Little Italy...Big Italy
by Joe Lyons
Big Italy
Come hungry to Buca di Beppo. And make sure that everyone agrees on what they want to eat. This big new facility in the Griswold Center at Foothill and Indian Hill serves up big dinners on big plates, Italian style. It looks old and cluttered as if a little bit of Brooklyn came out here in the Fifties with the Dodgers. In fact, it looked that way the day it opened.
The walls are covered with old vinyl recordings of Tony Bennett and Jerry Vale. There are also photo’s of Triest fountain and the Vatican, old movie stills and posters, and more. There are things like strings of lights, singing waiters and of course, checkered table clothes.
Did I mention that the singing waiters do opera and show tunes? (Give me strength!) There's even a very desirable table back in the kitchen, if you’re lucky enough to get it.
And then there is the food. Pasta dishes start at $8.95 and entrees run from $15.95 to $19.95 a plate, but any one plate can feed a refuge camp. If, for example, you order the spaghetti and meatballs, you must understand that the meatballs are the size of softballs. They weigh in at about a half pound each. The spaghetti itself is a plateful. Veal parmigiana comes with six breasts. Chicken cacciatore comes with more mashed potatoes than mom ever made in her big old pot.
Pizza’s are, and I quote here from the menu, “bigger than the 1-by-2-foot slabs they’re served on.”
Desserts, like the tiramisu, are served in giant bowls. Well, the bowl isn’t exactly “giant,” but it is a lot bigger than what you would normally get for desert. The bowl is actually about the size you use for your morning cereal, and it's full to the top.
There are four locations for buca di Beppo: Pasadena; Redondo Beach; Encino; and the new one in Claremont.
The name by the way, means, “Joe’s basement.” (No relation)
Little Italy
Spaggi’s Restaurant is in the same center on Foothill where the DiCenso family used to hold forth. Spaggi’s, however, is smaller and lighter and a little more towards the middle of the strip. But they do take their cuisine seriously.
The antipasti include a brochutta stuffed with mozzarella that we had to fight over. ($6.95) Salads include the “insalata spinaci,” which should have been a spinach salad, but the bacon dressing was not very hot and it lacked the toasted walnuts that the menu promised. ($7.50)
Perhaps the most delicious part of the meal was the Lobster ravioli, a personal weakness, covered in a lobster cream sauce. ($12.95, but worth it.)
The entree’s included veal scalloppini ($11.95) and New Zealand lamb chops. (16.95) My biggest surprise was the eggplant parmigiana.($10.95 ) I'm not an eggplant fan, but this was much better than I could have expected.
Deserts included profiterols ($4.50)—New York cheesecake ($5.50) and a fresh tiramisu that they claim is “blended with love and served with a smile.”
The name Spaggi’s, they tell me, comes from the fact that their daughter couldn’t say the word “spaghetti” as a child. I can believe that. In her earlier days my oldest daughter, Lisa Marie, used to like a pasta dish that she called “Roly-oly.”
Buca di Beppo is at 505 West Foothill Blvd., in Claremont. (909) 399-3287. Spaggi’s is at 1651 West Foothill Blvd. in Upland. (909) 579-0497. |
