CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - Chicago's oldest restaurant is celebrating another birthday.
Walk up the stairs of The Village off Monroe, you can feel its history.
Its sign has become synonymous with old Italy and the Capitanini family.
Alfredo Capitanini opened Italian Village back in 1927 as an homage to his hometown of Lucca, Tuscany. His great granddaughter Giovanna now runs the place with her brother.
“It is something that I always knew I wanted to be a part of,” Giovanna Capitanini says. “I think that inherently and growing up in our family we have this rich nostalgia but also history here, and it’s in our bones, it’s in our blood.”
Giovanna says it's unique to have a fourth generation, family-owned business still in the same building for nearly 100 years. She says it's the tradition and, of course, the food that brings people back.
“We have families that come every single year, and we get to see their kids grow up, and they celebrate with us every year, and that is what makes the Village the Village,” Capitanini says.
Through Prohibition, the Depression and most recently the 2020 pandemic, the restaurant still hasn't changed much, which Capitaninii says it's part of its charm.
“Legend has it that Al Capone used to sit in this booth. This is our prison because it was easy to escape through the kitchen if someone was coming in through the front door,” Capitanini says.
“All of our spaces, we kind of want to wrap people in an experience.”
To celebrate 97 years, all this week, there will be a special tasting menu for $97, with wine pairings included. A newly renovated Bar Sotto will reopen this fall downstairs.
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