THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 19 | SUNDAY NOVEMBER 20 2016 |
15
LIFESTYLE & ARTS
NORTH SHORE FOODIE
Ferentino’s delivers on the American Dream BY STEVE SADIN DAILYNORTHSHORE.COM
learned and then some, Piero said the keys to making a pizza that eeing and hearing the emkeeps people coming back are the bodiment of the American fresh ingredients and doing dream is as easy as a convernothing “half baked.” “We don’t start anything until sation with Piero D’Ascenzi, a North Shore resident and owner the customer is ready to order,” he of Ferentino’s two Lake Forest said. Along with the pizza, Ferentirestaurants and Marco Roma in no’s offers 10 kinds of pasta with Winnetka. a choice of seven different sauces. Getting some of the gritty details behind that dream requires When a customer orders spaa conversation with Aurelio ghetti, mostaccioli, rigatoni, fetD’Ascenzi, Piero D’Ascenzi’s son tuccini, gnocchi, cheese or meat and general manager of the family ravioli, baked mostaccioli, baked business. rigatoni or lasagna they can choose Today Ferentino’s and Marco from pomodoro, Bolognese, tomato and basil, vodka and Roma comprise a restaurant chain serving pizza, pasta, sandwiches, Alfredo along with either red or salads and even a burger. white clam sauce. In 1995 Piero started baking a “This was my dream,” said Piero D’Ascenzi. “I was following my focaccia roll for sandwiches indream. I cooked and did everycluding a hamburger. He said it is made fresh daily. Specialty salads thing from front to back. There’s were also introduced around that an old saying if you work hard there will be opportunities. It’s time, with romaine lettuce that harder to start a business today.” arrives fresh every day. The story of the young man who “We really expanded our menu wanted to own his own restaurant then,” said Aurelio. The menus at began when Piero was a 20-yearthe two Ferentino’s and Marco old waiter at a restaurant in his Roma are the same. Aurelio and Piero D’Ascenzi at Ferentino’s in Lake Forest. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER. native Rome in 1974. It was Aurelio said he started working spurred along by falling in love and father and they both came here,” work construction,” said Aurelio. pizzerias were going to give away to own a restaurant. He opened in the family business answering said Aurelio. a lot of hard work. “He got done and worked in a their recipes so he found another the original Ferentino’s on Western phones when he was 10. His Rita D’Ascenzi was also born Piero he said he worked hard— pizza place learning how to do way to do product research. Avenue in Lake Forest in 1989 brother, Marco D’Ascenzi, is part in Italy and immigrated to the the two-word answer he gives for that. That’s how he got the money “My father and uncle literally followed by a smaller location on of it too now. Aurelio’s explanation Chicago area in 1967 with her his success—at a restaurant in to start Villa Rita.” went dumpster diving in Chicago Waukegan Road seven years later. of his job description has a familfamily, according to Aurelio. He Skokie, opened his own there— Deep-dish pizza was already to see what ingredients they used,” “There was no Italian restaurant iar ring. said she made a return trip, which Villa Rita—three years later and well established in Chicago when said Aurelio. “He said, ‘I want to in Lake Forest when we opened,” “I’m the general manager but put the gears of his family’s story in 1989 opened Lake Forest’s first Piero decided he was going to be better than that.’” said Piero when asked why he I’m a hands-on general manager,” into motion. Italian restaurant. open a restaurant featuring that After operating Villa Rita for chose Lake Forest. “So I decided he said. “If dishes need to be “My mother Rita (D’Ascenzi) Aurelio adds some details. dish. Aurelio said his father knew 13 years, Piero said, he felt the to open one.” washed I wash dishes. Where help went back for a wedding, met my “He got up in the morning to none of the well-known Chicago North Shore was the right place Bringing all the things he is needed help will be given.”
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North Shorts Takes by the Lake by Bill McLean
“Thumb-thin’ else”
T
he local sportswriter, circa 1995, gets assigned to write about a pitcher, Highland Park High School ace Tony Cogan, who had thrown consecutive no-hitters. The sportswriter recalls a Major Leaguer had accomplished the same feat, decades ago.
A Johnny Something … A Johnny Van … A Johnny Vander… Stumped. The sportswriter needs to know, needs to get the name right, needs to spell the name correctly. Tony Cogan and this Johnny Something have something in common. Something special. He searches for a phone book (remember those?) in the
newsroom and looks up the local library’s phone number. He dials. “Reference librarian, please,” he requests. An amiable woman says hello, hears the sportswriter’s inquiry. She then politely asks the sportswriter to wait while she hunts for the name of the famous Dodger. Or was he a Red? The pleasant voice returns.
“His name is Johnny Vander Meer,” she reports, free of charge, before spelling it and noting there is a space between the Vander and the Meer. Bless her. She adds that he played for the Cincinnati Reds when he threw the no-hitters in 1938. Useful information, all of it. A decade passes. Another decade passes. It is 2016, postelection. The local sportswriter is
still a local sportswriter, but he sometimes gets to write about local folks in all kinds of industries. “Google” is no longer the sound a baby makes after swallowing a spoonful of Gerber. Google is a journalist’s best friend. Has been for years and years. But the sportswriter is still amazed, stunned, knowing a
smart phone the size of a playing card is capable of retrieving information … in spades. He gets nostalgic one day, grabbing his phone and thumb typing “Johnny Vander Meer”. The link to the Johnny Vander Meer Wikipedia page appears, in only 0.51 seconds. I am thankful for such speed. I also miss that pleasant voice.