Here’s the Best Bites column that appears in today’s edition of The Daily Journal:

A new Italian restaurant, Tucci’s, opened Monday. It’s at 1560 North Illinois Route 50 in Bradley, in a remodeled Armenise’s Eighteen 75.

Owner Joe Armenise’s new concept focuses on casual, family-friendly dining. Signature stone-baked pizzas are a highlight of the menu, which also includes appetizers, sandwiches, pastas, chicken and fish, steaks, chops and veal. Choosing a first meal was hard, but I was very happy with my pizza choice. I tried the “Naples,” which had a delicious, crispy crust and was topped with Alfredo sauce, grilled chicken, spinach, mozzarella, caramelized onions and capers. High on my list of things to order during my next visit are the beer-battered artichokes appetizer with Cajun ranch dressing ($8.99), the pork Parmesan and pot roast sandwiches ($7.99 and $8.99), and the briciole ($16.95), which is stuffed flank steak simmered in red sauce.

In keeping with the casual theme, among the wine offerings are jugs of Goomba Red and Goombata White table wine. Each jug holds between five and six glasses and costs $14.50. The jugs have a screw top, which means they can be sealed and customers can take unfinished bottles home with them.

Wondering about the name? Tucci is slang for “grandfather” in the region of southern Italy where Joe’s parents are from. Joe’s family has been in the restaurant business since the 1900s, and opening an Italian restaurant was a way to get back to his roots, he said.

Tucci’s opens at 11 a.m. daily for lunch. It closes at 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 9 p.m. on Sunday.

To get to Tucci’s, which is visible from Illinois Route 50, you can take the frontage road that circles the mall and turn at the Fairfield Inn, or you can enter the Best Buy parking lot and go around the west side of the building.

***

Three area Dairy Queens will stay open for the winter. The Dairy Queen at 121 S. Main St. in Bourbonnais, 1045 W. Station St. in Kankakee and 3 Gladiolus St. in Momence will remain open through the winter months for the first time in 70 years. The Maple Street location in Kankakee closed for the season on Nov. 1. For coupons to any of those locations, visit Dairy Queen’s merchant page on LetsEatOut.i57life. com.

***

Speaking of Let’s Eat Out, there’s now a mobile version of the site. You can access all the merchants and their coupons from your smart phone at LetsEatOut.i57life.com. In addition to Dairy Queen, current restaurants are America’s Bistro, Carlo’s Family Restaurant, Eddie’s Bar & Grill, Fiesta Taurina, Great Wall, JR’s Chicken, Little Caesars Pizza, Oberweis Ice Cream and Dairy Store, Perky’s Pizza, RiverBend Bar & Grill, Ryan’s Pier, Tacos Del Norte and Tuscany Steak & Pasta House.

***

Last week I shared off-season contact information for several Kankakee County Farmers Market vendors. Here are two more:

* Turtle Acres: Bakes weekly and as needed. Offerings include jellies, jams, salsas, cookies, sweet breads, muffins and foccacia. They also have gluten-free items and sweets for the diabetics. Call (815) 939-0321, or e-mail them at turtle_acres@yahoo.com to join their mailing list. Orders must be placed by Thursday for Saturday pickup. Delivery is available for a small fee.

* Sackett’s Home Bakery: Chery Sackett will make anything she sells at the market, including pies, yeast and sweet breads, cookies, bars and granola, plus other items like holiday treats. To order, call (815) 592-1425. Delivery options are available.

***

Once again I’ll be publishing a list of restaurants that will be open for Thanksgiving. If you’re a restaurant that will be open, please contact me by next Friday (Nov. 13) and I’ll include the information in my column on Nov. 19.

Best Bites appears Thursdays in The Daily Journal. Denise Renckens can be reached at the phone number above or
at drenckens@daily-journal.com.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 12:50 pm and is filed under Print columns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.