Culver's to open Monday in Orland Park

By Bob Bong
Southland Savvy

Culver’s will join the burgeoning hamburger scene in Orland Park at 10 a.m. Monday with the grand opening of the Wisconsin-based chain’s 420th location at 9130 W. 159th St.

“It’s always been a dream to open a Culver’s in Orland Park,” said Justin Obriecht in a news release. “These last several months have been challenging and rewarding as we now feel completely ready to introduce Culver’s to the people of Orland Park.”

The Orland location is the chain’s 81st in Illinois, and Obriecht is involved as owner or partner in five of them. Besides the new Orland store, Obriecht is connected to Culver’s in Frankfort, Matteson, Homewood and Tinley Park.

The Orland location will be open from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. The restaurant will employ 25 part-time workers and 20 full-time workers.

Urban Room grand reopening
The Urban Room restaurant at University Golf Club, 23520 Crawford Ave. in University Park, is holding a grand reopening weekend today, tomorrow and Easter Sunday to celebrate the return of its chef Bryan Coldman.

IPad is coming
Apple will be releasing its highly anticipated iPad at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Apple store inside Orland Square Mall in Orland Park.

Webb adds Hyundai dealership
The Webb auto group, which operates Webb Ford in Highland, Ind., and Webb Chevrolet at 9440 S. Cicero Ave. in Oak Lawn, has added Webb Hyundai to its group with the recent purchase of Team Hyundai at 9236 S. Indianapolis Blvd. in Highland.

Meet Minnie in Oak Lawn
White Sox great Minnie Minoso will be signing autographs from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Kmart at 4101 W. 95th St. in Oak Lawn.

Subway to offer breakfast
Starting Monday, Subway sandwich shops will add breakfast sandwiches to the menu. The sandwiches feature omelets made from regular eggs or egg whites and cheese. Options include Western egg and cheese; Black Forest ham, egg and cheese; double bacon, egg and cheese; and steak, egg and cheese. For the bread, customers can choose light whole-wheat English muffins, flatbread or Subway's traditional 6-inch or foot-long hoagie breads. Prices will range from $1.75 to $2.25 for English muffin melts, $2 to $3.50 for 6-inch sandwiches and flatbread sandwiches, and $4 to $6 for the Footlongs.

Sam Buca's: Reliably first-rate

By Chuck Ingwersen
Southland Savvy

My wife and I found our way to Sam Buca's shortly after it opened in the summer of 2003, and we immediately became fans. First-rate service, a casually elegant dining room, reasonable prices and an excellent menu of traditional southern Italian cuisine make Sam Buca's worth revisiting regularly.

Located in a strip mall along Harlem Avenue in Palos Heights, Sam Buca's features the main restaurant, an adjacent small bar area and a larger “Buca Bar.” Added last summer was a roof-top deck for outdoor dining and drinking during warm-weather months. 

Our most recent was on a Saturday, at about 8 p.m. We hadn't made reservations, and we were surprised to find the dining room full at that hour. We were told the wait would be about 20 minutes, so we settled in at the small bar situated between the dining room and the larger bar. There are a handful of tables and a couple of TVs in the small bar area, but we were content to have a glass of wine while waiting for a table in the main dining room.

We were seated in the dining room in less than 10 minutes, with menus at the ready. I had decided on my entree before we even walked into the restaurant. I find Sam Buca's chicken marsala irresistible — two good-sized boneless chicken breasts covered in a sweet marsala sauce and a generous helping of mushrooms. As much as I've enjoyed every entree I've tried at Sam Buca's, I have a hard time ordering anything other than the chicken marsala — even if I have to endure some mocking from my wife.

My wife ordered chicken tetrazzini — strips of chicken sauteed with olive oil, mushrooms, onions and garlic in a light Parmesan cream sauce.

A choice of soup or salad comes with the meals, and we each enjoyed a salad, along with bread and olive oil. If you are a fan of creamy garlic dressing, as we are, you need to try the Sam Buca's variety. I don't know if I've had any better. (Maybe at Aurelio's … but it's a close call.)

My chicken marsala, which came with a side of mostaccioli. was superb. It took all my willpower to save enough for take-home. My wife enjoyed the chicken tetrazzini, but probably would order one of her other favorites, such as chicken vesuvio, on our next visit. Yes, we're partial to chicken dishes, despite the many menu choices of pastas, veal, steak, chicken and seafood.

The full menu, including appetizers and desserts, can be viewed online.

Our waitress was friendly and attentive. Even though the room was crowded — one large group, many couples, a mom with two young children — it wasn't at all noisy, so conversation was no problem. Of course, much of the conversation included my repeated words: “This is darn good marsala.”

Savvy rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars
Sam Buca's Restaurant and Bar
12231 South Harlem Ave., Palos Heights, IL
(708) 361-1226

Reservations: Not required; recommended weekends
Cuisine: Italian
Parking: Strip mall parking in front and in rear of the restaurant.
Bar: Separate bar area with plenty of TVs; rooftop bar open during warm-weather months.
Restaurant website: http://www.sambucasrestaurant.com/
Bar website: http://www.sambucasbar.com

OMG Cafe, a new Frankfort restaurant caters to people with celiac disease

By Bob Bong
Southland Savvy

For Julie Scianna, necessity was not only the mother of invention it was the only way she could find to eat out.

Scianna (pictured with chef Andrew Hebda), of Frankfort, suffers from celiac disease, which prevents her from digesting gluten, and gluten is found in anything made from wheat, barley and rye. It also is used as a stabilizing agent in otherwise gluten-free products such as ice cream and ketchup.

Scianna says she learned she had the disease four years ago after being misdiagnosed as having among other things irritable bowel syndrome and ovarian cancer.

“One in 100 people have celiac disease,” she says. “Most people diagnose themselves because doctors don’t know that much about the disease. It’s estimated that 97 percent of the people with celiac disease don’t even know they have it.”

Gluten also damages the lining of the small intestine, which makes celiac patients more susceptible to ulcers and cancers later in life.

“But the silver lining,” says Scianna. “Is that celiac disease is easily controlled through a gluten-free diet.”

Unfortunately, few restaurants offer gluten-free choices. Scianna has changed that by opening the OMG It’s Gluten Free Café at 19810 S. Harlem Ave. in Frankfort.

“I didn’t have anywhere to go out to eat,” says Scianna, who started cooking gluten-free meals at her home three years. That soon expanded into a food fest with eight friends who would cook and share gluten-free meals.
That’s where OMG Café comes in. Scianna started the eatery to give people like her a place to go.

“Our goal is to produce good, delicious food. We just take the wheat out.”
OMG Café opened March 20 and business has been brisk. Scianna attributes the early success to her chef Andrew Hebda. She also says she’s expanding the menu next week.

“We are going to start offering four or five dairy-free items next week because of requests,” she says.

“We also started Tasty Tuesdays this week. Every Tuesday, we’ll feature a special dish. We also are going to start serving sandwiches served on our gluten-free bread that is baked here daily.”

Scianna says she and partner Eileen Greenawalt eventually want to get into distribution and shipping of their foods.

“If we do that, we’ll have to expand our kitchen,” she says. “But I’ll always keep the café because of the smiles on the kids faces when they come in and see they can eat cookies or pizza.”

OMG Café is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and closed on Sunday.

For more information, call 708-469-4900 or visit http://omgitsglutenfree.com/ OMG It’s Gluten Free also has a fan page on Facebook.