Pittsburgh: Buca di Beppo (September 2000)

Buca di Beppo Italian Restaurant is the perfect place in Pittsburgh for great Italian food and fun! Buca offers group dining in an eclectic, vintage setting. Buca's family-style dishes are perfect for celebrations and groups of all sizes. The restaurant name roughly translates as "Joe's Basement" (buca, which literally means "hole," can be a slang word in Tuscany for basement or cellar, and Beppo is a rare spelling of the nickname for "Giuseppe," the Italian form of "Joseph," in Northern Italy, since the most used spelling is Beppe). The chain of 92 restaurants is owned by Buca, Inc., which in turn is owned by Planet Hollywood. The chain is known for its vintage photographs hung closely spaced throughout the entire restaurant; it is said that they have more than 2,500 pictures. Restrooms feature recorded ambient sounds — women laughing and conversing in Italian in the men's room and vice versa in the women's room. The food at Buca di Beppo is served family style, each item served a la carte and shared among the dining party. Some locations also have a lunch menu, featuring individual-sized portions. Each room at Buca is themed, and all restaurants have a Pope table—the largest single table, round, in a room by itself, with a bust of the Pope as centerpiece. Also, most locations have a table, usually inset to the wall, directly across from the main kitchen, at which the waiter and chefs will onverse with you and allow you to sample many dishes. The first restaurant was opened in the basement level of a Minneapolis apartment building in 1993; 5 restaurants were operating in 1996 when it was spun off. By 1999, there were 20 locations. Presently, there are 96 Buca restaurants operating nationwide.