I found this restaurant by accident several years ago. I was having lunch at a restaurant in a local mall in Schaumburg, Illinois. Because I had always heard that there are a lot of old family-operated Italian restaurants in the Chicago area, I asked the waitress if she knew of any nearby. She suggested DiPiero’s Pizzeria and Ristorante about 5 miles away in Lake Zurich, Illinois. So, I decided to try it for dinner that night. I was shocked when I pulled up and saw the restaurant. It was a small building sitting in the middle of a mostly vacant lot and it really didn’t look open. I tried the door and found it unlocked, so I went in and immediately felt at ease. Although I was clearly the first customer for dinner that evening, the place had a warm, comfortable interior that reminded me of local places back 
in my hometown of Milwaukee. The dining area was small with about a dozen white-covered tables and the bar took up the other half of the restaurant. Dark-stained wood with white stucco walls gave the place the feeling that I had walked back in time to a neighborhood in Little Italy on the West Side of Chicago in the 1950s.
There was a whiteboard on the wall with menu specials written by hand. The printed menu consisted of a great selection of traditional, authentic Italian dishes that covered everything from pizza to classic pastas to entrees with meat, chicken and lots of seafood. I, however, couldn’t get past the specials on the board. Rigatoni Contadina with sautéed chicken, tomatoes and spinach caught my eye. It was one of the most incredible pasta dishes I have ever had. It consisted of very fresh, simple ingredients and the chicken was sautéed perfectly. I’ve 
been there four times and wish I could tell you more about their other food, but every time I go there I have always ordered the Rigatoni Contadina. They have a lot of other things that I’m really interested in, like the deep dish pizza or the Gnocchi al Pomodoro or the Fettucine alla Carbonara. I will have to try one of these the next time I am there.
