A Fine Way to Eat Yourself Stupid
 

There's a chain of restaurants that are springing up like gangsters, uh, I mean gangbusters.

Buca di Beppo.

The website does not do the place justice.

They advertise themselves as providing "Immigrant Southern Italian Cuisine."

That translates to big food, with plenty of garlic and olive oil.

Everything is served family style. They bring out heaping platters of whatever you asked for, and, like a happy Southern Italian Immigrant family, you fight over who gets more or less of something.

Massive, massive amounts of food get brought to your table. When you think you are done, it's time to move onto the entree, and then to dessert.

Traditional Italian Music plays in the background (Sinatra, mostly, but on occasion you will hear Volare and That's Amore.)

Each of the dining areas is themed ... it's pictures of these which the site lacks. You can choose to eat at The Kitchen Table, which is highly sought after ... the table is actually IN the kitchen of the restaurant ... you get to watch the hijinks of the chefs, food prep and wait staff as you dine. The only table which is more popular is in the "Pope Room". Seats 12 comfortably, or 18 very skinny, very close friends. We had a few more people than that this evening, and were seated in the Cardinale room ... photos of many members of the Vatican College of Cardinals adorned the walls of our dining area. Photos in the bar consist of two subjects ... sports, mainly soccer, and breasts. There's breasts a-poppin' galore in there, including Jayne Mansfield (I think) and a view of the Mona Lisa that I can't say I'd ever seen before.

The food was phenomenal ... I was with an extremely large group. I think that we ordered a total of nine entrees ... I know that I had some Lasagna (a special, not a regular menu item), Baked Ravioli with Meat Sauce, Lemon Chicken, Buccatini (proprietary pasta ... looks like spaghetti only it's hollow) con Pollo, Eggplant Parmesan, and also managed to scam a shrimp from one of our other table's Shrimp Scampi. (I was actually seated at a table that declared itself fish-free, but I wasn't the first violator of the rule ... one of the other women took the anchovies that the group who ordered the cesar salad thought were icky).

Just as I was about to settle into my pasta-induced stupor, Justin, our fine waiter, showed up with coffee and dessert menus.

Our table went for the Cannolli in a lake of chocolate sambuca sauce, a double chocolate cake, and what is possibly the best Tiramisu I've ever had. Each of these were more than sharable six ways, and one lucky person even ended up with leftovers of all three. I'm used to tiramisu being a little square of cake and cream, mildly dusted with cocoa ... not here. It filled a large pasta bowl ... the cocoa was perfectly applied to the top of the cream, not enough to make your mouth dry, but certainly enough to make it happy, and the ladyfingers were SOOOO drenched in liquor that they were delightfully soft and yummy.

That plus three large glasses of the House Chianti (no fava beans) put a very happy glow on my evening.

we've got em here too in Cali - they're great!

Wow, this sounds cool as all hell. I had to chuckle...I got a "visual" of the pics of the members of the Vatican College of Cardinal gasing down on the diners. Don't know if I should be impressed or intimidated. :p

Sheesh, I'm getting full just reading this!

Whew. Did they have you roll you out of the place in a wheelbarrel? (as my Dad would have said after such a hefty meal).

Ooohhh the tiramisu sounds heavenly:

"TIRAMISU Rum and espresso-soaked lady fingers layered between Marsala wine custard and mascarpone, topped with cocoa and crumbled biscotti."

I remember when I had my first taste of that years ago. A friend and I went out to dinner and had that for dessert. I had never had it before, and from that point on, I was in love!!

Heck, I might have to go to Buca just for that! (checking out the website now) ;)

I don't know if it's the same place, but I park in Buca del Peppo's parking lot everyday. and I've never eaten there, but I'm told that the portions are ridiculously large, so it may be. there's an olive garden accross the street, and buca's parking lot gets so full, that we have to drop what we're doing every saturday and get our cars out of their lot.

Anybody else wondering why employees of a car dealership, which is essentially ALL parking lot, need to put their vehicles in the lot of another business?

I don't recall ever seeing a dealership that doesn't have spaces for their employees -- Even if said employees are driving the wrong brand of car. My Lincoln-Mercury salesman had his Corvette parked at the dealership. With an ostentatious vanity plate as well. 'Vette doodads were all over his cubicle. I assumed from this that one of two things must be true ... either he was one amazingly awesome employee with unbelievable sales figures, or he was married to the Boss' Daughter. I do not know which is true.

Possibly both.

Maybe they figured there wasn't enough crossover in the Lincoln-Mercury and Corvette demographics? Maybe it gave him an air of "I'm gonna be honest with you, not like those other pushy carsalesmen..."

How can you be that close to a restaurant that good and never have eaten there? And wolf's question too.

You seem to have opened a veritable can of worms here, bub.

I don't know the deal with this new place, I've never been there, but at Family in Chadds Ford most of the employees parked in the Friendly's parking lot next door because it was easier to get in and out of (making a left out of the Family lot was near impossible most times of the day because of the busy Rts 202 and 1 intersection).
I think though, at sucessful dealerships, the lot is usually jammed with cars they are trying to sell, leaving a few spaces for service customers. Employee parking is way out past the used cars, in the mud.

Ah, Buca... these places are awesome. They don't serve the massive calzones, anymore, though, which I truly miss. I cried tears of joy when I ordered one for our table and they brought it out -- it required two people to manuever it around the table.

I have yet to sit in The Pope Room but I know the bust is on a spinning table, so I'm looking forward to playing "spin the pope" someday. Also of note are the pictures hanging in the restrooms, which I simply can't/won't describe here. :3eye:

Hey PA! Buca started up here in Mpls- a great choice for a big, funky, hungry gang. I recall one raucous work Christmas party... Now, apparently, taking over the world! Buono appetito!

Anyone else have a Todai in their town? Its buffet sushi, but probably the best I've had so far and worthy of extreme stuffage.

Buffet sushi doesn't appeal to me at all, but I've only ever seen it at Hibachi (not very good chain restaurant) in this area.
We have a ton of sushi places around here though (compared to 10 years ago) and all of them except one are good imo. My favorites are Yokohama in Marchwood because it's very mom and pop (they always remember us, fawn over the kids, send over free stuff to try etc..) and Blue Pacific in KoP mall because the chefs are just fantastic and always have specials that are amazing.
Of course Hikaru 2nd and South in the city is right up there too. It's super traditional and the first place I ever had sushi - only becuase they didn't card us when we'd go spend the day drinking plum wine when we were under age.

I think you may now have to. I didn't see the men's room.

The "Femina" has pictures that consist of vintage feminine product ads. I may have to make a take out order so I have an excuse to photograph some of them. One warns of the consequences of suffering from "rancid hair" but provides no further explanation. I remember that there was a bit of text on one of the tampon ads that was really funny, but I can't for the life of me recall it just now.

They have 2 Buca's in Vegas, but alas, my comparatively little burg in NC JUST got an Olive Garden and Fuddruckers, so I don't think Buca will be here for a few years...

I wonder if there's one in Raleigh?

Edit: Nope. The closest one is in NC, but it's on the SC border, 5 hours from me. Dammit.

But there's one right by Philly, in Cherry Hills, NJ. Maybe I can convince the Husband [tm] to take me there on the way to Hawkwind's house.

You can really eat a lot of Italian food at Maggianos at Southpoint in Durham... that seems to be the closest thing to a Buca in the Triangle. I've never been to a Buca, but it sounds like Maggianos.