Piccolo

So being from New England, I’m a big fan of eating ice cream during the cool seasons of fall and winter. Apparently, the people who run Piccolo do not share the same passion. Or they are just, as we like to say in Boston, retahhded.
I walked into Piccolo a few weeks ago looking to get some of their delicious gelato. Was it a salted peanut day or perhaps my old standby of goat cheese cashew? Hmm. Well, unfortunately I never got the chance because the gelato case was, gasp, empty. What gives? The counter dude told me that they stop serving gelato after labor day and wont start again until late spring 2010. I told him that I would see him next spring then! Seriously, the only reason to go there is for the gelato… their sandwiches aren’t worthy of a repeat visit. Plus they are always always out of ingredients so you’re most likely not going to get the sandwich you want. I just think its really strange that they would get rid of the thing their known for… stupid business move in my opinion. And yes, I’m bitter.

Now that gelato season is over for Piccolo, I will be a bit saddened… but there’s still things that will keep me coming back. Aside from the delicious gelato… I have often come in to try various panini that I enjoy and I love most all of the bruschetta… when they haven’t run out of X, Y, or Z to make them (which has happened to me a handful of times— yes, I’ve been in more than a handful of times). My favorite though is picking out things for a salad– I like their (house made?) croutons and balsamic vinaigrette in particular.
Some of the people that work here are very pleasant, and some are not. I usually check to see who is working before I decide to stop in or keep walking to another destination. Some of them are not stingy in their making of the various things and put some care into the preparing of the food, and some of them seem so unhappy judging by the three miserly pieces of roasted red pepper they put on my salad. I’m talking three little skinny shreds.
Bottom line– yummy food and good times when the right person is behind the counter.

a fair warning to all :
gelato season is officially over for piccolo! («until warm weather returns», and in chicago speak that translates to 8 months of waiting!!)
this is some of the saddest news that i have heard in a few days. i had been planning a trip for quite some time, eagerly looking forward to creamy goat cheese gelato and crazy flavor combinations. and tragically when we stepped inside all the gelato containers were empty (gasp of horror). baaaah. they still had some ice cream from bobtail, regular. boring. tasted good. but nothing like the gelato that we had been dreaming of.

This is still my favorite gelato place. I just tried a banana curry combination and it was fantastic.
The staff is very friendly and nice!

Mi piace! This gelato is waaaay better than Caffe Gelato on Division. Not only do they have better quality, but they have really interesting flavors like mexican chocolate and whiskey.
Its the perfect place to stop on a hot afternoon or in the evening on a stroll through the neighborhood. Its a very small place with cool art and nice exposed brick. The staff are always friendly and make good reccomendations.
Go to Piccolo if you want a real Italian gelato. And then you’ll understand why I can never go back to Breyers again.

Friendly staff, cool art. Large serving of tastiness, thank you!
I had the mexican chocolate gelato. It was pain & pleasure. Awesome.
I had another gelato flavor as well, maybe something nutty. Whatever it was, it was great too.
I’ll be back, maybe today, actually.

There was a lady with a Piccolo gelato cart at the Do Division fest today. I have been dying forever to try their whiskey gelato so I finally indulged.
I apologize to my friends if I embarrassed them, but I think I had a flavorgasm in public. I didn’t necessarily taste the whiskey as strongly as I would have liked, but it was such creamy goodness I would like to jump into a pool of it and happily lick my way out.
I want to check out the shop even more now, definitely moves up on my bookmark list.

In my quest for all things goat cheese, I stumbled upon Piccolo, which has a goat cheese/​caramel/​cashew gelato. I tried it, and wanted to like it, but I just couldn’t. Too much going on.
HOWEVER! I did have a wonderful cup of chocolate cherry gelato, and that was divine! Much creamier than Café Gelato up the street.
The guy behind the counter was awesome! I’ll be back to try a sammich as they looked delicious!

