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Buca di Beppo, America’s Most Postmodern Red Sauce Chain

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Re: Buca di Beppo, America’s Most Postmodern Red Sauce Chain

#61

Post by monksy »

brandonmenc wrote: post #23
bpolverini wrote: post #15

As an Italian-American, this explains why every time I go to a Buca di Beppo, I feel like I'm in some kind of merger between a mediocre Italian restaurant and a minstrel show. To those of us who grew up in this culture, it's ridiculous (almost bordering on offensive). Thankfully, I grew up in communities where the Italian's could proudly go to other restaurants that were more respectful of a 3,000 year old culture. I…

> To those of us who grew up in this culture, it's ridiculous (almost bordering on offensive). Both of my parents are half Italian-American, and that's the tradition in which I was raised. My relatives who actually came off the boat loved Buca di Beppo. And Olive Garden, etc. (Of course we all know it's not as good as home cooking, but who cares when you just want something fast.) Honestly, Italian-Americans have no…

BUT WHY?! That's just concerning. (After eating at places in Italy, you miss that italian cooking.. no mushy overcooked pasta)

Re: Buca di Beppo, America’s Most Postmodern Red Sauce Chain

#62

Post by mixmastamyk »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #34
cowmoo728 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cheesecake Factory? They're famous for having terrible decor, service, and food, yet somehow being an essential part of the American high school prom experience. https://www.barstoolsports.com/barstoolu/dude-goes-viral-for...

I get so peeved by the treatment of chain restaurants like this as "poor" or "terrible". Because you know what, Cheesecake Factory, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Outback Steakhouse? These are some of the nicest restaurants the average citizen can hope to afford to go to more than once in their lifetime. It isn't going to impress folks who have a personal chef at home, but the food is pretty darn good , and you don't hav…

When I read one of those I mentally replace the name with "McDonalds." As in, look at this hifalutin' VIP bigwig who's too good for McDonalds ... or Starbucks. Not saying much.

None of these are my favorite restaurants, but they'll do in a pinch.

Re: Buca di Beppo, America’s Most Postmodern Red Sauce Chain

#63

Post by GiorgioG »

Konryan wrote: post #40

As someone who lives in Italy, a lot of what seems to be considered "Italian" in the US sometimes feels like little more than a caricature. It does trouble me slightly, because it feels like an impersonation of Italian culture. On the other hand, it's probably just culture diverging and developing in different ways after migration, which is to be expected. So the problem is mostly one of identity: the same label - it…

As the son of Italian immigrants (who moved here 40 years ago), I've just learned to think of it as "Italian American" food/culture that evolved/diverged over the last 100 years. It's still painful to hear things like 'pasta fazul' or 'mozzarelle' being passed off as Italian.

Re: Buca di Beppo, America’s Most Postmodern Red Sauce Chain

#64

Post by wavefunction »

phil248 wrote: post #57
tranced wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm grateful, as an American, that we have access to so many different cultures and cuisines. It's the one thing I missed sorely when I was travelling across Europe. You're right on the label though, Italian American =/= Italian in the same vein that Chipotle/Taco Bell isn't Mexican. However, there are plenty of institutions in the states that do nail a more purist experience of Mexican or Italian or what have you.

Italian-American cuisine, including places like Buca di Beppo, are absolutely not in the same vein as Taco Bell or Chipotle. Italian-American cuisine is a unique part of a culture that arose organically from millions of Italian immigrants and their children in the United States. Taco Bell and Chipotle are culture-less money-making ventures with superficial ties to a foreign cuisine. Tex Mex or Cajun cuisine would be…

Taco Bell is junk food Tex Mex and Chipotle is just mass-market Mexicali burritos. You can find Tex Mex and Mexicali analogs to Buca di Beppo.

Re: Buca di Beppo, America’s Most Postmodern Red Sauce Chain

#65

Post by mixmastamyk »

dragonwriter wrote: post #26
cowmoo728 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cheesecake Factory? They're famous for having terrible decor, service, and food, yet somehow being an essential part of the American high school prom experience. https://www.barstoolsports.com/barstoolu/dude-goes-viral-for...

> Cheesecake Factory? They're famous for having terrible decor, service, and food, I've always found CF to have decent service and good (but not outstanding) food, a ludicrously long menu being the main negative, plus the fact that it's always ludicrously crowded because they underprice for their appeal. The decor is gaudy, but not what I would describe as terrible (or even unpleasant, just incongruous.)

