Ultimate Foodie

For more than three decades, maybe even four, my family has made the jaunt once or twice a year to Buscaglia’s Ristorante in Jackson, California to celebrate. Sometimes it’s a birthday, sometimes Mother’s Day, sometimes for other important family events like confirmations and baptisms. We’ve always considered it our restaurant of choice for really special family events.

Until May 11, 2008, that is.

When I was a kid, Buscaglia’s was an awesome little place…right on the road with this huge, beautiful stained glass window of roses and a light-up dance floor in the lounge, straight out of the seventies. The food was to die for, homemade minestrone, succulent pastas, and this amazing fried chicken that I swear I can still taste, even though they discontinued making it more than 15 years ago. The place was cozy and warm, the staff was always friendly and attentive and it really felt like you had gone to an old friend’s home for dinner.

Not so anymore.

The day before Mother’s Day, we made the trek to Buscaglia’s for dinner. All told, there were eleven of us, eight adults and three kids. Buscaglia’s recently built a new restaurant farther back on the hill from the original location, and although my parents and grandparents had been there since the new spot opened, my siblings and I had not. I must admit, I was saddened to see that all that was left of the old building was some brick pillars and foundations. The new building is really quite impressive, but the rubble at the foot of the hill made it seem bittersweet.

To get to the restaurant entrance, you have to enter the courtyard and walk up a short incline to the back of the building. When I arrived with my kids, my grandparents were talking to the waiter about getting a different table location, and although we were the first people there (the place opens at 5pm and we were there on the dot for our reservation) they refused to move us. Ok, no problem I thought…I wasn’t sure why my grandparents had wanted to move in the first place, but once we sat down, it became all too apparent. The main walkway from the kitchen to the outdoor seating was right along our table. With all the coming and going, you would expect that we would have received better service, but not really. Our drinks were a long time coming and our ordering even longer after that. By the time the waitress came with our soup and salad, our bread was long gone and she forgot my brother’s minestrone. We managed to get that rectified and about 7 or 8 minutes later, another waiter came by to ask us if we wanted grated cheese on our food…except that we were almost done with it at that point, so it was pretty silly. It took quite awhile longer for our dinners to arrive and in the meantime, the traffic behind my chair increased in pace and it was incredibly distracting for my three year old.

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