Restaurants

Milano Inn's delicious pasta

Most Hoosiers in Central Indiana associate Milano Inn with great Italian food, particularly the lunch buffet. I think their food is fine, but I am rarely bored enough here to pay sole attention to it, honestly.

For some reason, I have been part of some of the more colorful conversations of my life in this restaurant. Take the meal where I joined friends the weekend my husband broke his kneecap last decade. I’d been awake for 42 hours, dealing with everything from surgeon recommendations to flat tires and dead car batteries. Pasta sounded like the carb boost I needed to survive.

Their daughter was being a typical toddler misbehaving in a restaurant, and they eventually took her to the parking lot for an attitude adjustment. It didn’t work. She continued whatever she was doing in her high chair until her mother asked in desperation, “Do you want another spanking?”

“Yep,” piped the little blonde enthusiastically. They obliged her. And nearly 15 years later, I still belly laugh every time I pull in the parking lot. Heck, I’m shaking just typing this story.

But this week, I may have topped that favorite in the Milano Inn Hall of Fame.

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Pasta Moto "Quick Taste of Italy" new in SF

San Francisco Metreon Shopping Center, in the San Francisco Center has a large lower floor filled with mini versions of larger restaurants as well as your basic food stalls.   Think International Terminal at SFO more than Harrod’s Department Store’s famous Food Halls.

Westfield – Metreon is a state of the art technology and entertainment marketplace covering over 350,000 square feet on four levels. It is the new home of the old Emporium-Capwell’s for you old school shoppers and citizens like me. Remember that crazy Ferris Wheel on the roof of the store at Christmas? How was that legal?

While shopping at Bloomingdale’s and checking out the Rosetta Stone kiosk in the mall, I got really hungry all of a sudden. Maybe from thinking of my trip to Spain and all the fresh seafood I was going to consume!  Deep down inside though, my craving was for simple comfort food rather than a balanced sensible meal.  Good thing I was at a mall because the lower level produced the perfect choice, Pasta Moto! Read More »

Welcome, Monical's Pizza

I hate it when my brother gets something I don’t.

Never mind that we’re both in our 40s, adults with professional careers, mortgage payments and all those life balance questions middle-age Americans struggle with. He had a Monical’s Pizza on his side of Indianapolis and I didn’t. And he was always waving it in our face, saying things like, “Hey, you guys want to go over to Monical’s for dinner? The kids love that place.”

See what I mean? That kind of superiority from the kid brother eats at you over time.

Well, nana nana boo boo. Guess who just opened their doors in Greenwood? Yep, now I, too, can enjoy their thin and pan crust pizzas whenever I want to, and I don’t even have to drag along kids. But don’t tell my sibling this secret: I failed to notice this new addition to our restaurant families until last week.

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Feel Glamorous Lunch @ Armani Cafe

Do you have a group of friends that you like to meet up with for a little retail therapy?  I am part of this great group of girlfriends who like to meet regularly downtown.  Besides hitting the stores, we also use this time together to try out cafes and restaurants.

This time after we combed the sale racks at Banana Republic, Loehmann’s and H&M we decided to hit the Armani Cafe, just inside the Armani store on Grant Avenue in San Francisco.

We may live for sales but we also need to feel glamorous.  What better way to gaze at the gorgeous Giorgio Armani clothes without feeling the guilt of not buying them, then to grab a bite at his cafe.  We could have gone for the European feel and sat outside on the sidewalk but decided to up the style quotient and get a table overlooking the beautiful displays inside.

A few of us at the table were disappointed that it wasn’t 3:00 pm yet because the cafe has a happy hour with drink specials that include a $6 Cosmo or Martini.  I was excited to see my favorite summer food, a caprese salad (heirloom tomato, basil and fresh buffalo mozzarella cheese!) on the menu for $9 as well as fried calamari for $10. Read More »

Artichoke Panzanella salad

Amici’s East Coast Pizzeria in one sentence: Thin crust pizza and pasta chain that is cheery enough but not too loud or prefab, plus it’s toasty warm on cold foggy evenings because of the brick ovens.

Who you’ll see there: Families, volleyball team, tourists, solo travelers

Make sure to try: Panzanella salad with artichokes, onions, capers, tomatoes and some crisp lettuce. The small is big enough to share when you pair it with one of Amici’s super crispy thin crust pizzas.

It’s okay to skip: The breadsticks with ranch dressing appetizer — seriously, eating breadsticks and ranch dressing before your pizza is why America is fat. If you need a ranch dressing fix, put it on a house salad.

Best dessert: Cheesecake with two forks to share — simple, light and lemony

Service: Friendly, relatively inexperienced young people, maybe even a first job for a lot of kids. Absolutely no upsell, but they can  answer questions if you ask them. Read More »

My mother has never grasped my eating habits. Oh, she’s used to the picky eater routine. And although she’s not a big Italian menu fan, she understands why her kids like restaurants like La Trattoria and Vito Provolone’s Restaurant, since they have very classy, formal occasion atmospheres.

