Formento’s and Nonna’s

Bar Nonna

Old-School Italian Charm from Team Bristol

None 13 Photos Formento’s and Nonna’s
A sweet little Italian grandma is worth her weight in meatballs.

Is... something we just said.

But if you don’t happen to have access to one at the moment, enter the warm embrace of Formento’s, a throwback Italian fantasia from the Bristol team that would be happy to share theirs with you, now open in the West Loop. (Here’s your slideshow and your menu.)

It’s the kind of place where Frank Sinatra would meet Sophia Loren for drinks while Frankie Valli crooned in the background. That’s the name-dropping part of this story.

The next part is about how you’ll go to the darkened front tavern for a Stinger or a Pago Pago or something very Vegas ’61. Then there’s the main event part in the dining room—servers in black bow ties, 650 wines, oxblood leather booths that could fit the entire Rat Pack and some assorted Gabors while a jazzy supper club soundtrack plays in the distance.

There’s a modern take on tuna tetrazzini to consider. There’s pasta with old-fashioned neck-bone gravy. There’s a 42-ounce prime bistecca fiorentina, which serves four.

And there’s also an adjacent sandwich shop called Nonna’s that’s open right now for quick lunches or jars of that gravy to go.

You weren’t getting out of this without gravy.

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