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Friday, October 06, 2000
By Woodene Merriman, Post-Gazette Dining Critic
Do not go to Buca di Beppo for an intimate, romantic dinner for two.
Do not go to Buca di Beppo if you hate noisy restaurants.
Do go to Buca di Beppo if you want to have fun. Take the whole gang, and check your inhibitions at the door.
This new Station Square restaurant, part of a growing national chain, is all about fun. Be prepared for spaghetti and meatballs the size of baseballs, Chianti served in water glasses, a whole chicken in your chicken cacciatore, strains of "Funiculi, Funicula" in the background, and people, lots of people, talking and laughing.
You need to go with several friends because everything is served on family-sized platters. When the menu says "small," it means the Caesar salad or spaghetti marinara will serve at least four. Order "large," and you'll have enough for all your family and the in-laws, too.
The Di Beppo "1893" salad, for example, is one I've been wanting to try. It has imported mortadella, pepperoni and pepperoncini. Every waitress steers me away from it with comments like "It's really, really big." I saw one go by once, and it was really, really big. His Honor is afraid that if I ordered it, I would be the first to consume it at one sitting. (The restaurant says it's never been done.)
The menu at Di Beppo is old-time southern Italian immigrant dishes so popular in America in the 1940s and 1950s. Everything is designed for sharing.
Across the street from the Freight House Shops and next to the Grand Concourse, the restaurant is on three floors, and has several separate dining areas. The bar and lounge are on the first floor, the kitchen on the second floor. Diners get a good view of the kitchen on their way to the rest rooms, also on the second floor.
The most popular dining area is the Pope's Table, big enough to accommodate 18 people for the Pope, from a bust in the center of it all, to watch. Larry Corson, paisano partner (or head man) at the restaurant, says this must be reserved well in advance, particularly for weekends.
Almost as popular, according to Corson, is the table for six in the kitchen, where you can watch the cooking.
There's also a wine room, with wine bottles on the ceiling; a poster room, with posters and pictures on the ceiling; and the cardinal's room, a red room that has cardinal vestments as decorations. Framed photos and pictures, many of Joe DiMaggio, Frank Sinatra and other celebrities, some of local people, and some that are just humorous, 2,300 in all, are everywhere.
One of the best dishes we've had at Buca di Beppo (and for once H.H. and I agree) is the mixed green salad, much more interesting than it sounds. Bits of prosciutto are in the mix, the chopped lettuce is finely chopped, and the dressing is delicious. It comes already dressed, piled onto a platter. The Caesar salad, however, was ordinary. We asked for anchovies and got two, not much for that big pile of greens.
We should have ordered the fresh tomatoes instead. They are served with red onions, olive oil and basil, or with fresh mozzarella, salami and mortadella, too, if you want.
Pizza, pasta, chicken and veal entrees are the main courses. Neapolitan pizzas (huge, of course) of nine varieties are served on 1- by 2-foot slabs. From a choice of 12 pastas, we looked in vain for lasagna, and learned later that it is served only occasionally as a special.
But all the other old-time favorites are on the menu, from spaghetti aglio olio, with fresh vegetables and garlic, to the trademarked Buca rigatoni country style, with white beans, sausage, red onions, broccoli and tomatoes.
All sauces are made daily at the restaurant, and the pasta (served two pounds to an order) is imported durum semolina. All cheese-filled ravioli is used in the homemade ravioli (20 to an order) with meat sauce. Lots of ground meat is in the sauce, which is light and unimpressive otherwise. If I'm going to have old-fashioned ravioli, I'd like to have old-fashioned heavy red sauce.
For a nonpasta entree, we recommend Buca Chicken Vesuvio. Three big chicken filets and four roasted potatoes are arranged on top of white beans, sausage, tomato and oregano. It's a trademarked dish, according to the menu. The chicken was a little overdone and dry, but otherwise it was fine. The hot sausage pieces are a nice contrast to the rather bland beans and chicken.
Only once have we been able to tackle dessert. It was the Buca bread pudding caramello (another trademarked dish) and most of it, I confess, is at home in our freezer. H.H. and I each had a generous slice, but there's still a lot left.
This bread pudding is made from a 12-inch pullman loaf of firm bread, sliced diagonally into three pieces. Between the layers and on top are chocolate and raisins, lots of chocolate and raisins. A sprinkling of powdered sugar is on top, and a caramel sauce is drizzled over it all.
When the waitress served it, H.H. thought it was a yule log. It looks like one, for sure.
If you go and don't take a big group, be prepared to take a lot of food home. The restaurant has big shopping bags to hold your leftovers.
Besides, with a group this can be an inexpensive restaurant. Pastas range from $9.95 to $19.95, salads from $7.45 to $13.95, entrees from $16.45 to 19.95, desserts from $5.95 to $11.95.
Predictably, the wine list is heavy on Italian wines. Whites range from $25.95 to $40.95, and reds from $20.95 to $76.95. For $6.95 you get a water glass of the unremarkable house Chianti. Instead, for $26.95 you can get a bottle of the fresh and fruity Di Toscana Straccali sangiovese, nice with ravioli.
Buca di Beppo, incidentally, means Joe's basement, in reference to the basement in Cleveland's Little Italy where it all started.
Buca Di Beppo
The Scahill family from Brentwood celebrates a birthday at the popular Pope's table at Buca di Beppo. (V.W.H. Campbell Jr, Post-Gazette) 
1 Station Square
412-471-9463
Hours: 5-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 5-11 p.m. Friday; 4-11 p.m. Saturday; noon-9 p.m. Sunday.The basics: Immigrant southern Italian food; full bar; seats 250, with 50 more on the patio in good weather; smoking permitted in bar, most of restaurant is no-smoking; wheelchair accessible (there's an elevator as well as stairs); major credit cards; reservations.The last word: 2 1/2 stars