Chefs Sarah Grueneberg and Bailey Sullivan have been joking that their latest restaurant venture, Trattoria Lo So, “is like the cool aunt that Monteverde wished that they had.”
She “wears a kaftan and smokes a long cigarette” and has heaps of confidence, Grueneberg said, comparing the new spot to her prominent West Loop Italian restaurant known for its contemporary take on fresh pastas.
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Up-and-coming executive chef Sullivan is preparing to leave Monteverde and steer the Trattoria Lo So ship in Bucktown, taking over the space that once housed Jack & Ginger’s at 2048 W. Armitage Ave. The Italian eatery is the second restaurant venture for Grueneberg, the head chef and co-owner of Monteverde in West Loop, and her partners Jaime Canete and Rob Mosher.
A rendering of the exterior of Sarah Grueneberg’s new restaurant Trattoria Lo So at 2048 W. Armitage Ave., located in the former Jack & Ginger’s space.
The neighborhood restaurant’s name more or less translates to “trattoria I know” in Italian. The opening is planned for January or February 2027.
The menu at Lo So will consist of “classic, delicious, heartfelt, soulful Italian food with a little bit of a different story than what we tell at Monteverde,” Grueneberg said.
“What’s going to be special is the differentiation,” Sullivan said. “[Dry pasta] is totally different than fresh pasta. You could never really have a true al dente with fresh pasta.”
The restaurant’s signature dishes will include bronze-die dried pastas sourced from Mancini Pastificio Agricolo, a company based in the Marche region of central Italy. It’s a bit of a departure from the fresh pasta made and served at Monteverde, but Grueneberg said it doesn’t make the food any less authentic.
The dried pasta is ideal for Trattoria Lo So because “it has all these little microscopic teeth on the die that will allow the pasta to grab the sauce,” Grueneberg said. That allows them to achieve that al dente “toothsomeness” for Lo So pastas.
In addition to seafood and vegetable dishes prepared over a robata-style grill (an open-hearth grill typically used in Japanese cooking), Lo So’s menu will include some Monteverde personality with fresh pastas cooked in the wood-fired oven, Grueneberg (left) and Sullivan said.
Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times
“When you make [dishes] with dry pasta, it’s like you’re allowed to undercook it in the water and finish cooking in the sauce,” she continued. “That’s a technique that’s really challenging to do with a fresh extruded pasta, because you have to cook the flour enough to not allow it to be gummy.”
Her mentor, Tony Mantuano of the acclaimed Spaggia, where Grueneberg was promoted as executive chef in 2010, taught her that.
The one-story Bucktown space allowed the restaurateurs to install two important features: a wood-burning oven and a charcoal grill.
In addition to seafood and vegetable dishes prepared over a robata-style grill (an open-hearth grill typically used in Japanese cooking), Lo So’s menu will include some Monteverde personality with fresh pastas cooked in the wood-fired oven, Grueneberg and Sullivan said.
“Having live fuel is a challenge and an exciting thing altogether,” Grueneberg said. “That fire, that smoke, is going to tell the story of the menu there.”
The robata grill and wood-fired oven seem to be what they’re most excited about: “We always love putting different skewers on the menu,” known as “spiedini” in Italian, Sullivan said. “We’ll have a lot of [those] coming off of that grill, or even things getting marked on the grill, finished in that wood-fired oven.”
Pastificio Mancini also grows the wheat it mills into flour for its pastas, which is not as common throughout Italy, Grueneberg said. “It’s the full process,” she said. The next phase of their restaurant includes an October trip to Marche, in part to see how the pasta is made.
Food has always been an important part of Sullivan’s life.
Her father is Michael Sullivan, owner of Goldyburgers in Forest Park. She went on to study the culinary arts at Kendall College, then perfected her ramen and Japanese techniques at the now-closed Yusho in Logan Square before moving on to Parachute in Avondale.
In 2016, she landed at Monteverde.
Monteverde, 1020 W. Madison St. in the West Loop, is known for its contemporary takes on fresh pasta dishes, like its bolognese.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times file
In the decade or so that Sullivan has been cooking at Monteverde, she’s gained a notable amount of press and hype, including being named a finalist this year in the James Beard Awards’ Emerging Chef category. At the West Town eatery, she’s known for her “atipica” (“atypical” in Italian) style: She blends local, seasonal ingredients with culinary whimsy and Italian flair.
While the details of the rotating menu are still being worked out, Sullivan is meditating on the “feeling” they want to create for guests. The renowned duo said they “are building a restaurant that we want everyone to feel like they can eat at.”
But the possibilities are endless, Sullivan said: “Homey dishes like casseroles, baked pastas … you can go so many directions.”
Bailey Sullivan (left) and Sarah Grueneberg “are building a restaurant that we want everyone to feel like they can eat at,” the chefs said.
Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times
Dining and Cooking