Just Try Not to Sing Along, or Eat It All

Outside Buca di Beppo in Pasadena stands a sign showing a leering mustachioed fellow and the words “Parka You Car?” A generation ago, this--and a good deal else inside the restaurant--might have seemed offensive. Now, though, it’s just colorful nostalgia. Italian-Americans and everybody else seem to be having a hilarious time at this over-the-top joint.

The hostess ostentatiously leads you through the kitchen to your table, which will be in one of many basement-like cul-de-sacs. The soundtrack is nonstop Sinatra, Dean Martin and “Finiculi, Finicula.” There are wine and olive oil bottles everywhere, and the walls are cluttered with anything Italian, from souvenirs of Capri to mobster photos. Just try not to sing along with the waiters when it’s somebody’s birthday.

Buca di Beppo is actually a chain, based in, of all places, St. Paul, Minn. In short, this is a packaged version of earthy immigrant exuberance. Your waiter will describe what you get as “immigrant cuisine.” Everything comes in the huge portions favored by immigrants celebrating their prosperity in the new country. The small Caesar salad, for instance, is somewhat bigger than a football. As the waiters explain, portions are calculated to feed two or three people. Doggie bags are de rigueur.

More packaging, more shtick. But you know what? The food isn’t bad. A lot of it is pretty good.

Such as the bruschetta--a pan of delicious, slightly chewy garlic bread (at first it looks like an extra-puffy pizza) piled with handfuls of chopped tomatoes and onions. Or the lightly breaded calamari, with their arrestingly spicy tomato dipping sauce.

The most expensive appetizer is mussels marinara. The black mussels can be slightly dried out, but they’re basically tasty--and, of course, there are a lot of them. The huge Caesar salad has a decent dressing, though it’s dusted with the sort of Parmesan that tastes like a cross between sawdust and gym socks.

The cracker-crust pizzas, served on a big shingle of wood supported by empty tin cans, are rectangular. The usual toppings are here, and also a couple of unusual ones, such as escarole. Pizza Calabrese is light and surprisingly savory; though the topping includes thinly sliced potatoes, what you taste is prosciutto, pecorino, tomatoes and an occasional blast of Kalamata olives.

There are a bunch of pastas, of course. The linguine clam sauce (white) is really excellent--perfectly cooked pasta, slithery with olive oil and slightly chewy, with a little bit of chopped clams and a lot of garlic. But the tortelloni (one of the most expensive entrees) are disappointing, with their dry and insipid cheese filling and a mere rumor of a cream sauce.

On the other hand, the eggplant Parmigiana is surprisingly light and clean-tasting. They fry thin breaded eggplant slices and layer them at the last minute with cheese and chopped tomatoes and heat just until the cheese melts, rather than baking the whole thing together for a long time.

The excellent chicken cacciatore is assembled much the same way. The chicken (a huge one) is evidently roasted before being cut up and mixed with a pint or so of thick tomato sauce, loud with capers and garlic. It beats the lemon chicken--three breasts in a lemon and caper sauce with plenty of capers but not nearly enough lemon--and the dullish chicken Vesuvio, a very filling dish rounded out with mushy white beans, decent sweet sausage and roasted potatoes.

With all the meat you get here, it’s hard to imagine anybody ordering meatballs as a side dish, and I wouldn’t recommend it--they’re dull too. Escarole makes a good side order, though, if you like its bracing bitterness (and a lot of garlic). The garlic mashed potatoes are aggressively lumpy and taste of blue cheese as well as garlic--and they come with about a stick of butter poking out of them. But who needs a side dish?

For that matter, who needs dessert after all this? But there’s cheesecake and a caramel bread pudding and an overwhelming tiramisu, layers of cheesy mascarpone alternating with Marsala-soaked cake, the whole thing sprinkled with what appear to be crumbled chocolate brownies.

The most sensible dessert would be the surprisingly good spumoni ice cream (chocolate, strawberry, pistachio, mint and custard layers). But then, being sensible isn’t quite what Buca di Beppo is about.

BE THERE

Buca di Beppo, 80 W. Green St., Pasadena. (626) 792-7272. Dinner 5 p.m. to closing, Monday-Friday; 4 p.m. to closing, Saturday-Sunday. Beer and wine. Valet parking. All major cards. Dinner for two, food only, $20-$84.

What to Get: Bruschetta, fried calamari, pizza Calabrese, linguine clam sauce (white), chicken cacciatore, eggplant parmigiana, spumoni, tiramisu.