At Frantonio’s Italian Deli & Cafe in Barrington, the air is filled with the fragrance of simmering meat and garlic and the dulcet tones of a mandolin. The shelves are stocked with olive oils and plum tomatoes, and cases are brimming with sausages and cheeses and homemade pastas and sauces.
If you didn’t know better, you’d think you were in Italy–except that in Italy, according to Frank and Patti Bruno, you’d have to pay extra to eat at a table.
The couple opened Frantonio’s in December 1993 with a small menu of homemade Italian specialties that could be eaten in or taken out. Frank hand-trimmed the meat for the sausages and added the spices according to recipes he learned in his native Calabria in the south of Italy. He made cheese by melting fresh curds in water and pulling them into knots of whole-milk mozzarella. He roasted the beef. Then he began making his own sauce dishes, and now he’s rolling meatballs (the recipe: ground sirloin, lean pork, an egg, fresh garlic, parsley, bread crumbs, salt and pepper).
For the lunch and early supper crowd, Frantonio’s offers an array of salads ($1 to $1.75 per quarter-pound), sandwiches and specialty subs ($3.50 to $5.50), plus daily specials such as mostaccioli with sauce a la rabbiatta, a spicy blend of prosciutto, onions, black olives, plum tomatoes, red pepper and, of course, garlic. Soup is made fresh every day. Cannoli and tiramisu are also made on the premises.
“The more the better, right?” Frank said.
Frantonio’s Italian Deli & Cafe
421 N. Northwest Highway, Barrington
Hours: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, to 5 p.m. Saturday.
Phone: 708-382-2997
