Lately, whenever I call my friend Dario it’s the afternoon, and he is making himself and his family pasta for lunch - yesterday it was carbonara, last week it was bolognese. Actually I think the Bolognese sauce was for serving in Giambotta, his pizzeria, that evening, but the point is, Dario is often cooking for other people and for himself.
We got to know Dario because of Giambotta, but before Giambotta existed.
The story goes back to 2018, when Dario bought a bottle of wine from Abruzzo, Italy, made by the winemaker Iole Rabasco. He chose the wine for its unusual look - it was in a clear glass bottle, and it had a handwritten-looking label, both of which reminded him of the wines his uncle’s friends would make in their basements in Bridgeport. He took the bottle home and chilled it. He opened it and thought it smelled terrible. He was upset - he had selected this wine and felt disappointed. Something distracted him for about half an hour, then he tasted the wine again, and thought, this is one of the best wines I’ve ever had.
I love this story because a lot of people tell me when they first try natural wine they find it unpalatable, but that they find that very quality exciting. They say, it smelled like shit! and seem happy about that. That is a totally reasonable feeling and experience, but it says something about Dario’s sophisticated appreciation of wine that it wasn’t love at first sip. Em says that wines tell you how to drink them when you learn how to speak to them. I think in this story that begins Dario’s relationship with natural wine, that is what unfolds, an exchange between the Rabasco and him, that could only happen if he was open to it, if he gave it another try. This is his spirit and the energy of Giambotta - generosity.
He wanted to share the Rabasco with other people, and contacted the importer from the back label of bottle, who connected him with Mac, our other friend who is a distributor and who introduced us to Dario. Mac went out to Plainfield, Illinois, a nice town southwest of Chicago where Dario lives, to meet him and taste wines together. They say they had a lot of beautiful wines open. It was then and there that Dario knew he wanted to have a place where he served natural wine, along with pizza and antipasti. Unlike a restaurant looking to top off a predetermined concept with whatever beverage program is of the moment, the inspiration for Giambotta begins with natural wine.
Dario is Italian-American. His father, Robert, moved to the US with his family when he was 10 from Calabria, where there’s a town named after Dario’s great-grandfather. Robert worked in the industry for a while and eventually opened his own restaurant in 1985. He now owns Capri Sogno in Plainfield. Giambotta opened in 2018 just down the street.
There’s a sign above Capri Sogno that reads scuola vecchia, old school. When I first heard about Dario and his Dad, and Capri and Giambotta, I was tempted to think of Giambotta as the nuova vecchia. Father and son, old and new, martini bar and natural wine bar. I thought, here’s this young guy who likes wild and crazy natural wines.
It’s not really like this. Dario chose to serve a traditional, 48 hour proof, soft dough Napoletana pizza, because he admires its handmade nature, how it is made with care and how it connects to a history of taste. The same ideas run through his love of natural wine - the craft and care involved, and the respect for existing knowledge. Sometimes natural wine seems to have a reputation of resisting systems and authority for its own sake. Natural wine does often resist systems and authority, but only because when those things are applied inequitably, unjustly. In his approach to food and wine, Dario is able to parse out what traditions do and don’t have integrity and relevance. He admires the VPN (Verace Pizzeria Napoletana) for upholding tradition but also for being generous with knowledge and resources with anyone interested. From that organization he started researching intensely about dough make up and says, that’s where the nerd started.
Dario also had worked for the Chicago Pizza Boss, which was where he met the talented pizzaiolo of Giambotta, Mo. Mo is Roman-Egyptian, and would make a different style of pizza, a thin crust Roman style, for the staff as a snack after the shift. They now have it on the menu - so you can have Romana or Napoletana.
The food at Giambotta is consistent and wonderful. Dario says he is not a chef, and thus looks to what he knows works, what he likes and identifies with. Under his curation, there is nothing wrong with delicious antipasti, fritti, polpetti, pasta and pizza - indeed it is why I drive an hour to eat and drink there. You should too.
Dario made some selections of his favorite wines from Rainbow!
Le Coste Rusticone, Zumito Frizbee & Paterna Olive Oil available now in our store.
We have some exciting new wines perfect for early summer, a fresh pet nat, iconic orange wine, enigmatic 'white from red grapes' and garden-ready lambrusco. Let us know if you have any questions, concerns, wine dilemmas, joys, crises, we are here for you. Email rainbowwinechi@gmail.com or DM rainbow_wines. Have a beautiful weekend!
-Cub
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