Tanti Auguri to Dr. Lara Mastino!

Last August, our cousin Lara from Rome visited us for two weeks.  We had a wonderful time and she and Rudy collaborated on our Carbonara Special.  She graduated from medical school yesterday and our daughter Ersilia was in attendance and gives us a look inside an Italian graduation.  

"Each graduate presents their thesis in an auditorium with their professors, family and friends in attendance. They have a seven minute speech memorized with accompanying slides. After the presentations are finished, professors have the chance to ask the graduate questions about their thesis. After all the presentations, the graduates are called up to received their diplomas. The graduates exit the auditorium, greeted with confetti and champagne bottles popping as they enter the courtyard for pictures. As tradition, the graduates wear the laureate wreath around their head. 

The graduates either go into the city (Rome) as a group and celebrate, or relax at home before a celebration dinner in the evening. A celebration dinner is attended by family and close friends, and composed of multiple courses - starting at 8 pm and going until midnight. Gifts and parties favors are exchanged. It was a wonderful time"

Tanti Auguri (best wishes) to Dr. Lara Mastino!

Construction Update 1/30/15

THE WALL IS DOWN!!

After a couple of weeks of the temporary wall, we now have our new bar/lounge area.  The wall went down this morning and while we still have more work to do it is open!  Work continues on the 4 season room with a completion date sometime in March.

Five Stars Loyalty Program

Is your birthday just around the corner?  Have you signed up for the Five Stars program but did not include your birthday during sign up?  In celebration of our customers birthdays, Clara's offers all Five Stars members a free birthday dinner (up to a $15 value).  The offer is valid 7 days before and 14 days after your birthday but you must register your birthday with your Five Stars account.

We have also added more rewards levels to the program.  Reach 750 points and receive $75 off your next bill or save up those points to 2500 and have a private dinner at Clara's for yourself and 5 friends with Rudy.  Rudy will cook a multi-course meal and I (Dawn) will pair each course with a wonderful Italian wine.

Please let us know if you have any other reward you would like to see us include. If you have questions about your account or need any assistance, please give us a call at 630-968-8899 or via email at customerservice@clarasrestaurant.com.

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Weekly Specials 1/30/15 - 2/5/15

January Wine of the Month: Cirelli 2013 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo

We travel to the region of Abruzzo (home region of Rudy Sr. parents) for our January wine feature. It is a fresh soft wine with hints of mature red fruits yet full-bodied to stand up to our hardy red sauces. Additionally, the wine is certified organic including through the entire production! $9 a glass and $36 a bottle.

Special Cocktail: Carmel Hot Chocolate

What a better way to warm up then our Carmel Hot Chocolate. We combine hot chocolate with carmel vodka and top with whipped cream drizled with carmel. $10

Friday – Thursday Special

Pappardelle d' Abruzzo

Braised 12 oz short rib ragu served on our fresh Pappardelle pasta accented with fresh hand dipped ricotta. $24.95 Soup or Salad to start.

Gnocchi Wednesday

 

We spend all day peeling potatoes to make this traditional potato pasta.  We recommend the gnocchi in tomato cream sauce with spinach and goat cheese, and will offer this combo for $15.95.  This order will come with soup or salad to start.

If you like, though, we will offer the gnocchi with any of our homemade sauces.

Wednesday - Every Wednesday (except holidays) is "Wine Appreciation Wednesday" where every full bottle of wine less than $75 is offered at half price. 

Thirsty Thursdays. Every Thursday (except on holidays) every glass of wine will be offered to everyone for half the price.

Fresh Pasta with Clara

Since opening in March of 1987, we have made all of our pasta in house everyday to give our customers nothing but the freshest product.   And while we make our fresh pasta via pasta machines from Italy, Clara is still known to make pasta by hand, the old fashion way.  We thought it might be fun to shoot a video of Clara giving a pasta making class so anyone could try their hand at pasta making.  Please let us know if you give it a try and how it turned out!

 Visit our You Tube Channel for the video:  http://youtu.be/KYtrSulCgGE

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Weekly Specials 1/23/15 - 1/28/15

January Wine of the Month: Cirelli 2013 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo

We travel to the region of Abruzzo (home region of Rudy Sr. parents) for our January wine feature. It is a fresh soft wine with hints of mature red fruits yet full-bodied to stand up to our hardy red sauces. Additionally, the wine is certified organic including through the entire production! $9 a glass and $36 a bottle.

Special Cocktail: Caramel Hot Chocolate

What a better way to warm up then our Carmel Hot Chocolate. We combine hot chocolate with caramel vodka and top with whipped cream drizzled with caramel. $10

Friday – Tuesday Special

R3 Special. A spicy blend of Sriracha in our Alfredo sauce with primavera veggies (pea pods, carrots, mushrooms, and broccoli) topped with either grilled chicken or grilled calamari served on a bed of our fresh angel hair pasta and garnished with goat cheese. $23.75. Soup or Salad to start.

Gnocchi Wednesday

 

We spend all day peeling potatoes to make this traditional potato pasta.  We recommend the gnocchi in tomato cream sauce with spinach and goat cheese, and will offer this combo for $15.95.  This order will come with soup or salad to start.

If you like, though, we will offer the gnocchi with any of our homemade sauces.

Wednesday - Every Wednesday (except holidays) is "Wine Appreciation Wednesday" where every full bottle of wine less than $75 is offered at half price. 

