Danville Good Eats
Dinner tonight at Lotsa Pasta in Danville. We joined Jack and Lisa and BJ for a very, very casual dinner, and had a good time for not many dollars.
Lotsa Pasta is a classic mom and pop operation–mom is at the cash register, pop is in the kitchen. The place is tiny; they do at least as much take out business as eat in. Whichever you are doing, you stand in line until you get to the front and them mom takes your order–there is only 1 cash register, you just wait your turn and don’t complain.
The “dining room” is tiny–a few tables up front, and a long, narrow hallway with one row of very cramped tables.
No expense was expended in the fine surroundings.
The food here is pasta. Lots of it. Angel hair or spaghetti or penne or fettucini or linguine or orichiette, with meat sauce or marinara or pesto or aglio e olio (oil and garlic) or a half dozen others. You can start with a salad, but don’t expect fancy–you’ll get a plate of lettuce with some dressing and shred of carrot or two. Toasted garlic bread comes to the table automatically, and it’s good.
Fettucine al pesto
Orrichiete (ears) in a cream sauce with chicken and peas.
There are a few specials, too, like chicken piccata or saltimboca or salmon.
Chicken saltimboca with vegetables instead of pasta. BJ making the healthy, lo-cal choice.
Lotsa Pasta is the most unpretentious of places. The waitress brings your food to the table and refills your iced tea, but you can’t really talk about the high class service. No tablecloth, paper napkins, you aren’t encouraged to linger over your fine dining. The food, however, is just fine–solid and hearty, it comes out of the kitchen quickly and makes it to the table hot.
Lotsa Pasta is not the place to take your sweetie for your anniversary, but if you want a quick solid Italian dinner it’s pretty hard to bead.
Totally Unauthorized 