Oggi Trattoria

So my big plans to cook dinner last night were derailed when A mentioned a desire to go out to dinner. Suddenly, cooking was the furthest thing from my head. Out to dinner? Count me in!

Oggi Trattoria (1378 W. Grand Ave.) is a family-style Italian restaurant where we held our small engagement dinner. It's not a fancy place, but what it lacks in overpriced finery it makes up for in charm, friendliness, and the biggest portions of homemade red-sauce delights you can find anywhere nearby. That and their $6 bottle (yes, bottle) of house wine special makes it an easy sell for this wine- and food-aholic.

The food at Oggi isn't "revelatory" or "exotic" or any bizarre adjective freely applied to food nowadays. It's just good--simple and hearty, and plentiful to boot. We split an order of stuffed shells, three gigantic pasta boats filled with ricotta and spinach and topped with red sauce, mozzerella, and a sprinkling of parsley. I like that they manage to taste "light"--not healthy, but as in the opposite of heavy. Most Italian red-sauce joints can swing towards the heavy, greasy, dull side by drenching everything in thick cream sauce and layers of cheese. They keep it simple(r) at Oggi, from what I can tell in the two times I've been there.

The "extra-thin" pizza we split beats a lot of the neighborhood pizza joints, hands down. The crust is crisp, rather than chewy--due to olive oil in the crust, maybe? I'm not enough of a baker to be able to tell these things. Maybe a bit too much sauce, but light on the cheese (which I like) and full of great sausage--maybe from the Italian deli down the road? Definitely tasted a step above food service sausage.

A wasn't a fan of the canned mushrooms, but using canned mushrooms over fresh or sauteed seems to be right for this place, and I don't know if I'd want it another way. They're not about being gourmets or breaking new ground here, just about feeding people the food that defines most people's idea of "Italian." Or something like that. I want to say Oggi is like a sterotypical Italian restaurant that does everything right--without stereotypical being a bad thing. It's what Olive Garden could never be--a genuine place where you feel like, if not your Italian grandmother, somebody pretty nice, easygoing and sincere is cooking for you at home.