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