From chicken parm to clams casino, this is our celebration of the Italian-American restaurants we love.

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The oversize portions. The red-and-white-checked tablecloths. A carafe of the house red. Old-school Italian-American restaurants, a.k.a. red sauce joints, are the kind of institutions you’ll find, with very few deviations, in just about any city in America. But as we discovered upon reaching out to dozens of writers, chefs, and celebrities, these restaurants are about a lot more than a plate of penne alla vodka. Whether or not you’re Italian, red sauce likely means something to you—about family, or home, or history, or politics, or class, or citizenship, or selfhood, or otherness, or all the above, or a million other things. And that’s what this package is all about. Welcome to Red Sauce America.

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“The longer I live in Los Angeles,” writes Roxane Gay, “the more I try to find places where I feel like a thread in the fabric of something bigger than myself.” Enter: Little Dom’s.

 

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Silvio Frlic has been working at Brooklyn red sauce stalwart Bamonte’s for 41 years. Silvio Frlic has seen some things. He shares the juicy details with Hilary Cadigan.

 

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Brett Martin grew up in Brooklyn, the epicenter of Italian-American food. But it wasn’t until he moved down South that he learned to truly appreciate the stuff.

 

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After quietly rising through the unsung ranks at local icon Gene & Georgetti, one ambitious cook opened his own classic Italian steakhouse, reports Mike Sula.

 

 

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But how could chef Tyler Kord convince his Italian brother-in-law of this indisputable fact?

 

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Sarah Jampel asks: But how does it even make sense for them to offer this?

 

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Chris Ying looks at the way Italian Americans have progressed from a demonized immigrant group to an unquestioned part of the country’s fabric, and thinks, damn, I want that too.

 

 

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How many ways can you possibly cook a pounded-thin piece of chicken breast? Well, as any self-respecting red sauce menu will tell you, the answer is…a lot. Amiel Stanek explores the options.

 

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When the legendary football coach first moved to Oklahoma, the only Italian food available was Chef Boyardee. Then he met chef Pasquale Benso, reports Greg Elwell.

 

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Priya Krishna investigates how a Lutheran from central Illinois created a genre-defining Italian-American restaurant.

 

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The hardest reservation in New York is Rao’s, a one-room red sauce joint in East Harlem. Co-owner Frank Pellegrino Jr. gives Aliza Abarbanel a peek through the hallowed red door.

 

 

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Paul Freedman, the Yale historian who wrote the book Ten Restaurants That Changed America, breaks it down.

 

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How dairy-doused cutlets at La Famiglia Giorgio’s in Boston became Cleopatra Zuli’s ritual—and a space for fantasizing about what family could look like.

 

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Alex Delany’s case in point: Zeppoli in Collingswood, New Jersey.

 

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At Frankies 457 Spuntino in Brooklyn, the real fun starts when the after-dinner drinks hit the table, argues Andrew Knowlton.

 

 

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Virginia Willis shares the story of the oldest Italian restaurant in Augusta, Georgia, a fifth-generation, Greek family–owned red sauce joint.

 

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There’s nothing quite like that “muzzadelle” feeling, writes Emma Straub.

 

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But for Amanda Shapiro, it was never really about the food.

 

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For the owner of Nino’s, the hardest part of letting go is making sure things stay exactly the same, reports food critic Christiane Lauterbach.

 

 

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How Alex Pemoulie of Mean Sandwich rediscovered her favorite cuisine at Restaurant Machiavelli in Seattle.

 

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Mike Gotovac, a bartender at the legendary L.A. celebrity hangout Dan Tana’s, talks to Maggie Lange on working half a century in the biz.

 

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It starts with free wine samples, endless breadsticks, and keeping Kristen Arnett’s expectations low.

 

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Carey Polis finds the cure to what ails her under a blanket of cheese.

 

 

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Marissa Ross, BA’s wine editor, has a not-so-guilty pleasure.

 

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Some red sauce joints serve a side of spaghetti. Giulia Melucci’s favorite Brooklyn spot, Tommaso, serves a side of crooning Italian ballads.

 

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Melissa McCart on one city’s humble, but indisputable, iconic dish.

 

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The Detroit suburbs have gone through a massive demographic change in the past 60 years, reports Michigan native Tracie McMillan. Gino’s has been around during all of it.

 

 

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Sarah Cascone examines the theory that “the worse the art in restaurants, the better the food.”

 

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Jason Hochman, Larry Zakarin, and their friends have been coming to this iconic NYC Italian steakhouse for 15 years and counting, reports Eric Ginsburg.

 

 

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Wait—and who’s Bryan? Alex Beggs investigates.

 

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Brette Warshaw revisits a night at Philly’s prime spot for carb-loading, reckless drinking, and trying on adulthood.

 

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Hilary Cadigan’s summers doing who even knows what at Bertucci’s.

 

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How summers at the Jersey Shore expanded Emily Schultz’s definition of red sauce.

 

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A poem to portion sizes, by Kelly Conaboy.

 

 

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How do you keep the old customers while also courting the new? Jen Doll asks 73-year-old restaurateur Frank Guido.

 

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Elyse Inamine prepares for a red sauce baptism.

 

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Molly Birnbaum spends a Friday night at Camille’s, a Providence, Rhode Island, legend more than a century in the making.

 

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Have you ever eaten Italian food on top of photos of...Italian food? Lauren Larson recommends it.

 

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Alex Delany on Murph’s, where the Guinness is plentiful and the Bolognese is perfect.

 

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Liz Cook meets Laura Hartley Maxey and Scott Maxey, one of many couples who got engaged at V’s Italiano Ristorante.

 

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So why has Claire Carusillo never been visited?

 

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Madeleine Davies hopes this mini Trevi Fountain in Madison, Wisconsin, never changes.

 

 

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This mostaccioli haven was not just Bao Ong’s introduction to Italian-American food. It was his introduction to restaurants, period.

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A pair of restaurant soul mates if there ever was one, argues Myles Tanzer.


Credits
Project Leads: Hilary Cadigan, Julia Kramer, Sasha Levine, Carey Polis
Editors: Alex Delany, Elyse Inamine, Meryl Rothstein, Amiel Stanek, Emma Wartzman
Photo Editors: Michelle Heimerman, Mathea Millman
Art & Design: Chris Cristiano, Bryan Fountain
Social: Rachel Karten, Emily Schultz
Copy & Research: Brian Carroll, Andrew Gillings, Joyce Pendola, Greg Robertson, Susan Sedman, Tanisha Sykes, Leslie Anne Wiggins
Thanks to: Emma Fishman, Alex Lau, Annalee Soskin, Michele Outland, Adam Rapoport