Updated May Wine Feature

We have an exciting addition to our May Wine Feature!

In addition to Lacyrma Christi del Vesuvio Bianco DOC 2015, we will also be showcasing Mastroberardino's Redimeore Irpinia Aglianico DOC 2013.

Though generally sold at $18 a glass and $60 a bottle, we will be featuring BOTH of these wines for the month of May at just $9 a glass and $35 a bottle!

These are two of our favorite Mastroberardino wines. Mastroberardino, besides being one of the leading wineries in Italy and the world, is a family owned business dating back ten generations! It is because of the Mastroberardino family that the indigenous grapes of Southern Italy’s Campania region continue to not just exist, but enjoy recognition among the finest wines in the world.

The Lacryma Christi Bianco also happens to be Clara’s all-time favorite wine:

“The tears of Christ, Lacryma Christi, is from Campania, the same region of Italy my mom and dad were from. As the legend goes, God cried finding the Gulf of Naples, a strip of heaven stolen by Lucifer. Lacryma Christi (“tears of Christ”) vines grew from the spot where his tears fell. I hope you enjoy this truly marvelous wine!”

100% Colpa di Volpe grape, Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio Bianco is pale yellow in color with aromas of pear and other tree fruits complementing undertones of white peach and licorice. On the palate, strident minerality and good body make this a well-structured, food friendly wine.

100% Aglianico grape, the Redimore or “king of blackberries” is deep ruby red in color. Complex and intense, with hints of red fruits, especially strawberries and raspberries, and spices such as vanilla, tobacco, cocoa and coffee. Elegant, well-structured, with a long persistence and a remarkable softness.

May Wine Feature

Due to popular demand, we are excited to continue showcasing Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio Rosso & Bianco DOC 2015 for the month of May!

The name of this wine is entwined with a legend. According to the story, God cried finding the Gulf of Naples, a strip of heaven stolen by Lucifer, and in the place where his tears fell, Lacryma Christi ("tears of Christ") vines grew.

This wine is dear to our hearts here at Clara's for two specific reasons. First, Lacryma Christi is produced by the Mastroberardino family, a family owned business dating back ten generations! Second, it is Clara's all-time favorite wine:

"The tears of Christ, Lacryma Christi, is from Campania, the same region of Italy my mom and dad were from. Lacryma Christi Bianco is a very light, crisp white wine hat is perfect for fish dishes. We always had Lacryma Christi with us to accompany La Vigilia, the feast of the seven fishes, and our Easter celebrations. I hope you enjoy this truly marvelous wine!"

The Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio Bianco is pale yellow in color with aromas of pear and other tree fruits complementing undertones of white peach and licorice. On the palate, strident minerality and good body make this a well-structured, food friendly wine.

The Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio Rosso is intense ruby-red in color with aromas of cherries and red fruit underscoring notes of plums, raspberries, and black pepper. Refined tannins and good acidity make this wine rich without being overpowering. 

We will be featuring these two wines for the month of May at $9 a glass and $35 a bottle.

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* Congratulations to the winners of our April Wine Contest! *

Thank you to all those who participated. Stay tuned for more contests in the near future!

Weekly Specials 4/4-4/9

Tuesday - Thursday

Lobster Ravioli is here for a limited time! Enjoy four large ravioli stuffed with lobster in a cream dill sauce, topped with sauteed shrimp and mushrooms. With soup or salad to start this dish is priced at 23.95

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.

Upon request, the gnocchi can also be served in any of our homemade sauces

Friday – Sunday

Chicken Vesuvio Weekend!!

Every complete first weekend of the month (Friday must be included) we offer Clara's Chicken Vesuvio handed down from her mother Celeste. We bake our fresh chicken in a white wine and herb sauce with onions, mushrooms, and green and red peppers accompanied with roasted red potatoes. We also offer a complimentary soup or salad to start. This dish is priced at $16.25 for regular Chicken Vesuvio or $17.25 for Breast only.

Wine Specials

For our April Wine Feature, we are excited to showcase Lacyrma Christi del Vesuvio Rosso & Bianco DOC 2015. The name of this wine is entwined with a legend. According to the story, God cried finding the Gulf of Naples, a strip of heaven stolen by Lucifer, and in the place where his tears fell, Lacryma Christi ("tears of Christ") vines grew.

We will be holding a special contest for our customers with this wine feature. The customer who buys the most bottles/glasses of either wine will be given a full case of Mastroberardino valued at $200! Second place will be given six bottles, and third one bottle. Ask your server for more information.

We will be featuring these two wines for the month of April at $9 a glass and $35 a bottle. 

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

Thursday - Every Thursday* every glass of wine will be offered at half price. 