Mmmm, nothing makes me remember my time spent in Rome like a creamy cup of gelato.
We popped in here for something to cool our jets after trekking through the ‘hood on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon. They have quite the assortment of flavors from my personal fave (and rather boring) choice of pistachio to more exotic and exciting flavors (anyone for a little ricotta honey apricot… it was good, seriously!).
I also noted the menu for paninis, sandwiches, and bruscettas (pronounced brus-​KETTA, trust me, you don’t want an angry Florentine to correct you, I learned this lesson for you folks). Seems like a good neighborhood spot to stop for either a lunch or an after-​dinner treat.
Service was very friendly, she didn’t mind helping us to all the samples we could handle (so I could revert back to my old standby, pistachio… oy.)
The only thing that would make this better is if the menu was in Italian, and I had to order with lots of gestures and eyelash-​batting.
Molto delicioso!

I have had the food AND the gelato here — the food was just 3 stars, the gelato, 5 stars, and the stars 5 stars, ulimately coming out to a 4 star experience.
First, the gelato is divine. We went for my friend’s brithday to grab up a nice, light dessert and we were pleasantly surprised. I am not down with the more «interesting» flavors, including cucumber, but their vanilla and boozier flavors are magnificently delish. Plus, the staff is super nice — not a bunch of snot nosed kids like at their competing gelato establishment up the road, which was SUCH a breath of fresh air. Even better their prices were an entire dollar cheaper than gouge-​a-​gelato up the street.
The sandwiches were ok. Just your plain old Italian café inspired style sandwich. No complaints, but nothing super inspired.
Next time, I might be adventurous and try some exciting gelato flavor. We will have to see. But for the time being I LOVE the vanilla. I know, how boring, right? But it is so good!
I was disappointed the last time I went there two weeks ago — their gelato machine was broken, and no gelato was to be found :(

I love, love, love Piccolo. When I first moved to Chicago this summer, I spent many aimless afternoons walking up Damen to Wicker Park. Piccolo was one of the first places I claimed as «mine.»
The first time I went there, I had Mexican Hot Chocolate gelato. It was incredible, really rich, with cinammon and other spices. Partway through the gelato, my mouth and throat started to burn. I assumed there was just a ton of cinnamon and kept eating it. Mouth kept burning. Did I stop? Hellz no. It tasted too good. I finished the entire cup of gelato despite the pain. Turns out, there’s actually cayenne pepper in that flavor; hence, the extreme spiciness. I think that’s pretty cool – I have since ordered it again, but paired it with a more mild flavor for balance.
My ultimate favorite, though, is banana. Actually, it’s banana fudge (usually). Banana ice cream, milkshakes, anything that combines banana and vanilla and rich sweetness, well, those are my favorite things. So of course gelato made with real banana is my favorite.
Whenever they don’t have a banana gelato flavor, I’m at a loss and usually ask the staff for a recommendation. A few weeks ago, this happened, and guess what? The Piccolo guy told me that there was some banana fudge downstairs that had just come in that day and that he’d go get it. He was going to put out a new container of chocolate, but because I asked, he actually went and got the banana and put that one out instead. I thought that was pretty amazing service.
And another note about the gelato; I think some people don’t like the fact that it isn’t made in-​house. Well, it’s made by a local pastry chef, who has it delivered at regular intervals. Isn’t that just as good? It’s not from a gelato factory or something like that!
I’ve had some of the paninis, and they have all been good (Fig/​olive; spinach). Order the orzo pasta as your side instead of the artichoke salad.

Got locked out of my house on this 94-​degree day with nowhere to go and some time to kill before the key guy came, so I decided to walk a few blocks over to Piccolo. I had a mixed greens salad with my choice of toppings for 6 bucks (the olives were really good!) and a gelato for 3.50.
The dude behind the counter was great. Very friendly amidst my indecisivenes, and he let me combine flavors on my gelato. I had the strawberry and the malted vanilla. The gelato was delicious, although I was really full from the salad (he really piled in the greens). They also have an enticing bruschetta menu that I want to try next time — sounds like a good option when you’re just looking for a snack. A solid place to have as a neighborhood café.

Made a quick stop in while on an aimless walk through the neighborhood. Guess what I found?!
Goat Cheese — Cashew — Carmel Gelato
Incredibly tasty! A delectable blend of salty and sweet. $ 3.50 for a small, which — to me — was plenty. It’s pretty rich.
I grabbed a sandwich menu card. I’ll definitely be back!