Stop! It's Fazoli's time.

But why an adult would stop at a fast-food place to order spaghetti befuddles her. Just how spoiled are we to pay for something you can throw in a pan and have ready in 10 minutes for pennies?

Make that pretty damn spoiled, because I love Fazoli’s. If I were to take a conservative guess, I’ve eaten 125 pounds of their breadsticks over the years. I’ve slurped down more strawberry Italian ices than anyone else in Indianapolis. And I’ve loved every bite of my cheese ravioli, ziti (sadly, no longer on the menu) and — oh, yes — spaghetti and meatballs since I discovered this restaurant in the early ’90s.

I’ve tried the lasagna, of course, and I’ve experimented with pizza slices and some of the baked dishes. But it’s the simple pasta entrees that hooked me to this chain — and they usually call my name loudly enough to make me do a u-turn and end up at their counter.

Pasta heaven

Maybe the secret is, despite its fast-casual status, Fazoli’s cooks the pasta just right: soft, not crunchy but not limp. Maybe it’s because even though they use mass-produced, premade ingredients, their ricotta cheese in the ravioli never tastes freezer burned like my bag from the grocery store does. I’m sure a lot of it has to do with the fact that after the meal, I don’t have to clean tomato sauce out of a pan.

But the bottom line for my rebellion is that it makes me feel rich to have someone else handle the ordinary, mundane tasks of life. And what else can you do that makes you feel like Daddy Warbucks for $4.49? OK, make that $6.50 because you know I’m going to splurge and ask for one of those fruity drinks on the side!

Fazoli’s

8401 S. Madison Avenue

Indianapolis, IN 46227

(317) 865-1204

Photography: Eli Hodapp, Ollie Crafoord,

Kuleto's on Union Square in San Francisco

When we “play tourist” or have family visiting who really want to eat somewhere nice downtown in San Francisco, Kuleto’s is often our “go to” restaurant. The restaurant and its sister cafe are both located inside the Villa Florence, a very nice hotel in Union Square.

When you look around the immediate area, your restaurant choices are limited to bar food or super expensive restaurants, though I would be tempted to return to an old favorite, John’s Grill. At Kuleto’s their menu has so many great dishes, even my own picky mother found delicious risotto the evening we took her out.

Dining at Kuleto’s if it is the two of us, we love to sit at their long counter that faces the cooks. There is something about watching them cook for you that adds to the experience – and you are served pronto! We usually share one of their antipasti to start, like the Calamari Fritti alla Diavola or the Prosciutto di Parma con Carciofi. My husband swears by their Tagliata con rucola which is the hanger steak, and I often use my date night to eat exotic pasta like their Tortellini d’Anatra.

If you get a chance, arrive early for your dinner so you can have a glass of wine at their bar. It is an amazing 40-foot-long, intricately-carved Brunswick bar made in England, which was brought around Cape Horn aboard a clipper ship and survived the 1906 earthquake while installed at the Palace Hotel.

221 Powell Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 397-7720
www.kuletos.com

Sunday – Thursday 11:30am-10:30pm
Friday & Saturday 11:30am-11:00pm

Photo credit to my iPhone

We needed to talk over which shore excursions I booked on our Mediterranean cruise next week. It was the last day of the month, and my husband (ahem, I mean the vice president) and I had yet to hold a business meeting in April to discuss our travel agency strategy.

Naked without the cheese

Naturally, we seized both opportunities to check out Augustino’s Italian Restaurant, which we’d heard was under new management. Not that we had a complaint about the old management. It’s just that the menu and prices at this local Italian restaurant weren’t conducive to grabbing dinner there between the webinars, grocery errands and catching up on All My Children episodes that go on around here in the evenings.

But sometimes, if you want to break the news you just spent another $1,000 on shore excursions in Italy for research purposes, it’s crucial to set the mood properly.

You also have to start with the cheese bread appetizer, if only because it’s named That’s Italian. And apparently cheese is the word of the day at Augustino’s, because it’s the crowning delight of nearly every entree. For instance, I ordered ye olde spaghetti and meatballs — yah, I’m boring like that — but Parmesana style, which meant they baked it under mozzarella, provolone and Parmesan cheeses. My husband chose the Picasso, also known as chicken and penne pasta, roma tomatoes, onions, bell peppers tossed in a red chili flake cheddar cream sauce. Trust me, the cheddar cream sauce was thick.

Locally owned Austino's

We were in heaven. The only drawback was that we didn’t save room for the tiramasu, which our friends raved about. Guess we’ll save that for the next time the calendar says it’s time for a tax-deductible meal. By then, my system may have forgiven me for the cheese overdose, too. After all, my husband did, and is now completely on board with art tours in Rome and a visit to a cameo shop in Naples.

