The Seattle area is a great place to eat out if you’re into Thai, teriyaki and seafood. But if you’re into old school Italian, well, you don’t have a lot of options.
By old school Italian I mean the traditional staples — lasagna and various pasta dishes, and none of this nouveau stuff with portobello mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes and pesto that’s aimed at upscale diners. If you’re old school, you have few local options. But a new, affordable option has come forth, and it’s worth a visit.
Recently, Bella Pizza &Pasta opened in the Fred Meyer shopping center in Thrasher’s Corner in Bothell. So, having not had old school Italian for a while, I ventured that way recently for lunch.
One thing to understand about old school Italian is it’s not just about food, but atmosphere too. Being a New York City native, I favor places with low ceilings, dark wood walls, Sinatra and Dean Martin playing, red and white checkered tablecloths, and black-and-white pictures of Italian-American icons like Joe DiMaggio and Al Pacino adorning the walls.
Well, Bella was lacking in old school east coast ambience. The high-ceiling interior is done up in contemporary northwest IKEA style, which is fine, since I like contemporary northwest IKEA style. This also meant no red and white checkerboard tablecloths. And no black-and-white pictures of DiMaggio or Pacino.
But Sinatra was playing! And it was the Chairman’s finest, “My Way” and “New York, New York.” My hopes arose that maybe this was the kind of place I could start spreading the news about.
I ordered baked spaghetti with meatballs and a drink from the fountain. I ended up with the biggest drinking glass I’ve ever seen in any kind of eating establishment. My meal came with salad too. The salad was a fairly common one: iceberg lettuce, mozzarella cheese, a few other veggies mixed in. They were crisp, and the ranch dressing was thick.
Then came the entree. It was quite big and came with two generous slices of garlic bread. As for the bread, the texture was right, but as for its garlic punch, I didn’t feel immune from vampire attacks after downing it.
The spaghetti was old school all right. Nice and basic, not too fancy – just the way it should be. The meatballs were a tad overcooked and dry, but still, it was one of the better lunches I’ve had. Lunch was so filling I forsook the desert menu, which had four items, including New York cheesecake.
And here’s the best part: The entree with salad and a soda in a glass you can probably fit Little Italy into cost less than $12. Most of the pasta dishes on the menu come in under $10.
Bella has a large and diverse menu. You can get pastas, salads, Greek appetizers, sub sandwiches, and, of course, a variety of pizzas. They have a varied beverage selection, including juices, beer and wine. And let’s just say these aren’t the kind of wines one drinks out of a brown paper bag; they’re good ones. They also have lunch specials, and free delivery in Bothell and the area between Bothell and Mill Creek.
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