Amazing Foods and Restourant

Buca al Beppo is a national chain; my friends and I tried the Alpharetta instantiation. It is a simulation of a family-run Italian-American restaurant. I don't use the term simulation ironically---as he led me to our table, the waiter explained that the ceilings were low to simulate a basement location. They also take up the practice of filling the walls with pictures.

I don't have any serious complaints but this is one of those experiences that grates on me a little. Having been to a great many actual family Italian restaurants, I just can't get excited about a chain version. (I'd say the same for Maggiano's.) The food was fine but not spectacular. All the portions are designed to serve at least two people. They claim that this is to simulate a family-style atmosphere but I have never been to a family-run restaurant that served everything in multi-person portions. The waiter kept cajoling us to order more and take some home---the underlying agenda of large portions.

Leslie, Carol, and I converged on Ippolito's in Norcross, one of several locations. The atmosphere is new and slightly sports bar, but the food is definitely mainstream Italian-American. You won't hear the Chairman of the Board playing in the background but you will have some very good food.

I tried the calzone and my friends tried various pastas; we also had calamari to start. I was most impressed by the sauces---my calzone, the calamari, and our bread all had different tomato sauces and each was excellent. They understand the difference between a pizza sauce and a marinara. The calamari was very good; our waiter bragged that the crust was like fried chicken crust, which was true. I was also impressed by the house Italian dressing on my salad, which was a light oil and vinegar with all the appropriate spices.