Dimmi Dimmi | Restaurant Brand Identity

Branding with a side of pasta and gossip.

Cornerstone Restaurant Group of Chicago brought in HiFi Brands to develop the name, brand identity, and overall concept for a new neighborhood red sauce Italian restaurant in the heart of Lincoln Park. The building itself already carried decades of story, having started as an Italian market and later serving as an Italian restaurant for more than 30 years. With both the neighborhood and the space steeped in Italian-American heritage, the concept needed to feel authentic to the community, familiar and warm, and naturally woven into the fabric of the area from day one.

The name became the starting point. Dimmi Dimmi, or “tell me, tell me” in Italian, is the kind of phrase you hear on a Sunday when grandmothers coax family gossip while stirring the sauce. That spirit shaped the heart of the brand. We imagined the restaurant as the home of a slightly eccentric, well-traveled nonna who collected stories, cooked with love, and filled her space with character.

From that idea, the experience unfolded into a place that feels comfortable and lived in, equally suited for a quiet Tuesday dinner or a lively Saturday night crowd. A true neighborhood hangout with history in its bones and an easy charm that feels right at home in Lincoln Park.