BigShotSpaghettiPot

Because I will always have something to say about that...

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What happened to Carabbia's?

Ok, so after my last post about tradition of the small family restaurant I have something to say about chain macaroni which includes Carabbia’s, Olive Garden, Macaroni Grille, Bucca De Peppo, and Maggiano’s. You know the ones that are trying so desperately to be Italian, whether that means Designs by Tuscany or Nona’s basement, the atmosphere plays a big role hosting the entire meal.  

Let me start with Carabbia’s since this is what got me all in a stir.  I hate their new look!  Ugh.  Anyone else feel that way? I know that they tried to reinvent themselves and look more urban and chic, but to me it screams ordinary.  I used to love the old look with it’s cozy hidden high booths and old world grapevine trellis design.  It was cozy and intimate and took me to another region of the world.  However, it now says cheesy remodeled basement on a budget.  What it doesn’t say is chic Italian design.  Please leave that to clothing, cars, and really expensive restaurants. I do love their warm table bread with dipping oil and I have to give them credit that they cook their pasta fresh served al dente and their steak and chicken has never disappointed me.  Just the usual open concept looking at everyone else eating screams ordinary. 

On the other hand Bucca De Pepo’s has that eclectic Nona’s basement look.  Each hidden pocket of the restaurant is riddled with old Italian gems from posters, family portraits, and other kitchy collectables.  I also loved the family style dinners!  It is right on point!  However, they fail miserably on their food. Nothing but the names of the entree’s is Italian.  I was very disappointed.  PS. Points for the Pope’s head on the table...a little eerie but unique.

I can’t even comment on Olive Garden and Macaroni Grille as I don’t even waste my time eating there.  I do like that they “try” to make it look like a Tuscany Italian restaurant where you can stuff yourself on all-you-can-eat salads and pillsbury type breadsticks.  I guess if you eat at Golden Corral, which is most likely next door, you will like it here too.

Of the Italian chain restaurants, I do like Maggiano’s.  The decor doesn’t so much remind me of being somewhere in Italy as it does make me feel like I walked through a time warp of 1930′s Little Italy in New York City.  That’s okay.  The lighting cast a golden glow throughout and you almost feel like the Godfather is sitting somewhere in a special booth hidden away.  The decor matches!  It all works from the black and white tile floors to the portraits of old family members. They also serve meals family style, but the difference is that the food is pretty good.  When possible I get their cheesecake for dessert.  It’s not the typical cookie cutter “Cheesecake Factory” cheesecake.  It’s usually served with a drizzle of fresh strawberry sauce which is excellent with a cup of expresso. 

I realize sometimes you have no other choice BUT a chain restaurant.  And, a lot of times the local Italian restaurant isn’t on point either with both atmosphere and entrees. I like atmosphere whether it’s Italian food or not, but, most importantly how’s their sauce?  I am always hesitant eating “sauce” out and 9 times out of 10 I am always disappointed.  Is it too rude of me to ask to try a sampling of sauce before I order?  But that’s another blog.   Who’s ready for cheesecake?

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Checkered Tablecloths

What makes Italian…Italian?  For me it’s the aroma of garlic being infused in the kitchen flavoring everything it touches along with the mixture of an open bottle of homemade wine that is left on the table after being poured into a modest household drinking glass rather than a proper stemmed goblet.  It makes for quite an intoxicating mixture and leaves you in a spell of anticipation.   And, if you’re lucky enough there’s still a hint of homemade bread lingering that has been freshly baked earlier in the morning.  It’s the atmosphere of "Will it be cappellini, rigatoni, ravioli, gnocchi, or one of the other endless pasta choices?” along with the possibility of eggplant parmesan, one of my favorite Italian delicacies.  However, I am always partial to homemade cavatelli and the way it holds the sauce in it’s tiny nooks.  I learned to hand roll them and create that pinch with a small wooden board about 4″ long with very thin groves carved into it.  By using just your thumb with just the slightest of pressure, you roll the small ball of dough down along the groove and it curls up into the perfect cavatelle.  Making them seemed to take all day but in the end they always were worth the individual effort.

