Happy Birthday ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dangerdean and silme!
Jul. 13th, 2006 08:44 amMany happy returns of the day to both of you! =)
Jul. 13th, 2006
Happy Birthday
Jul. 13th, 2006 08:44 amThe World, She is Over...
Jul. 13th, 2006 08:44 amIf you hear that rumbling sound deep underground and wonder what it is, I can explain. No, that will take too long. Let me sum up.
Italian-Americans, Italians, foodies, and those who enjoy good Italian food even if they aren't foodies are rolling over in their graves.
A while back, some of you may remember me mentioning how the excellent Italian eatery Pane e Vino underwent change of ownership, change of name, change of menu, and bastardization of purpose. Pasta e Vino was created and had *most* of Pane e Vino's menu imitated - not bad, but not great - and added. A. Breakfast. Menu.
Yes, that was bad enough, but now they have gone one step further.
Pasta e Vino - and perhaps all the other neon lighting in the colors of the Italian flag - has been removed from the building. Blue - yes, blue! - signs with white letters now proclaim it to be Westgate Diner. A diner. You take a decent class - first class, for this area, because it's no North End - Italian place and turn it into a pancake and hash brown joint. In a replica of a Tuscan villa. Do they still play Sinatra and all that other stuff, or did they just scratch the needles across those records in their rush to remove them, like they did with the menu.
What really irks me is that there is a perfectly usable, perfectly suitable, venue diagonally across the intersection where the former Dempsey's sits unused, and with a larger and more accessible parking lot no less.
Bah. Someone, quick, hand me a bit of brick-oven baked bread sopping with olive oil and piled high with lightly roasted garlic...
Italian-Americans, Italians, foodies, and those who enjoy good Italian food even if they aren't foodies are rolling over in their graves.
A while back, some of you may remember me mentioning how the excellent Italian eatery Pane e Vino underwent change of ownership, change of name, change of menu, and bastardization of purpose. Pasta e Vino was created and had *most* of Pane e Vino's menu imitated - not bad, but not great - and added. A. Breakfast. Menu.
Yes, that was bad enough, but now they have gone one step further.
Pasta e Vino - and perhaps all the other neon lighting in the colors of the Italian flag - has been removed from the building. Blue - yes, blue! - signs with white letters now proclaim it to be Westgate Diner. A diner. You take a decent class - first class, for this area, because it's no North End - Italian place and turn it into a pancake and hash brown joint. In a replica of a Tuscan villa. Do they still play Sinatra and all that other stuff, or did they just scratch the needles across those records in their rush to remove them, like they did with the menu.
What really irks me is that there is a perfectly usable, perfectly suitable, venue diagonally across the intersection where the former Dempsey's sits unused, and with a larger and more accessible parking lot no less.
Bah. Someone, quick, hand me a bit of brick-oven baked bread sopping with olive oil and piled high with lightly roasted garlic...
