Mano a Mano, a new pasta project by award-winning chefs Hsing Chen and Doug Psaltis will open soon in the Logan Square neighborhood. “It’s a little pasta and wine joint,” Psaltis said. The new Italian restaurant is located next door to on Milwaukee Avenue, which was named Best Restaurant in the Tribune’s 2022 Reader’s Choice Food Awards.
“We really love the community in Logan Square,” Chen said. They’re surrounded by small independent restaurants, she added, all supportive of one another. “It feels almost like a small town within a big city.
” Mano a Mano will be the third restaurant the spouses own, after their in the River North neighborhood. But a stuffed cracker crust pizza goes back a long way with the couple. “One of our bakers has been with us for 12 years now,” Psaltis said.
Their baker trained with Stefano Tulipano, who worked in Chicago and now owns a bakery in Italy, Babalab Forno. “Stefano makes this incredible focaccia, focaccia di Recco,” Psaltis said. “It’s probably the thinnest, crispiest pizza available stuffed with a little bit of stracchino cheese from Piedmont, that for us is like a must-have.
” At Mano a Mano, their focaccia di Recco is lightly brushed with olive oil and finished with rosemary before it’s baked, Psaltis said. “It’s like this thin cracker,” he added. “Almost a pizza crisp.
” “It’s shareable,” Chen said. “Or it’s thin enough that one person can actually eat the whole thing.” Their new I.