They've got cheesecake, who cares about decor?

Re: Buca di Beppo, America’s Most Postmodern Red Sauce Chain

#66

Post by qualitydrew »

GiorgioG wrote: post #63
Konryan wrote: post #40

As someone who lives in Italy, a lot of what seems to be considered "Italian" in the US sometimes feels like little more than a caricature. It does trouble me slightly, because it feels like an impersonation of Italian culture. On the other hand, it's probably just culture diverging and developing in different ways after migration, which is to be expected. So the problem is mostly one of identity: the same label - it…

As the son of Italian immigrants (who moved here 40 years ago), I've just learned to think of it as "Italian American" food/culture that evolved/diverged over the last 100 years. It's still painful to hear things like 'pasta fazul' or 'mozzarelle' being passed off as Italian.

Interestingly, some of the "faux-italian" dialects of Italian American culture are descended from dialects that went extinct in Italy, but were preserved in Italian-American immigrants.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-capicola-became-ga...

Re: Buca di Beppo, America’s Most Postmodern Red Sauce Chain

#67

Post by noer »

apo wrote: post #2

> Roberts saw an opportunity not just to re-create those bygone red sauce joints, but to present the most exaggerated, over-the-top version of them, to create an environment where people could feel totally comfortable—as he describes it, "... I wanted a restaurant people could look down on.” > > He wanted the decor to be tacky, the portions to be enormous, the atmosphere to be boisterous. He figured it didn’t matter…

I'm not sure it's necessarily that people "look down on it", but that the authenticity is derived from something inauthentic.

Re: Buca di Beppo, America’s Most Postmodern Red Sauce Chain

#68

Post by protomyth »

apo wrote: post #2

> Roberts saw an opportunity not just to re-create those bygone red sauce joints, but to present the most exaggerated, over-the-top version of them, to create an environment where people could feel totally comfortable—as he describes it, "... I wanted a restaurant people could look down on.” > > He wanted the decor to be tacky, the portions to be enormous, the atmosphere to be boisterous. He figured it didn’t matter…

It’s not mean spirited, it’s tacky and tacky is amazingly comfortable because it invokes humor. The Pope room is hilarious even for Catholics because it is not mean spirited but a tacky but well meaning room. It’s comfortable and you know it’s not snooty so you can be at ease with their quite good service. Also, the portion size makes it family or group ordering at not a “I’ll have” place.

Re: Buca di Beppo, America’s Most Postmodern Red Sauce Chain

#69

Post by m463 »

apo wrote: post #2

> Roberts saw an opportunity not just to re-create those bygone red sauce joints, but to present the most exaggerated, over-the-top version of them, to create an environment where people could feel totally comfortable—as he describes it, "... I wanted a restaurant people could look down on.” > > He wanted the decor to be tacky, the portions to be enormous, the atmosphere to be boisterous. He figured it didn’t matter…

I once went to the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum in Baltimore.

The exhibits were both amazing and ridiculous.

They had paintings of Bill and Hillary Clinton drawn in Hamburger grease. They had a giant picutre of Bill Gates, but when you got close, the "pixels" were different colored keyboard keys.

Was it "high art"? I think not. Was I entertained? yes.

and I have to say the whole article reminded me a little of this onion "article":

https://www.theonion.com/european-men-are-so-much-more-roman...

(sorry)

Re: Buca di Beppo, America’s Most Postmodern Red Sauce Chain

#70

Post by vorpalhex »

dwighttk wrote: post #27
_red wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think its mean spirited. "Dive bars" have always been popular. A friend of mine in college opened a dive bar, which quickly became very very popular. This was the type of place where you could smell the ammonia from the urinal when you walked in the door. Spending more than an hour in there, and you left smelling like cigarette smoke and stale beer. When opening his 2nd bar, he made the rookie mistake of "try…

everything in your description of a dive from "smell the ammonia", to "cigarette smoke and stale beer" to "spill your beer...so what" makes me feel uncomfortable.

Traveling a bit, I've noticed that regardless the language, customs, atmosphere or locality that all pubs offer a kind of simple baseline. Whether it's in a ship or a totally foreign country, you can get a beer and some food and ask pretty direct questions of your bartender to get an honest lay of the land around you.

The best part of the crappy, touristy cruise ships is getting the hell off the ship and finding a local pub where you can chat with the locals outside of the tourist/vendor relationship.

The second best part of those ships is finding the empty pub onboard where the crew will open up and share their own stories and experiences.

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