<story><title>Buca di Beppo, America’s Most Postmodern Red Sauce Chain</title><url>https://www.bonappetit.com/story/bizarre-history-buca-di-beppo</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ocdtrekkie</author><text>I get so peeved by the treatment of chain restaurants like this as &amp;quot;poor&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;terrible&amp;quot;. 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.&lt;p&gt;It isn&amp;#x27;t going to impress folks who have a personal chef at home, but the food is &lt;i&gt;pretty darn good&lt;/i&gt;, and you don&amp;#x27;t have to saw off your right arm to pay for it.</text></item><item><author>cowmoo728</author><text>Cheesecake Factory? They&amp;#x27;re famous for having terrible decor, service, and food, yet somehow being an essential part of the American high school prom experience.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.barstoolsports.com&amp;#x2F;barstoolu&amp;#x2F;dude-goes-viral-for-tweet-storm-about-how-much-the-cheesecake-factory-sucks&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.barstoolsports.com&amp;#x2F;barstoolu&amp;#x2F;dude-goes-viral-for...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>apo</author><text>&amp;gt; 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, &amp;quot;... I wanted a restaurant people could look down on.”&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; He wanted the decor to be tacky, the portions to be enormous, the atmosphere to be boisterous. He figured it didn’t matter that he wasn’t Italian in the slightest. There were also almost no red sauce joints in Minneapolis at the time, so diners wouldn’t have anything to compare it to. This was a restaurant, he says, “that was intentionally in bad taste, but good-natured bad taste.” The kind of place where the average diner could feel superior, and not feel bad about being puzzled over a wine list, or not knowing what kind of fork is used for a salad.&lt;p&gt;The concept of a restaurant that people &amp;quot;look down on&amp;quot; seems both bold and mean-spirited. It also vaguely reminds me of an article I read about the Old Spaghetti Factory.&lt;p&gt;What are some other examples of American restaurants that followed this playbook?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Gorbzel</author><text>&amp;gt; These are some of the nicest restaurants the average citizen can hope to afford to go to more than once in their lifetime.&lt;p&gt;This is almost undoubtedly untrue.&lt;p&gt;There are many independent or local restaurants in most regions that cost the same (or less) than the chains you mention. Ethnic restaurants frequently deliver more bang for the buck. In all of these non-chain categories there are “nicer” options that deliver a better atmosphere, food, wine, whatever the citizen in question is looking for.&lt;p&gt;As for the chains, they should have at least one thing to offer: consistency. No one is faulting folks for having a guilty pleasure, or working a chain into their routine when they’re looking for a known quantity meal.&lt;p&gt;But some people never break out of the mundane that consistency brings. The types who are too afraid to try things because they’re supposedly “fancy.” Or because they don’t look like they 2nd generation immigrants who run the restaurant down the road. The kind of folks who go to a Buca in Honolulu or Applebee’s in Times Square; those places are expensive as shit, and living a life like that is truly terrible.</text></comment>
<story><title>Buca di Beppo, America’s Most Postmodern Red Sauce Chain</title><url>https://www.bonappetit.com/story/bizarre-history-buca-di-beppo</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ocdtrekkie</author><text>I get so peeved by the treatment of chain restaurants like this as &amp;quot;poor&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;terrible&amp;quot;. 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.&lt;p&gt;It isn&amp;#x27;t going to impress folks who have a personal chef at home, but the food is &lt;i&gt;pretty darn good&lt;/i&gt;, and you don&amp;#x27;t have to saw off your right arm to pay for it.</text></item><item><author>cowmoo728</author><text>Cheesecake Factory? They&amp;#x27;re famous for having terrible decor, service, and food, yet somehow being an essential part of the American high school prom experience.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.barstoolsports.com&amp;#x2F;barstoolu&amp;#x2F;dude-goes-viral-for-tweet-storm-about-how-much-the-cheesecake-factory-sucks&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.barstoolsports.com&amp;#x2F;barstoolu&amp;#x2F;dude-goes-viral-for...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>apo</author><text>&amp;gt; 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, &amp;quot;... I wanted a restaurant people could look down on.”&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; He wanted the decor to be tacky, the portions to be enormous, the atmosphere to be boisterous. He figured it didn’t matter that he wasn’t Italian in the slightest. There were also almost no red sauce joints in Minneapolis at the time, so diners wouldn’t have anything to compare it to. This was a restaurant, he says, “that was intentionally in bad taste, but good-natured bad taste.” The kind of place where the average diner could feel superior, and not feel bad about being puzzled over a wine list, or not knowing what kind of fork is used for a salad.&lt;p&gt;The concept of a restaurant that people &amp;quot;look down on&amp;quot; seems both bold and mean-spirited. It also vaguely reminds me of an article I read about the Old Spaghetti Factory.&lt;p&gt;What are some other examples of American restaurants that followed this playbook?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ng12</author><text>The value proposition really isn&amp;#x27;t that great. It&amp;#x27;s not any cheaper than food from a local Italian joint. What you&amp;#x27;re paying for is that Olive Garden experience, whatever that is worth to you.&lt;p&gt;A good example is the Olive Garden in Times Square. It&amp;#x27;s _always_ packed despite there being better Italian places a few blocks away. Not to mention, if you&amp;#x27;re willing to hop on the subway there&amp;#x27;s significantly better Italian food available in the outer boroughs for much cheaper. Olive Garden isn&amp;#x27;t that cheap, that nice, or that tasty which makes it a mystery to a lot of people.</text></comment>