 *except on holidays

April Wine of the Month

For our April Wine Feature, we are excited to showcase Lacyrma Christi del Vesuvio Rosso & Bianco DOC 2015. The name of this wine is entwined with a legend. According to the story, God cried finding the Gulf of Naples, a strip of heaven stolen by Lucifer, and in the place where his tears fell, Lacryma Christi ("tears of Christ") vines grew. 

This wine is dear to our hearts here at Clara's for two specific reasons. First, Lacryma Christi is produced by the Mastroberardino family, a family owned business dating back ten generations! Second, it is Clara's all-time favorite wine: 

"The tears of Christ, Lacryma Christi, is from Campania, the same region of Italy my mom and dad were from. Lacryma Christi Bianco is a very light, crisp white wine that is perfect for fish dishes. We always had Lacryma Christi with us to accompany La Vigilia, the feast of the seven fishes, and our Easter celebrations. I hope you enjoy this truly marvelous wine!"

We will be holding a special contest for our customers with this wine feature. The customer who buys the most bottles/glasses of either wine will be given a full case of Mastroberardino! Second place will be given six bottles, and third one bottle. Ask your server for more information.

We will be featuring these two wines for the month of April at $9 a glass and $35 a bottle. 

August Blog

August Specials

August Wine of the Month: Pinot NeroThe Pinot Nero vineyards are situated around the small town of Kaltern with east facing slopes at 550 meters above sea level. Cool temperatures during the ripening period combined with enough sunshine promote the development of this elegant Pinot Nero. Cherry and raspberry on the nose with hints of rosehip tea and candied plums in the glass. The first impression of this Pinot Nero on the palate is ample and soft with a silky finish. Dense ruby red hue. Come enjoy a glass or bottle today!

Tuna Pasquale 

Freshly cut tuna steak laid atop a bed of our house made angel hair pasta, mixed with garden fresh tomatoes and mushrooms, lightly tossed in a White wine Alfredo sauce. It smells SO good, you can almost taste it! We look forward to seeing everyone.

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 $80 or less is offered at half price.

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

July Wine of the Month

Our wine feature for July comes to us from the island of Sardinia. Sardinia (which belongs to Italy) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and lies roughly 190 miles west of Italy's mainland. In recent years, researchers including Dan Buettner and National Geographic have identified Sardinia as a “Blue Zone."  Blue zone areas are places where people reach the age of 100 at rates 10 times greater than in the United States.

Within the Blue Zones, researchers have identified nine specific characteristics that they believe contribute to a long healthy life. One of the characteristics in Sardinians is drinking a glass or two of their island made Cannonau wine daily. The Cannonau grape (known in other parts of the world as Grenache) contains two to three times the level of artery scrubbing flavonoids as other wines and may be a contributing factor to their long life.

Our feature wine, Costera, is from the Argiolas estate owned by Franco and Giuseppe Argiolas. The vineyard is located in the Trexenta hills just north of the capital of Cagliari. The wine spends 8 – 10 months in French Barriques and 5 months in cement vats. Costera shows the typicality of the Cannonau (grenache) grape with flavors of very ripe strawberries, black cherries, herbs, and spices. The warmth and intense sunlight of southern Sardinia can be seen and felt in the wine with unexpectedly deep color and fullness on the palate. French oak barriques provide rounded tannins, medium body and flavors of vanilla.  

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May Wine Dinner

Join us at our May Wine Dinner featuring the recipes and wines of the Abruzzo and Campania regions of Italy.  Click here to register.

March Wine of the Month

For our March Wine Feature, we are excited to showcase Tommasi's "Rafael" Valpolicella.  The Tommasi Family have been wine makers in  Piedmont since 1902 with the fourth generation of family members now at the helm. 

The "Rafael" Valpolicella is a blend of Corvina Veronese, Rondinella,  and Molinara from a single vineyard in the Valpolicella Superiore zone. As a reminder, Italian wines are not named after the grape (usually) but the region which it is produced (usually).  And, Valpolicella ranks just after Chianti in total Italain Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC) wine production. 

The Rafael is aged 15 months in Sloavian Oak barrels. You can expect an intense ruby red in color, on the nose it has dried spices perfumes, with accents of leather and cherry flavors. The taste is fairly intense, spicy with sweet cherry flavors. Well balanced and pleasantly tannic.  We will feature a glass at $9 and a bottle at $36.  

Tommasi Wine Dinner

Join us at Clara's for a very special wine dinner on Wednesday March 4, 2015.  We will feature the wines of Tommasi from the Verona area in Italy.  The night will include 5 courses with 5 Tommasi wines and a discussion with Giovanni Sicilia.  $80 per person all inclusive. To register: click here.  

