One look inside Alioto’s will bring back memories, bygone times, for anyone of a certain age and up. For younger people, it’s a taste of retro—a glimpse of what some supper clubs looked like in the 1960s and ’70s. The paneled walls in the enormous dining room and the authentic mid-century modern chairs set the stage for dining in this long-running heritage venue.
The low-slung restaurant hugging Highway 100, a few blocks north of Mayfair Mall, was built for suburbia with a rear parking lot enormous enough to accommodate hundreds—a necessity at times, especially if the basement banquet hall is reserved for a private party. The vast scale of the dining room is mitigated by a pair of “balconies” on each end, raised a few steps above the main floor, and several pleasant alcoves, sheltered by half walls, for small dinner parties. A separate room houses the lounge, where happy hour specials, a light menu and bar dice are available.
Establishing the supper club ambiance are the white linen tablecloths and tent-folded, claret-colored linen napkins. While the lazy susans have disappeared, a basket of sliced Italian bread and a jar of breadsticks appear on each table. The menu is American comfort food with a distinct Italian accent. Go elsewhere if you’re looking for a la carte (rough translation: “little food, big price”). Dinners come with a choice of soup or salad and in some cases, both soup and salad plus dessert. When in Rome, go for the colorful swirl of spumoni! Entrées come with baked potatoes, crinkle-cut fries or angel hair pasta with butter. For lighter appetites, sandwiches, including a delicious hamburger, are available.
Alioto’s has made some concessions to changing times, including a gluten-free section, but the menu and ambiance are refreshingly free of recent trends. There is no “tasting menu.” Alioto’s assumes that everyone will taste their food and share it if they’d like without prompting from nanny chefs. There is no self-conscious “fusion cuisine,” unless you count the green peppers on the chicken Romano. Most of the servers are veterans and are attentive without being intrusive. At a recent visit, a waitress, seeing a piece of chicken breast and two remaining slices of Italian bread in the basket, offered to box them as a take-home sandwich. It’s service you’d expect from a family gathering, not a restaurant.
Alioto’s
3041 N. Mayfair Road
414-476-6900
$$-$$$
Handicap access: yes
