Fantastico!

I want to give a long-overdue shout out to Buca di Beppo in Jacksonville, Florida. After Christmas, my entire family went there for dinner after an afternoon of beachcombing and shopping--this included my parents, five members of my oldest sister's family, five members of my youngest sister's family, and seven members of my immediate family.

Even though it was dinnertime during the holiday season, our entire party was seated in short order at two nearby tables. My three youngest children were a mess and my niece was too, crying and whining and exhausted from their day. But the service and attention was awesome, as was the atmosphere. Our server brought out a cheese pizza absolutely free to help get the kids settled and fed--this was I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP--the best pizza I've ever, ever had. Thin, cheesy, hot... did I say cheesy? It was that great Italian pizza cheese that made it so good.

My three youngest continued to cause noise and the twins had to go to the bathroom multiple times--Buca should have been exasperated by us--but from the manager on down, they were simply amazing. Then Halle fell off her chair and started screaming. I picked her up, craddled her against my shoulder for a minute, then pulled her away to have a look at her. There was blood splattered on my shirt and gushing from her mouth. I quickly handed her to Paula while the two of us raced down the hallway to the bathroom. She ran in and washed Halle up while I paced in the hall. When I took a good look at her lip a little later, a deep gash could be seen in the back of her lip--obviously she'd need a few stitches.

Meanwhile, back at the table, Cooper was wailing. It was the kind of screaming cry where the child can't catch his breath and so the cries are mixed with shaking sobs for air. When we got back to the table with Halle, she was still bleeding, and Cooper was a mess. Paula took care of him while I comforted Halle (who was very calm). The manager came by and thought Cooper had hurt himself--he attended to our needs wonderfully and then the waitress was back with a free ice cream for Halle and a cloth with ice. Amazing.

At this point, my wife and sisters were urging us to get to the hospital, but my parents prevailed with the soothing advice that Halle seemed calm, we might as well have our dinner--she might not even need stitches. So we ate, and ate (except for Paula). We had more pizza, lasagna, spaghetti, linguini, bread, salad... it was magnifico! We finished very quickly and continued to get excellent service from the manager and wait staff. When the bill came it was only $120 for all of us combined! Buca's plates are priced as entrees but serve 3-4 people, so each couple only had to order one plate while we passed everything around family-style. I couldn't have been more impressed with this place.

After leaving a very large tip, Paula and I took Halle to Toys R Us to pick out a stuffed animal (she chose a giant panda bear) and then to the ER. We weren't impressed with the hospital's cleanliness or organization but the doctor was terrific, knowledgable, light-hearted, and very good with Halle. He actually recommended no stitches and no medical treatmetnt. And do you know--he was right? Her lip has healed up perfectly, like nothing ever happened. But I will never forget my first time at Buca--it was truly wonderful.

Buca, please build more restaraunts in the Atlanta area--Alpharetta's not Atlanta! Very easy-to-use Web site, by the way.