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Italian
Restaurants Proliferate In The Fox Cities
By Bob Lowe
Feb. 3, 2006
Up
until a few years ago, if you wanted Italian cuisine, your
best bet would be a pizza parlor or Fazoli’s,
the fast-food Italian restaurant chain. For a long time,
the owners of Victoria’s in downtown Appleton pretty
much had a monopoly on Italian cuisine in the Fox Cities.
That has changed recently. Of the three dozen eateries
that opened in the Fox Cities in 2005, Italian diners were
the most popular.
Among
them are Cannova’s Pizzeria and Fine Italian
Cuisine, 113 W. Wisconsin Ave., Neenah; Sabani’s, an
upscale Italian eatery at 890 Lake Park Road, Menasha; Anthony’s
Pizza and Pasta, 2303 S. Oneida St., Appleton; Jonathan’s
Italian Bistro, 1910 N. Casaloma Drive, Grand Chute; Casa
Di Luigi’s, 540 E. Shady Lane, Town of Menasha and
Bella’s Italian Meat Market, a meat shop, deli and
specialty market, 1915
N. Richmond St. in Appleton.
The
former Paretti’s, 3025 W. College Ave., became
Emiliano’s, after it was taken over by the owners of
Victoria’s Restaurant. Another Italian eating place
is Grazies Italian Grill, W.6157 Lorna Lane, on Appleton’s
far east side that opened a couple years ago, just east of
the Wal-Mart store on KK.
Other
recently opened non-Italian restaurants are Stone Toad
Bar-Grill, 1109
S. Oneida St., Menasha; StoneYard Food and Spirits, Vandenbroek;
Sidelines Sports Pub & Grille, 1575 Plaza
Drive, Town of Menasha; CasaBlanca, 531 W. College Ave.,
which features fine Latin cuisine. It shares the same address
of a Mexican restaurant next door, Senor Tequila’s.
Both are owned by Alejandro Lopez and his uncle, Osmin Lizama.
The 500 block of W. College
Avenue offers the most diverse multiethnic cuisine including
Italian, German, Japanese, Latin and Mexican. It will now
have an additional ethnic fare with the opening of the
Cajun Grill & Bar, which recently opened in the
remodeled west half of the Old Bavarian Inn German restaurant,
which used to be a bar. It now offers the likes of crab cakes,
gumbo, jambalaya, rice and red beans and blackened fish.
The
former Patina next to the CopperLeaf Hotel in downtown
Appleton closed and has since been inhabited by the Black & Tan
Grill, which relocated from South Memorial Drive.
There have also been two major restaurant closures in the
Fox Cities that caught many by surprise. The $3 million Krispy
Kreme doughnut shop which opened in August 2004 on W. College
Avenue in Grand Chute closed on Jan. 25. Also, the $7 million
Springz family entertainment center that included a restaurant,
closed on Jan. 11.
The
Dunn Bros. coffee shop also closed at the end of January,
as did Bourbon Street Food & Spirits, 100 E. College
Ave. The ground floor has been leased to Lizandro Gavlan
for a new yet-unnamed restaurant, according to Teri Winters,
co-owner of Rollie Winter and Associates. Jukebox Johnny’s,
2020 W. College Ave., also has gone out of business. The
property is being converted to a Los Compadres, a Mexican
restaurant.
Luna, which operated in downtown Neenah, went out of business
in mid-December. And The Four Seasons Restaurant, 664 Ridgeview
Dr., Grand Chute, just north of the Northland Mall, also
closed in recent weeks. The restaurant of the same name at
1104 S. Commercial St., will continue operating as usual.
***
Several area college campuses kicked off Black History
Month with a series of activities designed to highlight events
and accomplishments of African-Americans in the United States.
The
showcase event for Lawrence University in Appleton will
be "The Celebration of Black Heritage: New Beginnings
of the Sistah," at 5:30 p.m. Saturday in the Buchanan
Kiewit Center on campus.
A highlight of the celebration is a series of skits written
by Paris Brown, an LU junior French and music major from
Chicago, and Taeya Abdel-Majeed, an LU sophomore from Ghana.
Brown is president of the Black Organization of Students,
sponsor of the event.
Tickets are $10 for adults and students and $4 for children
12 and under. Call 832-6749 for reservations.
The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay will sponsor a soul
food dinner at5 p.m. Saturday at the Ecumenical Center.