Next to the open bottle of wine, there’s a small bowl of freshly grated locatelli romano cheese on the table along with a shaker of dried red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.  Usually the freshly sliced bread is placed on the table with a small plate of olive oil with a mixture of dried oregano, basil, salt, pepper and drizzled with balsamic vinegar for dipping.  Dinner at my best friends house included fresh summer tomatoes sliced and drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with grated parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and a hint of freshly chopped basil and served with her mom’s homemade bread before dinner.  It was always a fight with her brothers and sisters to dip our bread into the remaining drippings left on the plate.  I think her brothers got the best of it, but every now and then I’d get a good chunk of bread soaked with the goodness that was left.  

I think we all have had that small Italian restaurant experience.   Oh the smells when you walked through the door!  Always greeted with a welcoming return and a question of “How’s the family?”  You know the one from the movie Lady and Tramp where the restaurant owner sets up a romantic dinner table with spaghetti and meatballs.  Growing up in such an ethnic area there were a handful of small, family Italian restaurants and they all had the same theme in common; old family pictures on the wall, a grandma cooking in the kitchen, family speaking in Italian often misconstrued as an argument, and the small intimate table setting described above with CHECKERED TABLECLOTHS.  

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Start with the basics - a huge cooking pot!

One of my first investments in my life was a large quality stainless steel stock pot with the intent to make sauce and lots of it.  I bought two - one for the sauce and one to cook the pasta in!  

First of all, I am not of Italian decent. I state this because you may assume that only Italians can cook great sauce.  I grew up in a very ethnic part of the country where everyone knew each other by their family nationality and/or their religious church affiliation which consisted mostly of Catholics, Protestants and a few Baptist in the mix (another blog yet to be written).  I am a mix of Slovak, Polish, Hungarian, and Romanian cultures as my great grandparents were immigrants coming to the land of opportunity during the Industrial Revolution in an area of Northeast Ohio.  The local steel mill employed almost every generation in my family at some point of their lives until the mills went under during the late 70′s. My friends and schoolmates were Italians, Slovaks, Irish, and mostly Catholics as I went to St. Nicholas Catholic School, but not in a segregated way.  It was just as we knew them and my family knew of them. It was not unusual in introductions to ask "What nationality are you?” and it always amazed me how my family just would know from introductions where they were from.

I grew up with my grandparents, my two sisters, my aunt and my uncle on Harvey Street, a middle class neighborhood of mixed nationalities built for the baby boomers when the men returned home from WW2 with sidewalks that lined both sides of the street and every home was under 900 square feet with only 1 bathroom. It was a neighborhood where we new everyone on the street and they knew us.  It was very rare to have someone move from the neighborhood and therefore generations mixed and passed through the years.  Most summers the street would be blocked off for a day so that all the neighbors could gather together for a summer party.  Each family bringing a dish and specialty dessert for everyone to share. As a kid I didn’t pay attention to the adult conversations and just enjoyed the time to play outside until dark and long after our bedtime. 

It wasn’t until I was probably 8 or 9 that I realized my best friend and her family who lived across the street were Italians.  They made wine from grapes that grew on vines in their backyard and homemade sausage and mortadella and hung them in the cellar of their basement to be cured and dried alongside the large wooden barrels of fermenting wine.  Her mom would make bread from scratch and I found it so odd that it was the only bread they ate and even used it to make sandwiches for school lunches. I can remember asking her what she was having for dinner one day and she said Wedding Soup and I thought how odd, I wonder who got married and when did she go to a wedding?  As different as her family was to me so was my family to her.  With my grandma’s amazing baking skills and homely meals, such as halubky, halusky, pirogi’s, kielbasa and sauerkraut (all to be dissected in another blog), she loved being invited to dinner as much as I loved having dinner at her house. Our friendship grew in this melting pot and she still remains my oldest and dearest friendship that has endured decades of obstacles and differences.  

So, just as this “melting pot” of my youth has created a culinary foundation in me, it only be fitting to start with the basic foundation of all cooking - the SAUCE POT.

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Introductions

Allow me to introduce myself to you.  I am a critic. I seem to always have something to say, whether it be good or bad, about my dining out experience. I am not a professional culinary critic or even an experienced chef.  And when I say that I am a critic, I am not a bitchy diner.  I think every restaurant wants their customers to have a pleasurable experience.  Some may say that I am too picky or that I am hard to please but to them I say that I made a choice and I choose that particular restaurant above all others. YES. I have a certain expectation and if they fall short of or possibly even exceed that level of quality I will always have something to say about that…