Simply Red

The New York Times ^ | August 10, 2003 | MARK ROTELLA

[sarcasm]

Manducatis, a red sauce restaurant on Jackson Avenue in Long Island City, Queens, is a relatively youthful 27 years old, but it has the feeling of a village trattoria. The large, tile-floored front room is empty of everything but a bar, a couple of tables covered with newspapers in Italian and English, and a television tuned to an Italian news station; the three back rooms have low ceilings with exposed beams.

Definitely worth the trip.

[jimtorr]

I miss family restaurants, other than Chinese. I live in Columbia, MD, which is only 35 years old. The corporation seems to actively keep out anything that might be owned by a local family. National chain restaurants, on the other hand, are welcomed with open arms.

[Molly Pitcher]

Fascinating social and culinary history!

[sarcasm]

I won't even consider eating at a chain restaurant - family owned is the way to go.

[southernnorthcarolina]

Everything comes back, if you wait long enough, in architecture, hemline length, music, and certainly food. I suppose some arbiter of taste decreed in the '60s or '70s that Southern Italian food was "out," and that Northern Italian food (Italian trying to be French) was "in."

Southern Italian seems to be making something of a comeback. As far as I know, I haven't a drop of Italian blood (Southern or Northern) in me, being of Limey/Kraut extraction, but I've never lost my taste for good old Southern Italian food. Tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, red wine -- some foods being "rediscovered" for their nutritional benefits as well as their taste. Change the pasta to whole wheat, and finish with fresh fruit rather than cannoli, and you could build a pretty healthy dietary regimen around the foods served in "red sauce restaurants" -- in fact, not surprisingly, it would fit right in with the so-called "Mediterranean Diet." Ah, but to hell with the nutritional aspects. Pass the wine, will ya?

[sydney smith]

Oh, the effects of affluence. In the '60's and '70's the ethnics couldn't wait finally 'make it'. The minute they had enough $$ to get out of the ethnic neighborhoods they fled to 'the country'. Now 'the country' is the 'burbs'. That was the end of the ethnic neighborhoods and they deteriorated as minorities moved in and we were left with blocks of old folks interspersed with poor minorities. This clearly resulted in a loss of identity for those 2nd and 3rd generation Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans, etc. They are now searching, in vain, for something that will tell them who they are. Like restaurants. And ethnic food---made in restaurants. Kind of sad this article, in my opinion.

[decimon]

Have you seen Dinner Rush? Good movie.

[sarcasm]

[Wonder Warthog]

"This clearly resulted in a loss of identity for those 2nd and 3rd generation Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans, etc. They are now searching, in vain, for something that will tell them who they are."

Gee, do you think maybe that they have finally outgrown the hyphenated bull****, and become simply Americans???

[sarcasm]

When I was in college I used to see the younger Italians who had moved to Westchester make the weekend shopping trek to the Belmont section of the Bronx. I wonder whether this still goes on.

[sarcasm]

Can't say that I have.

[JesseHousman]

Great Article.

The first sentence: ... be greeted by the maître d', who, although he doesn't know me, will treat me as if he does.

Unfortunately, this sounds like Olive Garden's (Garbage, I call it) commercial.

[SSN558]

Gee, do you think maybe that they have finally outgrown the hyphenated bull****, and become simply Americans???

Never ! Being a member of the only true master race is one of those things that you never outgrow. The sounds and smells of Son's of Italy picnics run deep in my memories, even though I am only a half breed.

[sarcasm]

At Manducatis it's the way you are greeted - a very nice place.

[JimVT]

Back in the late 50's I worked at the New York Air Route Traffic Control Center and lived in Jackson Heights.

In those days we got paid about two bucks an hour every two weeks.

If it wasn't for my ol' gumba, Tony, owner-operator-chef of the Club 85 on 85th St and Northern Blvd and his twice a week free pasta, I probably would have wasted away.

Then again, maybe he had to feed me so I could pay my bar bill.

[sarcasm]

I grew up in Jackson Heights but I don't remember the restaurant.

[mystery-ak]

The Olive Garden and all the other chains are fast-food Italian...anybody in the St. Louis area knows that if you want real Italian food, you go to *The Hill*...

[Gringo1]

My family used to eat at Meloni's in Uniontown Pa. whenever we returned for family reunions,etc. Absolutely the best veal in the world.They could charge people just to sit in there and breathe in the smells of the foods served. Italian deli/bakeries are the bomb too.