Review Tue Jun 14 2011

East Village Has New Roots

By Robyn Nisi

Whenever I travel, I try to get out of eating hotel restaurant food to get the real local flavor--which means I've walked several miles in blazing San Antonio heat (and in work-related business casual) for barbecue, driven off the interstate (many times) for a green river, and suffered through pizza of a certain Midwestern city to get the legit experience.

So when Roots, which is the first place in town to serve Quad Cities-style pizza, opened in the East Village, I had to sample it. I've driven through the group of cities that line the Iowa and Illinois border countless times, but am usually too distracted by the massive, intimidating Mississippi River bridge to stop and sample the food.

At first glance, the dark, "U"-shaped restaurant has an alarmingly large number of flat-screen televisions, which is a tough sell for people like me--but the food definitely makes up for the distraction. The appetizers delivered; among the high points were handmade mozzarella sticks with marinara, and an airy garlic monkey bread served in a ramekin. I was excited by the toasted ravioli dish, a rare find in these parts. My dinner partner (the wonderful Jen Bacher) and I also ate a very solid Caesar salad, and a beet and goat cheese salad that was heavy on beets and fruit (apples, pears) but light on actual salad. Jen noted that the Greek Salad, which she tasted during a preview of the menu earlier this year, is a winner laden with a ton of olives, pita croutons, feta, and cucumber.

On to the pizza. Quad Cities-style pizza, if you're not in the know, is mainly characterized by a malt-heavy crust, which is a delicious meal in itself--sweet, dense, and buttery. The pizza it was attached to was solid and well-made, but I wasn't seeing stars after first bites. This is the problem with amping up the notion of "outsider" pizza in a city like Chicago--the competition is heated, and while Roots' pie is quite good on its own, Jen and I both felt that other parts of the menu were far more distinctive.

While the margherita and sausage pizzas were serviceable, some varieties fell flat: the signature Taco Pizza, topped with a mound of lettuce and housemade cheese-powdered nacho chips (we were told that using plain old Doritos is not cool in these parts) was reminiscent of public school-grade cafeteria fare, and came with individual packets of Heinz Taco Sauce. The Big Mick--basically, the Mickey D's star hamburger dumped onto crust--was a texture nightmare for me. Ham and sauerkraut pizza, a typical find in Quad Cities pizza varieties, was unfortunately missing from the menu, although at this point, the mouthfuls of lettuce and taco chips signaled the end of the meal for me. I like pizza a great deal, and while Roots' crust deserves a parade, the more unique angles of its menu are an acquired taste at best.

Roots, which is owned by Greg Mohr and Scott Weiner (also the brains behind the nearby Fifty/50), has plans to incorporate more Quad Cities fare into the menu down the line, such as the local ice cream (is there anything this city doesn't transform into their own kind?). Hopefully Roots will start serving beer from many of the independent breweries in the actual Quad Cities area, although their current offerings from surrounding states (Three Floyds, Lakefront, Half Acre, etc.) is impressive. But if you're going to go back to your roots, you really should go the distance.

Roots
1924 W. Chicago
773-645-4949