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Construction Update 1.23.15

Everything is moving quickly as our expanded bar/lounge area should be ready for customers by the end of next week (fingers crossed!).  Outside of the restaurant, the plastic covering will be down by next Tuesday as the workers will have completed the exterior brick and EIFS.  The four season room will be next to be finished with a goal of opening in March.  Thanks for all the patience as we complete construction.

Construction Update 1/15/15

The woodworkers have been busy this week building our new bar extension.  Everything is done by hand and made in their shop in Chicago so it will take a few days for them to assemble on-site.  We hope that the temporary wall will be removed sometime next week and the new bar/lounge area will be ready for customers by the end of the month.

What's in a name?

How do you decide on the name of dishes? And, who are the people with their name on dishes on the menu? These are questions we get from time to time so I thought I would provide some background on how we name dishes at Clara's.

The history of naming dishes after members of the family started with Clara. Usually, it was named after the person who loved to eat the dish such as Anthony's Calamari after Clara's son Anthony, the Papa Rudolfo's Special after Rudy Sr., or the Pizzelle Michelle after their daughter Michelle. Or, it was named after the creator of the special such as the popular Rudy Jr Sprimp Special (created by Rudy Jr) or the Mark Salmon Special by Clara's youngest son Mark. (side note: Rudy created the Rudy Jr. for me when we were dating. I ate it all the time and recommended it to tables when I waitressed back in the day so Clara decided to put in on the menu). All of Clara and Rudy Sr. children had their name on a dish on the menu.

The tradition continued when Rudy and I opened our restaurant (Rudi Fazuli's) in Chicago and he created two dishes in honor of our then two children. Rudy created our now famous Shrimp Ersilia for our then 4 year old daughter Ersilia (SiSi now 22) and Lasagna Miguel for our new baby Michael (now 18). However, after we had our youngest, we never named anything after him and never really thought about it.  However, he remembers and he has been lobbying for a dish FOREVER! Rudy 3 loves all things spicy especially Sriracha so along with his dad he created the R3 special. So, finally Rudy 3 (as the family calls him) will have a dish even it is only a  special. However, with your support maybe it too can make its way to the menu.  

The R3 Special. A spicy blend of Sriracha in our alfredo sauce with primavera veggies (peapods, carrots, mushrooms, and broccoli) topped with either grilled chicken or grilled calamari served on a bed of our fresh angel hair pasta and garnished with goat cheese.

Rudy 3

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Weekly Specials 1/15/15 - 1/21/15

January Wine of the Month: Cirelli 2013 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo

We travel to the region of Abruzzo (home region of Rudy Sr. parents) for our January wine feature. It is a fresh soft wine with hints of mature red fruits yet full-bodied to stand up to our hardy red sauces. Additionally, the wine is certified organic including through the entire production! $9 a glass and $36 a bottle.

Thirsty Thursdays. Every Thursday, except on holidays, every glass of wine, all day long, will be offered to everyone for half the price.

Thursday – Tuesday Special

R3 Special. A spicy blend of Sriracha in our alfredo sauce with primavera veggies (peapods, carrots, mushrooms, and broccoli) topped with either grilled chicken or grilled calamari served on a bed of our fresh angel hair pasta and garnished with goat cheese. $23.75. Soup or Salad to start.

Gnocchi Wednesday

 

We spend all day peeling potatoes to make this traditional potato pasta.  We recommend the gnocchi in tomato cream sauce with spinach and goat cheese, and will offer this combo for $15.95.  This order will come with soup or salad to start.

If you like, though, we will offer the gnocchi with any of our homemade sauces.

Wednesday - Every Wednesday (except holidays) is "Wine Appreciation Wednesday" where every full bottle of wine less than $75 is offered at half price. 

Construction Update 1.8.15

We are back!  Our couple of days of closing really helped our construction crew move the project along.  The brick wall is down and a temporary wall has been constructed.  The temporary wall cuts off some of the waiting space but it will only be for two weeks so the bar/lounge are can be completed.  Once completed we will have 8 more seats at the bar along with a spacious lounge area along with a working fireplace.  Thanks to all of you for our patience as we work to finish this as soon as possible.  And, thanks to our construction crew for battling the extreme weather all week!

Former wall

No more wall!  

Weekly Specials 1/9/15 - 1/14/15

January Wine of the Month: Cirelli 2013 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo

We travel to the region of Abruzzo (home region of Rudy Sr. parents) for our January wine feature. It is a fresh soft wine with hints of mature red fruits yet full-bodied to stand up to our hardy red sauces. Additionally, the wine is certified organic including through the entire production! $9 a glass and $36 a bottle.  

Friday – Tuesday Special

We are bringing back a fan favorite Cajun Salmon!

We saute fresh Salmon with shrimp and capers in a spicy lemon butter white wine sauce, and serve it over homemade Angel Hair pasta. If you do not like capers they can easily be left off upon request. Soup or salad to start. $21.75

Wednesday - Every Wednesday (except holidays) is "Wine Appreciation Wednesday" where every full bottle of wine less than $75 is offered at half price.

Gnocchi Wednesday

We spend all day peeling potatoes to make this traditional potato pasta. We recommend the gnocchi in tomato cream sauce with spinach and goat cheese, and will offer this combo for $15.95. This order will come with soup or salad to start.

If you like, though, we will offer the gnocchi with any of our homemade sauces.