Smokin' Chokin' and Chowing with the King: Void

Monday, February 3, 2025

Void

-Grubbing in Chicago
Italian-ish Food in Avondale

We're back for another season of chowing - the 18th to be exact! This very well may be the last hoorah but plans can change so we'll see. We're kicking it off in Avondale where Void opened last August. The Italian-ish restaurant is a joint project from three Chicago restaurant vets. According to a story I read in Time Out the three of them met while working at Analogue which was a few blocks down on Milwaukee but closed in 2016. Void replaced an old tavern and they did a great job keeping the old school feel of the place. Walking in feels like you're entering a longtime neighborhood staple.

Recently Opened in Avondale

The menu at Void reads like an old school red sauce spot with a handful of updated Italian-ish dishes mixed in. The housemade focaccia seems to be a crowd favorite early on. It's got fantastic springy texture and comes with a delicious fermented garlic honey butter. The "Spaghetti Uh-O's" tow the line between gimmick and greatness. This fun and delicious dish features little rings of Annelli Siciliani tossed in vodka sauce and mixed with mini meatballs in a play on SpaghettiOs. I loved the texture of both the pasta and the meatballs, which were abundant. The sauce wasn't spicy but it did have a nice red pepper kick to it. They even go so far as to serve this dish in a copycat labeled can but since the pasta doesn't sit in it too long it's void of that nasty metallic taste that you get with SpaghettiOs.

Housemade Focaccia

Spaghetti Uh-O's

Gnocchi is a real hit or miss dish and because of that I don't order it unless there's a significant amount of recommendations for it. Well the gnocchi at Void comes highly recommended so I gave it a go as I loved the idea of it dressed like a fully loaded baked potato. Soft and tender gnocchi is tossed with pancetta, creme fraiche, Hooks 8 Year Cheddar, and crispy potato skins topped with chives. If I scored dishes this would earn the highest score of my two meals at Void. I'd also heard good things about the chicken parmesan which is a dish I commonly yearn for this time of the year. Void serves up a super solid version using half of a chicken meaning it's made with both white and dark meat. It's good to get to get if eating a group, just make sure to score a piece of the dark meat as it had better texture. That said the white meat seemed to have been velveted so it was juicer and more texturally pleasing than most chicken parms made with breast meat. The dessert menu features a sundae of the month which was another gimmicky dish made with peanut butter gelato, raspberry sorbet, corn flake butter crunch and wait for it ... Malort caramel. I hate Malort but gave this dessert the benefit of the doubt since the Spaghetti Uh-Oh's were good. It tasted like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with the Malort being very minimal - another fun dish. The cocktails are supposed to be pretty good and I bet a few of them are also pretty fun but I chose to drink Peroni from the draft on my visits. Void reminds me alot of Analogue (minus that delicious dirty rice) in that it's a great neighborhood place.