December Italy Wine Feature

This is our last wine feature for 2014 and we have saved one of the best for last: Allegini's 2010 Palazzo Della Torre.  I am a huge fan of Amarone wines but one just can't drink Amarone all the time; therefore, I turn to Palazzo della Torre.

Palazzo Della Torre comes from a single vineyard (Villa della Torre) in the Valpolicella region about 10 miles from Verona, Italy. The wine is affectionately knows as a “Baby Amarone” because it is made using the ripasso method. The blend of 70% Corvina, 25% Rondinella and 5% Sangiovese takes two different paths. Thirty percent of the grapes are left to dry on racks till December, in true Amarone style, and the other seventy percent vinified immediately. The fresh wine is blended with the juice from the dried grapes for a second fermentation and the end result is a wine that bursts of rich, ripe blackberries, currants and mocha. We will be offering the wine at $10.50 a glass and $42 a bottle. 

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November Wine Feature

Happy November!

With the holidays just around the corner, we wanted to feature an easy-going and versatile wine that everyone could enjoy with a plate of pasta! And, we think we delivered! Our feature for November is Rubio from the San Polo estate of Marilisa Allegrini and Leonardo LoCascio. Rubio is 100% Sangiovese Grosso grown on the hillside vineyard of Montalcino in Tuscany.

If the Sangiovese Grosso grape sounds familiar it because it is the same type of grape that goes into Chianti as well as Brunello. Rubio has a ruby-red hue with aromas of red cherries, violets and currants with just the right hint of spice. It pairs wonderfully with our fresh pasta and tomato based sauces as well as pizza and bruschetta. If you like a good Chianti, I would recommend giving Rubio a try. We are offering it for $9 a glass and $36 a bottle.

Speaking of the holiday season, we are now booking holiday parties and caterings for lunch or dinner. And, you can now purchase Clara's gift cards from our website! Our holiday hours will be:

Thanksgiving Day – Closed

Christmas Eve – open for caterings only from 12:00 – 5:00pm. We book up very early for caterings so give us a call soon.

Christmas Day - Closed

New Years Eve – 4:00 – 9:00 PM

New Years Day – Closed

 Coming Soon: holiday offers and specials.

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Hello Family

Welcome to October and another new Italian wine feature. This month we are going back to the area around Verona, Italy to the Tenuta Sant'Antonio winery. The winery, like many in Italy, is family owned and run by the Castagnedi brothers. The wine is called “Scaia” and it is 100% Corvina grapes. If the Corvina grape sounds familiar you might be a Valpolicella fan as Valpolicella is produced with a blend of grapes including Corvina.

 The wine is a lovely ruby red with purple glints and an aroma of red rose and wild black cherry. It is a medium body well -balanced wine pairing well with our flavorful tomato sauces especially our Vodka Cream. It is a very versatile easy drinking wine that can easily work well with our Chicken Vesuvio or Lamb Ragu specials.  We hope you enjoy!

As hard as it is to believe, the holiday season is just around the corner and Clara's is ready to serve you! While we are not open for lunch, we do host private lunch events for 20 or people Tuesday – Sunday. Or, you can have an evening office holiday party in one of beautiful new private rooms that can accommodate up to 90 people. Visit our website Banquet page for more information or give Lisa Schilling our Special Events Manager a call at 630-968-8899.

Dawn

 Hello Family

Last Thursday (September 18^th), we had the pleasure of hosting our first wine dinner at the new Clara's. The wine dinner was not open to the public; rather, we had 24 guests who won complementary spots via their Five Stars RewardMembership. Our guests are members of our rewards program who purchased a bottle of our featured wine in August. We drew 12 names at the end of the month and each winner could bring a guest. The dinner would not have been possible without our partnership with our wine distributor The Winebow Group.

The guests were treated to six different wines from the Botromagno Winery from Puglia, Italy. Dali and Todd (our Winebow friends) treated guests with the background of each of the wines while everyone enjoyed five great food courses developed by Rudy including a fantastic Lamb Ragu which is our featured special for this week. Everyone had a wonderful time but our favorite guest was 9 year old Donald who accompanied his mom. ( But no wine for him!) He loved every course and listened intensely to each course being described. I think we might have the makings of a great chef! Visit our Facebook page to see pictures of the event.

Finally, we hope everyone can support the Seven Bridges Association's “Fill the Bus” Food Drive happening this weekend September 26^th and 27^th. The food drive will benefit the West Suburban Community Pantry. For more information, visit www.go7bridges.org or call 630-963-9900.

Dawn