It’s a Strudle…Italian Style.
“The Strudle”
Have you ever felt so close to being on a sitcom/reality TV show but it was really someone’s real life? Every day I over hear someone saying, “they need to have a show about this place!”. Well, I was THERE yesterday and YES, they really need to do a sitcom/reality based show at Pompeii on Taylor Street in Chicago.
Why? Well the family of owners, The Davino’s, are characters in themselves…they are: A permanent fixture at her Dad Luigi’s store, Aunt Carm (Carmella doesn’t like to be on film for fear someone might see her), The 87 year old Mother of Ralph and Carmella, they call her Grandma Precious, The beautiful daughter of “Ralphie” and “Ro”, Kim, The Italian Bride of Ralph Rosemarie aka Ro, and owner, chef, and Luigi’s son, Ralph Davino. There are a lot more relatives there but I can’t remember their names because everyone is related. The people in street clothes working behind the counter are family members, everyone else, well, I guess, more family members…
Yesterday I had the honor of learning the secrets behind cooking an original Pompeii Poor Boy Strudel with Ralph. A smart business man, a great dad, a man who honors the history of family, a hard worker and a golfer in his spare time with a wonderful spirit…he has Chicago’s Mayor Daley on speed dial and every Chicago cop coming in for lunch! The restaurant sits across the street from RUSH-Pres Hospital so it really IS the safest place in Chicago. And, can I tell you, Ro and Ralphie met when she was 14 years old and he 16… now that’s love on some limoncello!
“The Family”
The place is packed daily with hungry customers and a line around the block for lunch. They have secrets…no, not like Soprano’s secrets… recipe secrets for dough, pizza, taramisu… the tradition of the original bakery on Loomis Street lives on in Pompeii on Taylor Street. The ancestors are hung in a huge painting above the dining room watching the customers, workers, and most of all the family carrying on the traditions, and making sure they don’t spill any family secrets.
Here’s the deal, you can really only get “those” kind of family secrets if you speak Taylor Street which is another thing you can learn from the Davino’s but you’d have to be a regular, or a cousin, or work there to learn…I mean afterall ”yous caint leern it in da burbs ya’s gotta git it on Taylorstreet”
I may not have walked away with a Taylor tongue but I definitely got the secret for Pizza Poor Boy Strudle… click on our photo to watch the video, recipe included! Manga! Manga!
“the man”
“the bread”
