Buca di Beppo

Food, misc. June 30th, 2008

Years ago, we visited some friends in Des Moines, IA and ate at a restaurant called Buca di Beppo (I think the one in Des Moines has since closed). Turns out, it’s a chain. We’ve since found that there are Bucas all over, the most convienient of which is in Lombard, IL just a mile or so away from where I’ve been working on my D.Min.

It’s also only about 30 minutes away from where we stayed last week when we went to Chicago to see Wicked. What does that mean? It means I managed to talk JJ into having lunch there. mmmmmmmm.

Several things make Buca one of my favorite restaurants. First, the food is good (I’d have said “great” but it was a little off last week). My favorite is the garlic bread:

Buca's Garlic Bread

Look at those slices of garlic! It’s greasy enough to melt in your mouth and garlicky enough to keep your enemies away for a week. (At least if you’re enemies have a bit of vampire in them!) You can eat by the meal or family style depending on your preference - the portions are big and the house wine is more than passable (which we didn’t drink this time since I had 3 1/2 hours of driving to do afterwards).

The second best thing about Buca is the decor. It’s gaudy. EXTREMELY gaudy. WAY over the top, but in a fun way.

buca1.jpg
buca2.jpg

Our service was awful this time, but it was still a great meal! So, if you’re ever around one, give ‘em a try. (I’d say “tell them Tim sent you” but it wouldn’t do either of us any good!) (Oh, and for my eastern friends… there’s one in Albany/Colonie!)

Grace and peace,
`tim

PS: It’s a minor miracle we have any pictures from the trip. My SD card somehow went wacky. But after downloading a few recovery programs and finding one that actually worked (Card Recovery at http://www.cardrecovery.com/), I managed to get most of them back!

One Response to “Buca di Beppo”

  1. kldavelaar Says:
    June 30th, 2008 at 10:51 am

    Thanks for the tip on a restaurant in my area! Always looking for someplace I haven’t been before. It’s VBS week here — and I’m involved because the CED was desperate for helpers and it’s not like I’m over-worked or anything. But this is NOT my favorite thing to do for a morning :)

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