The favors were interesting (mojito and horchata?! mmm…), abundant (10 or so) and very fresh (no fake coffee powder flavor or icky strawberry syrup). Thumbs up.
The espresso and strawberry gelato were heavenly. The dude serving us was quite nice and speedy. (He must have read the Unilocal reviews calling him slow). A steal of a deal– a tall size cup filled with 2 flavors for $ 3.50, definitely big enough for two to share. Although, I cannot attest to the food, I think the gelato was quite nice. Doesn’t taste like the gelato in Rome, but nothing does… sigh.
Décor is fresh. European/​modern vibe of course. I like how they converted the old space. Street parking is easy.

The gelato here is pretty great. Free samples! I tried the whiskey flavored gelato. It really tasted like whiskey! I don’t think I could really have a whole cup of it, but it actually tasted pretty good. I also sampled the rosewater-​cucumber flavor. I was hoping for something more flowery, instead it just tasted like cucumbers. I settled on the pistachio, and it was totally delicious.
I also had a seared garlic spinach panini, and it was just okay. There wasn’t a very strong garlic flavor at all. I don’t think I’ll be eating the food again.
Also, the staff seems to be pretty lethargic. They were slow to do everything, and they even helped a couple that walked in after us before they got us the gelato. They were nice, but they seemed like they were doing us a total favor by serving us food/​gelato.

I walked into Piccolo excited about eating something new. I was in a hearty mood so I tried the Bresaola which has cured beef tenderloin, greens, pickled onions, and paremesan. It was very very good, but for $ 8 it’s a little steep.
Also, I docked this place one star because I was turned off by the employee forgetting to charge me for a bag of chips and brought it up to me as I was finishing my meal. Dude, seriously, it takes you 5 minutes to realize you forgot and are NOW going to charge me $ 1.09 now that the bag is in my belly? Uncooth. It’s $ 1.09, wtf.
I don’t think I’ll be back, Jerry’s is close enough

Wow. So close and yet, so, so far.
Cute setup, interesting menu choices, but everything seems really lackadaisical and rather half-​assed. The guy working the counter could not have been more Hipster Bored and sauntered around like he didn’t have a care in the world. And $ 7 for two small sorbettos? If I want to pay that kind of money for a frozen dessert, I am going to Cold Stone and get full fat ice cream. With cookie mix-​ins. dammit.
Flavours were certainly not as adventurous as the other reviews would have you believe. The most exciting ones were Black Currant and Salty Peanut. But I am hoping that this is simply a reflection of the time of year, and once summer gets going, things will turn around for Piccolo. I hope so, its too cute of a place to get bulldozed by apathy.

On a break from the cupcake crawl we needed to get something that was non-​sugar in our system. We had seen Piccolo from the sidewalk and decided to split a panini. Unfortunately they were out of buffalo mozzarella, but we got the tomato, basil, and cheese panini with Provolone substituted in it. To make up for the lack of mozzarella, the guy brought us a plate with orzo and some extra bruschetta as a bonus! The bruschetta was fresh and delicious, with a little bit of spicy kick to it. Just what our poor sugar saturated systems needed.
The atmosphere was a bit sparse, but they’ve only been open since August, so it’s still got those new restaurant growing pains going on. I can see how it would be a cute corner place for people in that neighborhood. I really wanted to sample their gelato, but I had to get back to the cupcake orgy. Maybe next time!

I had a green tea/​lychee gelato. Both were good but didn’t have the flavor explosion I was looking for… little weak to say the least. I’ll probably go back to give it another try though!
I went on a Saturday night and it was dead. The guy behind the counter seemed really bored and kinda did the «stand there and stare us down» till we picked something which was a little weird. But other than that he seemed nice.
²²⁄₅₂

I went there last week for a quick bite, and I thought is was just o.k. The sandwiches were a little dry and I understand the concept of a panini, but the bread kind of tasted stale.
Eh. I’ll try it again in a month and see if its any better, because I like the idea of a quick sandwich place that isn’t Subway.
The artichoke salad on the side was the best part by far, and I could eat a pound of it!
Overall, I wasn’t blown away, but I will always try something twice!