A dimly lit, modern bricked space replaced the once bright storefront at 444 W. Fullerton.

On August 16, the corner of Clark and Fullerton received a new addition. In early August, Standard Market, a food destination for those in the Parker community due to the close proximity, abruptly shut its doors. With the Lincoln Park location quickly taken off the restaurant’s website, people began to wonder what happened to the beloved restaurant.

After rumors of Standard Market reconcepting, signs for Standard Market were removed and a new restaurant took over the spacious storefront of 444 W. Fullerton. That space soon turned into a little taste of Italy in Lincoln Park ––Casati’s. “Casati’s was amazing,” Parker student Lilly Satterfield said. “The pizza was really good especially in comparison to Standard Market.”

Another student, sophomore Rebecca Gross, is excited for what’s to come. “I hated Standard Market,” Gross said. “Their pizza was gross, and I’m really excited about the new restaurant.”

The man behind Casati’s is Stefano Casati, a native of Florence, Italy and a proud longtime employee of Phil Stefani Signature Restaurants. However, Casati is excited for this new venture to branch out and start his own restaurant. After arriving from Italy six years ago, Casati worked diligently before deciding to launch his own original eatery. Casati said explained,“ I want to bring a very authentic, prime quality and lightweight style of Italian food.”

Casati believes that Italian food should be a light meal. The United States has created a style of Italian food into something that differed from the Italian food of Casati’s childhood. Casati aims to bring the Italian food of his childhood in Florence to America. “I was surprised,” Casati said, “when my friends told me the concept for Italian food here in Chicago is a heavy food,”

Casati plans to bring a new variety of pizza not only to Lincoln Park but to Chicago. Casati’s will be the first restaurant in Chicago to serve Pinza.

Pinza is a modern Italian pizza. Pinza means stretch, and is known for its lightness and digestibility. Pinza is made with a simple mix of flour, wheat, rice and soy. However, it is actually 80% water. “It is incredible,” Casati said. “It is very crispy outside and very soft inside.”

In addition, the seventy-five item menu will include numerous appetizers, pastas and even steaks. “My food is more healthy than other food I saw here,” Casati said., “I’m trying to bring a new Italian vision here to Chicago.”

Casati is starting by serving dinners and weekend brunch, but Casati hopes to expand to lunches as well. He said, “My restaurant is a modern Italian kitchen.” According to Casati, the goal of Italian cooking is to constantly improve while always respecting the underlying tradition.

In order to provide the modern take on Italian food, Casati also has an additional chef working on the menu, Christian Fantoni. “This is a one star Michelin chef,” Casati said when asked about Fantoni.

Fantoni opened four of five restaurants and helped uphold Michelin stars in multiple restaurants before coming and working in Chicago where he worked at RPM Italian as well as Phil Stefani Signature Restaurants.

The two men are from the same area in Italy and worked together very well in order to produce the menu. “He traveled all over,” Casati said, “so it was very easy for me to communicate my vision to him, and the type of food I wanted.” Casati believes because of their similar backgrounds being born and raised in Italy, they shared the same vision and worked together terrifically.

Casati believes in the connection between food and culture and hopes this new restaurant will help him share not only his food but Italian culture with Lincoln Park and Chicago. He has a family friendly restaurant and hopes that helps him to connect with the community. “I hope to have a place that is very welcoming,” Casati said. “I want the community to have a nice place to meet other people and eat really healthy and light food.”

However, Casati has one question for Parker. “If I open for lunch, are you coming?”