RPM Italian sits in River North as the first joint venture between Lettuce Entertain You's RJ, Jerrod, and Molly Melman and Giuliana and Bill Rancic. It's the sibling restaurant to RPM Steak and RPM Seafood, taking a modern, contemporary approach to Italian cooking rather than a straight trattoria script.
Daily housemade pastas anchor the menu — bucatini pomodoro, carbonara, spicy Dungeness crab over squid ink spaghetti — alongside wood oven pizzettes and Italian classics like chicken parmesan and eggplant parmesan alla Billi. The kitchen also runs a full steaks-and-chops program, including a dry-aged bistecca fiorentina meant to serve two to four. The wine list leans heavily Italian, built around Barolo, Brunello di Montalcino, and Super Tuscan bottlings.
The room has a reputation for elegant, dressed-up atmosphere and attentive service, and it draws a River North crowd that treats it as a special-occasion and see-and-be-seen destination as much as a place to eat.
Daily housemade pastas anchor the menu — bucatini pomodoro, carbonara, spicy Dungeness crab over squid ink spaghetti — alongside wood oven pizzettes and Italian classics like chicken parmesan and eggplant parmesan alla Billi. The kitchen also runs a full steaks-and-chops program, including a dry-aged bistecca fiorentina meant to serve two to four. The wine list leans heavily Italian, built around Barolo, Brunello di Montalcino, and Super Tuscan bottlings.
The room has a reputation for elegant, dressed-up atmosphere and attentive service, and it draws a River North crowd that treats it as a special-occasion and see-and-be-seen destination as much as a place to eat.