Chrysalis Modern Italian

Food is wonderful! Highly recommend the meatballs! Always wonderful service. Fresh pasta is always recommended. They also have gluten free pasta. The focaccia bread is also a must have.

Executive summary: Excellent focaccia, beautiful space, incredibly slow service, good pasta, mediocre short ribs. The rest of the story: We arrived around 12:10 for our work lunch, which generally takes 40 or so minutes at other restaurants (esp when there are only 3 of us). We were seated almost immediately and menus provided: 3 of them with no real explanation. We received our waters and advised the server we'd never been there before. Thankfully, she explained some things about the three different menus and told us that everything is made fresh in house. She specifically told us that the focaccia had been made this morning when we ordered our focaccia and our main dishes at the same time around 12:15. It seemed like we have been waiting a really long time, and we were actually talking about how we thought the bread should have been out almost immediately. Our focaccia appetizer with three butters did not come out until about 12:45 or so. At this point, I was so hungry that I risked the consumption of barley (which is a sensitivity of mine) to get some food in my stomach. What I can tell you is that the focaccia and those butters were absolutely delicious. The bread was moist without being greasy, it was soft while also crisp on the outside, and the butters were absolutely delicious. The only improvement I would have made about that appetizer (other than it coming out more quickly) would be to warm the butters just a little bit to closer to room temperature. They were almost too cold to spread on the bread. Our mains didn't come out until sometime after 1pm. Two of us ordered pasta and the other ordered the short rib platter. I ordered the gluten-free diavolo pasta. It was good, but there was this weird almost nacho cheese flavor to it. Honestly, I was happy with my dish. My only complaint was that the sauce was a little bit thinner than I would expect. My other companion, who ordered Bolognese, was less happy with her dish. Her sauce was also thinner than it should have been, and she said that there was some flavor missing from it. My companion that ordered short ribs was the least happy of all of us. She said that none of the items on the plate justified the length of time that we had waited for our main dishes. She judges restaurants based on their short ribs, so she's not a stranger to them. The short ribs appeared to have been pre-cooked, which is not uncommon, but not precooked well. They were a little dry and kind of chewy with the strangest level of sweetness to them. She shared her short ribs with us just so we could try what she was explaining to us. I don't think she ate the rest of it, though she did eat quite a few of the vegetables that came with it. She did not take her leftovers home, though the pasta eaters did. And we definitely took that focaccia home. Our total lunch bill was almost $90 for three people who drank water. We did not get back to the office until about 1:45. My recommendation for this place is to call someone you have not spoken to in quite some time and meet them at this joint around 4:30. Then you two should order drinks and appetizers and make sure you have the rest of your night free to nibble and chat. Maybe order an Uber. I'm not sure how fast or strong the drinks are. I have no doubt that this could be a wonderful spot for dinner or appetizers and drinks, but it is definitely not a spot for lunch. The only downside of this being a spot for drinks and appetizers is that there do not appear to be a lot of gluten-free appetizers on the menu. Your old friends will need to have very few dietary restrictions. Enjoy!