How Void Makes Red Sauce Classics Feel Fresh, in Six Dishes
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When the idea for Void began to take shape, nostalgia was the obvious entry point for co-chefs and co-owners Tyler Hudec, Dani Kaplan, and Pat Ray.
“I grew up in New Jersey, and Dani grew up in the Chicago suburbs, so we went to different versions of the same Italian restaurant,” Hudec says. “I worked at a place in my hometown called Gregorio’s, a 30-seat white-tablecloth spot where chef Greg yelled at the staff all day while making lasagna and risotto. I loved it. Dani grew up on the classic Chicago Italian-American spots. So we thought, ‘let’s make a restaurant similar to the places we grew up with — but make it weird.’”
Void opened in 2024, born from its owners’ overlapping instincts and their long-simmering desire to run something of their own after years working in Chicago kitchens and bars. The space feels old-school, but with a playful twist. “We went to vintage stores all around and collected weird pictures of people, animals, cars, and other oddities, kind of in the style of a Portillo’s or a TGI Fridays. We call it 150 pieces of flair,” Hudec laughs. Stained-glass pendant lights and vintage framed art pull the room firmly into red-sauce territory. Candles dripping from Chianti bottles cast an animated glow while a towering replica of The Last Supper, made by a friend, anchors everything with a wink. The concrete floor, finished to resemble a giant bowling ball, is purely for amusement.
Like the space itself, the menu balances the familiar with the unexpected. There’s always steak, fish, and pasta, rotating with the seasons and the chef’s mood. Then there’s the whimsy: take the Spaghetti Uh-O’s — Anelli Siciliano pasta studded with tiny hand-rolled meatballs, smothered in vodka sauce, and served tableside in a can with an old-timey design. It’s impossible not to smile when it arrives.
Here, Hudec walks us through that dish, and everything else you need to order when you visit Void.
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Focaccia
Void’s daily-made focaccia is the first thing every table should order. “I’m a big fan of a bread service, so I’m pretty proud of this one,” says Hudec. It’s served with a rotating selection of cheeses, charcuterie, and spreads that shift with the seasons, or whatever inspires the team. Right now it’s marinated olives and a blueberry orange blossom jam. “Sometimes we’ll make a chicken liver pâté, whip some ricotta, or have a funky cheese from France,” says Hudec. “There’s almost always sliced prosciutto, and almost always a salami of sorts, whether housemade or imported.”
The recipe is simple: flour, salt, sugar, yeast, and water. But the process? “We’re always slightly changing our techniques, times, temperatures, and rotations,” Hudec says. “For example, I went in to make the bread last week, and [co-owner] Dani [Kaplan] showed me how she’s been doing it just a little bit differently, which I think is better than the way she was doing it even a month ago.” It’s served with whipped, fermented garlic honey butter and a sprinkling of sea salt. Regardless of whatever else rotates on the menu, Hudec promises: “The square of focaccia is always going to be there.”
Wedge
“For a table of two, you’re definitely going to have a good time starting off with the wedge along with the focaccia. And it’s not your run-of-the-mill wedge salad,” Hudec says. The dressing is the star: “You would swear to God the dressing has dairy in it, but it’s vegan. It’s confit raw garlic, sherry vinegar, and two types of tofu blended together: soaking tofu and medium-firm tofu,” he says.
Two hunks of crisp iceberg topped with mandolined carrots, red onions, pepperoncini, cherry tomatoes, and smashed seedless cucumber are tossed with sherry vinegar and herbs, and the whole thing is finished with house-made garlic croutons.
“The croutons are a way to repurpose our focaccia. Anything that doesn’t get sold gets staled out, and then baked and crumbled and then baked again to make these really fine bread crumbs that we cover with a garlic oil. You definitely need a fork and knife to eat this — you’re not getting by with just a fork,” Hudec laughs.
Spaghetti Uh-O’s
The cheeky Spaghetti Uh-O’s is a childhood reference executed with adult precision.
