Review Preview: Charlie Gitto's

By Ian Froeb Mon., Jan. 10 2011 at 3:07 PM

Categories: Restaurant News & Reviews

Jennifer Silverberg

The pork "osso buco" at Charlie Gitto's

This week I go back to the future. Or something like that. It's the new Chesterfield version of a St. Louis favorite, Charlie Gitto's. Follow me after the jump for a sneak preview of my review.

Does St. Louis need another Charlie Gitto's? At this midweek lunch hour, the evidence suggests that it does. The four-month-old Chesterfield iteration of the Hill institution, which already has satellites downtown and at Harrah's Casino, is packed. On a computer at the host's stand, the hostess and two managers arrange patrons, servers and dining tables as if plotting naval exercises off the Korean peninsula. Through a maze of business suits and family reunions, ladies who lunch and solo diners reading Christmas Kindles, bow-tied busers adroitly maneuver, trays with soups and salads balanced on the flats of their palms.

I nod at the hostess but don't bother to ask for a table. Instead I head straight for a seat at the bar, order a beer and some toasted ravioli ("the original," the menu proclaims beside a stylized logo denoting it as a specialty) and ponder what all the fuss is about.

Is it worth the fuss? Visit the RFT restaurant page late tomorrow afternoon or check back here Wednesday morning to see what I think.