At
the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, this year’s
events will feature music, slam poetry, speakers and movies.
Stepping and Bop Lessons with the Milwaukee Boppers will
be at 6 p.m. Monday Feb. 6 and again on Monday Feb. 20 in
the Titan Underground of Reeve Memorial Union. The partner-style
dance includes footwork comparable to line dancing.
An African Drumming and Story Telling Workshop will be
presented from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday Feb. 15 by the
African Harvest Cultural Defenders of Milwaukee in Room 202
of Reeve Memorial Union.
Other
events include: "Klan-Destine Relationships," a
talk by Daryl Davis, an accomplished blues and R&B musicians
and race relations expert, scheduled for 8 p.m. Wednesday
Feb. 8 in Reeve Memorial Union Ballroom and the movie "Crash," from
6-9 p.m. Thursday Feb. 23 in Reeve Memorial Union Theater.
It the story about racial tension in an urban city that was
recently nominated for an Academy Award. It will include
a talkback segment with UW-Oshkosh faculty members and staff.
St.
Norbert College in DePere, which began its celebration
on Wednesday Feb. 1 with "The Celebration of Gospel
Music," will present "The African American Experience," an
African American Art History Presentation at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday
Feb. 8 at Cofrin Hall, Room 11. The presenter will be Father
James P. Neilson, assistant professor of art at St. Norbert.
From
6-8:30 p.m. Wednesday Feb. 15 at Cofrin Hall, Room 15,
there will be a film presentation and discussion of "Their
Eyes Were Watching God," an Oprah Winfrey-produced screen
adaptation of the Zora Neale Hurston novel.
A
soul food dinner, "Celebrating the Culture," is
set for 4:30 p.m.
Saturday
Feb. 25 at Sensenbrenner Memorial Union Café.
It will feature Lady Peachena and the "The Late Show
Gospel Choir" and Portraits of
Courage:
African Americans You Wish You Had Known," an
examination of overlooked African Americans and their contributions
to American history.
Tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for children 12 and under
and $10 for SNC students. Call 1-800-762-2699.
***
"Love! Valour! Compassion!," a
staged reading for mature audiences about eight gay men
who express their passions, resentments and fears over
three summer weekends in a remote house near New York City,
comes to the Fine Arts Theater at the University of Wisconsin-Fox
Valley in Menasha at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday Feb. 9-10
and at 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday Feb. 11.
The production, written by Terrence McNally, will feature
some of veteran stage actors, some with Fox Valley roots
who were brought in from Milwaukee, Chicago and California.
Included in the cast are Larry Dahlke, Bryce Lord, MJ Marsh,
Christopher Pazdernik, Fran St. Andre, Osvaldo Vega and Mark
Zastrow. It will be directed by Susan Rabideau, head of the
theater department at UWFV. The film included performances
from Jason Alexander, Justin Kirk, John Glover and Randy
Becker. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students. Call
(920) 832-2857.
***
The
Varsity Men’s Choruses of Appleton East, North
and West High Schools and the Appleton Boychoir Ambassador
Choir will be joined by the male choral group, Cantus, at
the Young Men’s Chorus Festival at 7:30 p.m.
Thursday Feb. 16 at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center.
Tickets are
$12 for adults, $10 for students. Call (920) 730-3760 for
reservations.
***
"Rent," a breathtaking and often bittersweet
musical about a community of artists as they struggle with
the soaring hopes and tough realities of today’s world,
will be coming to the Fox Cities PAC for three performances
on Feb. 24-25. Inspired by Puccini’s "La Boheme," the
Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning "Rent" is
only the fifth musical to win both of those awards. Set in
the East Village of New York City, it is now the eight longest
running musical on Broadway. Ticket prices range from $34-$64
and can be secured by calling (920) 731-5000 in the Fox Cities
or (920) 494-1414 in Green Bay.
Sale
of the Valley Fair Mall was completed this week and it
looks like most of the shopping center is about to be demolished.
VF Partners, a partnership formed by the real estate development
firms of Rollie Winter & Associates
and Bomier Properties, purchased the mall from Youth Futures
Inc. for $2.3 million.
Most of the tenants are looking for new homes as it appears
that everything will be torn down, except for the Valley
Value Cinema Theaters.
First
built in 1954, Valley Fair Mall is recognized as the nation’s
first enclosed shopping center.
For
comments or questions, contact boblowe@juno.com or by phone at (920)-731-4603.
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