“This dish is fun and very well defines what we’re doing. We take imported ring pasta, Anelli Siciliani, which is a wicked pain to find, so we end up importing a ton at a time. We make our own meatball mix, grinding everything in-house, and then hand-rolling about a thousand tiny meatballs a week. And for the vodka sauce, the base is our house red sauce, which we fortify with caramelized tomato paste, cream, and vodka, and it also gets doctored up on the pickup every single time.”
The dish is served tableside from a custom-labeled can designed by [co-owner Dani] Kaplan’s sister-in-law, riffing on the old Franco-American SpaghettiOs branding, and finished with grated cheese. “It doesn’t taste like the SpaghettiOs everybody remembers. So there’s that moment of, wow—this is actually handcrafted and delicious. It’s definitely closer to our take on a rigatoni meatball and vodka that you would get at an Italian restaurant,” says Hudec.
It’s one of the few items they’ve committed to keeping on in perpetuity. Per Hudec: “The day Dani said we should serve our own version of SpaghettiOs out of a can tableside, we knew we couldn’t ever take it off the menu.”
Lasagna
Void’s lasagna was a recipe Kaplan originally cooked at home, but it has since become a crowd favorite. “When we take it off the menu, people get angry, which we weren’t expecting. I mean, it’s lasagna. But it is a great lasagna,” says Hudec.
It’s built from five cheeses — cottage, ricotta, Parmesan, mozzarella, and fontina —and stacked into six generous layers with Void’s house red sauce, baked into what Hudec calls “a gigantic noodle cake.” Each portion weighs nearly a pound.
After baking, the lasagna is pressed overnight so it holds its shape. “When it shrinks down, it can be better manipulated,” he explains. “We serve it slapped on its side on a small white bakeable dish to show the strata of pasta, cheese, and sauce.”
Once plated, the lasagna is finished with more red sauce, a heavy hand of Parmesan, and a thick slab of imported loaf mozzarella melted over the top. “From the moment it’s ordered, it takes about 15 minutes to hit the table because it takes a bit to heat through,” Hudec explains.
The aforementioned red sauce anchors much of the menu, and getting it right was essential. “For our sauce, we’re crushing tomatoes, using a specific red wine, specific weights of herbs, and making sure it’s done the same every time, unless we’re changing it for the better,” Hudec says. The sauce simmers for six hours and is made several times a week. “Anything that gets the red sauce, you can tell that it’s ours.”
Cacio e Pepe Hash Brown
Void just began serving brunch, and one standout is perhaps unexpected: the hash brown.
“When we were thinking about how we would serve brunch potatoes, we felt we could either do something completely different or go with confit cracked potatoes, which I’ve done at half a dozen other restaurants,” Hudec says. “This just seemed more interesting. Our process starts with russet potatoes — we bake them to a precise temperature, scoop out the innards, and discard the skins. Then we shred the potatoes and mix them with a ton of black pepper, Parmesan, and salt. We form the mixture into sheets and freeze them, and when it’s time to serve, we break the sheets apart and deep-fry them. Once it’s on the plate, you get these amazing little explosions of fried cheese coming out of the sides.”
The hash browns arrive in custom paper sleeves, because presentation matters at Void. “It’s just more fun than a plain white plate,” says Hudec.
Green Breakfast Sandwich
“I think the most fun and interesting thing we’re doing on the brunch menu is the greens melt on our brioche. Making our own bread has always been a goal, and we’ve been working on a brioche recipe for a while. Right now we have been baking about 100 rolls every Saturday for Sunday brunch.”
The greens change with the season and what’s available. “Right now, we’re using mustard greens, kale, and Swiss chard, braised with garlic, shallot, vinegar, sugar, and salt. The eggs are scrambled and baked in sheets, so they have a perfect even consistency that we cut into squares. They get topped with the greens, cream, and a generous layer of fontina cheese.”
There are two sauces smeared between the bun: a spicy tomato jam, their analogue for ketchup, with a glossy, jammy consistency amped up with Calabrian chili; and a garlic confit aioli for richness. “I think what’s cool about this is that it’s vegetarian,” says Hudec. “Of course, we also have a New Jersey–style pork roll for the meat eaters, too.”