Augustino’s Italian Restaurant

8028 S. Emerson Ave.

Indianapolis, IN 46237

(317) 865-1099

Photography: Augustino’s

Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino is one of the nicer big hotels on the Las Vegas Strip. The Bellagio is more deluxe, but Circus Circus can’t hold a candle to Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino and its equivalents (such as the Luxor).

(Photo courtesy of MandalayBay.com)

There are a few high-end restaurants in Mandalay Bay, and of course a ubiquitous Starbucks, but I prefer the casual, reasonably priced restaurants there like the Border Grill and Giorgio Ristorante. Stretching our travel dollars is more important these days than ever, so a relatively cheap lunch at Giorgio saves more money for other activities. You know, like the museums and culture. What, is there anything else to do in Las Vegas?

Giorgio Ristorante is a classically Italian spot, with an open style for easy people-watching. The location is right in the shopping area of Mandalay Bay, so the din of the casino is thankfully absent. There is something formal about the white table clothes and dimmed atmosphere in the back dining room, but during lunch the front area is brisk, bright, and relaxed.  The Caesar salad appetizer was fresh and crisp, with garlicky croutons and shaved Parmesan cheese. A waiter hovered, waiting to see if I wanted more cheese, or pepper, on the salad – but it was very nice as it was. My dining companion had minestrone soup as an appetizer (I think it was the soup of the day), and she said that it was “good, but not great.” The lasagna was just what I wanted it to be; cheesy, a little gooey, with tender pasta and a zesty sauce. Comfort food, Italian-style, can really hit the spot.

(Photo courtesy of Gary England)

Now, the Italian food here isn’t going to challenge your tastebuds, but it won’t offend them either. Since we’re talking lunch, I noticed that the table next to me had gorgeous, mile-high sandwiches. Naturally I didn’t taste them (can you imagine?) but they looked great, with clearly fresh cheeses and Italian cold cuts. The lasagna was a little heavy for lunch. Next time, I’ll probably go with one of the sandwiches instead.

Since the restaurant wasn’t crowded, the waitstaff were able to be attentive without rushing us. However, I noticed that Giorgio Ristorante was around half full when I walked by at dinnertime as well. Perhaps Las Vegas tourists tend to save their more expensive meals for dinner, or this may indicate a problem with the evening menu; I can’t say. But it’s nice to have a relaxed, traditional Italian meal right in the heart of the Mandalay Resort & Casino, without a wait or a reservation. If this is what you seek while in Las Vegas, then Giorgio Ristorante is right for you.

Giorgio Ristorante at Mandalay Resort & Casino
3930 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, Nevada
(702) 920-2700

Homemade tortellini

It takes more than a scorching to keep a good restaurant’s doors closed, as the owners of La Trattoria in Olde Town Greenwood have proved. The Indiana entrepreneurs recently reopened in a newly built structure, which became their only option after the original bricks and mortar went up in smoke earlier this year.

Happily, the new digs on North Madison Avenue still resemble the early 20th century house that lent such charm to a plate of spaghetti. Of course, this is the 2008 version, so the entrance is now at the front door where diners feel like welcomed guests as opposed to the side door where you weren’t sure if you were asking for a table or applying for a job. The handicapped ramps are good news as well.

And who wouldn’t feel at home walking across Bella Vernici flooring, surrounded by warm brown shades of paint on the walls and ceilings. It’s probably no accident the designers call these shades toasty.

The porch and adjacent dining room accommodate 78 diners at a sitting, the same seating capacity as before. But now the kitchen has doubled its size, which led our party to think the menu might have doubled as well.

Nope. It’s the same homemade pasta we Hoosiers know and love: a rich tortellini alla panna that I can never get over long enough to try something else on the menu, a penne with ham and peas that calls my husband’s name, and those perfect, succulent steaks that have won local awards for owners Tom and Rene Trotter. Predictably, my friend ordered hers medium rare.

Best of all, they kept the bread coming: a moist, chewy flatbread that disappears from the basket like butter on your baked potato. Everyone ate just two pieces, but somehow the five of us snarfed through 24 slices sometime between the salad and the main entree.

It was the comfort food we thought we’d lost forever.

Never mind they’ve added pounds to our waistlines — and thus hours on our treadmills‚ we aren’t the only Indianapolis residents thrilled to have La Trattoria’s authentic Italian cuisine back on the restaurant circuit. Just a few days after the official re-opening, you couldn’t spot an empty table and the new lobby was packed with dressed-up diners waiting for us to quit lingering and give them a chance at ordering.

“I never realized how wanted this place was until it was gone,” Tom Trotter told the local newspaper. Tom, dear, absence makes the heart grow fonder, and it clears out the cholesterol.

The April fire may turn out to be a brilliant business turn for years to come.