normally the burgers would be served with fries, but, in the dish shown in the photo, our friend asked for steamed veggies instead).
One of the coolest things about Terzo Piano is their extensive array of Midwest cheeses. A very large, modern-looking plastic box of a cheese cart is wheeled out to your table. There were 13 items on their all-American cheese list and 10 were from the Midwest- mostly from Indiana and Wisconsin. We ordered the Big Ed’s cow’s milk from Saxon Creamery in Cleveland, Wisconsin, the Gorgonzola Dolce Latte cow’s milk from Denmark, Wisconsin, and the Ewe Bloom sheep’s milk from Prairie Fruits Farm in Urbana, Illinois (Run by a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign.) All terrific cheeses and a lovely Midwest way to end the meal.
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