When you read about the Purple Pig, with it’s focus on small plates of housemade charcuterie, cheeses and classics from the Mediterranean, you might think you are going to a small, neighborhood spot where a heavily accented waiter will serve you rich red wine and hopefully whisk you off to Italy.

Instead, the rustic wine bar, an open kitchen looking out onto deep wooden, high-top communal tables and Spanish-style tiles framing the walls, finds its home on Magnificent Mile, and by mid-afternoon it’s full of the busy, worked men and women of the financial district, desperate for a glass of Sangiovese and a plate of fried sardines.

The menu is alluring and tempting, full of antipasti, cured meats, cheeses, and smears – everything is here from pork liver pate to roasted bone marrow. The section devoted to “fried things” is reason enough to come, with options like fried manchego – the earthy, musky cheese covered in ground panko crumbs and fried to a warmed state, served alongside sweet quince jam-  and fried pig’s ears with pickled cherry peppers. Tiny, crisp arancini are filled with sweet mashed peas, placed on top of smooth, creamy fresh ricotta and bright, lemony mint pesto – the perfect combination of the textures of crunch and creamy, and flavors, salty and sweet.

A la plancha offers hearty lamb leg with fava beans and jamon serrano served with a fried egg and grilled bread, alongside lighter dishes like sepia with snap peas or skewered scallops layered with bay leaf and served with a chickpea aioli. The sepia is lightly grilled, and toasted with darkly roasted almonds and bright, crunchy snap peas, in a warm, tangy vinaigrette. It’s the perfect summer afternoon dish.

Antipasti includes staple marinated olives, classic beets with goat cheese and pistachio vinaigrette, and playful olive oil-poached tuna with Greek lima beans.

While the menu is enticing, the food itself is a bit unbalanced in it’s preparation, leaning too heavily on vinegar or lacking seasoning. Artichokes served with potatoes and salami are soaked in an stringent mustard vinaigrette, the potatoes are unevenly cooked, some are soft while others are too firm, and the flavor from the Tuscan salami is lost in the vinegar. Grilled lamb leg is on the edge of being over seasoned as well, quite salty, and the accompanying fava beans are mushy and overpowered by the tart, salty Kalamata olives they are served with.

Dolci includes a piping hot, golden brioche donut, filled with fresh ricotta and chocolate chips- sweet, crispy, and delicious. Butterscotch budino is not as satisfying, the pudding is slightly overcooked and lumpy, the flavor off.

Whether it’s after a long day at work along the strips of the business buildings of downtown or during a shopping break, The Purple Pig is a nice spot for a glass of wine, some cheese, and nibbles. Go early to avoid the early evening hours, the food and service is better without the clatter of the full restaurant, and you’ll miss having to wait for a table.