When we hosted our Foodie Friday Contest a couple of months ago and asked you what your favorite local restaurant was, we had several of you tell us that your local restaurant of choice is Bocelli’s Italian Bistro in South Flower Mound off of FM 2499. You’ve never let us down before, Foodies, so this week we headed out there to join owner, Joe Brancaccio, and his fabulous team for some authentic, home-cooked Italian food.
Before we dug into our lunch, we had the chance to chat with Joe and his wife, Sabrina, about how Bocelli’s got started. We found out that Bocelli’s was originally meant to be a food truck (little-known-fact of the day)! When Joe’s business partner, Victor Pizzonia, was moving back to Dallas, he invited Joe to join him in the business venture. When their current space became vacant, they couldn’t refuse the great deal they were offered, so the business plan changed to become an established full-service restaurant. Crazy how things work out sometimes, isn’t it?
After chatting with the owners and the staff a little, we got to dig into our delicious lunch.
Bocelli’s offers some great lunch specials, with choices of salads, soups, pizzas, calzones and pastas all for great deals. We each started off with a salad and I added some Tomato Basil soup onto my order with the advice of our server, David. And it is by far the greatest Tomato Basil soup in town. I couldn’t stop myself from finishing off the cup of this soup – it was so delicious!
After our salads, bread and soup were finished, we enjoyed our variety of main dishes. Since I am trying to eat healthier, we ordered the grilled chicken with mixed vegetables on the side. The chicken was tender and seasoned well and the vegetables served were absolutely superb. We also ordered one of their most popular dishes, the Penne Chicken served in a cream sauce with artichoke and mushrooms as well as the ever-traditional Cheese Ravioli. Each dish was incredibly comforting and definitely felt like authentic homemade dishes. You’d swear Grandma was back in the kitchen whipping up some lunch for you!
And for dessert, Joe brought us some of their homemade Creme Brulee with mixed berries which had a perfect crust on the outside with a creamy and custardy inside. It didn’t take us long to finish it off!
After finishing our food, we were able to head back into the kitchen to see Chef Ernesto at work and to thank him for the wonderful food he served us. Joe and Sabrina expressed how grateful they are to have such a skilled and knowledgeable chef working with them who is able to help them share their family recipes with the community.
Joe and his family have been in the area since 1988 (we call that being an “original resident” around here) and it’s great to see them still around, serving great Italian food to the people they’ve grown to know and love over the past 25 years. They’re proud to say that the majority of their business is repeat customers – and it’s all because of the warm and friendly service you receive and the delicious food you’re served.
So, don’t let this place slip you by! Help us support these local business owners by heading over for a fabulous lunch or dinner this weekend at Bocelli’s and take the whole family with you. You can even have the kids stand in front of Sabrina’s photo of the canals on the wall and fake the photo like you’re actually in Italy!
We hope you have a blessed weekend, Foodies. Eat well – and when you go into Bocelli’s, be sure to tell them you heard about them from Jay Marks!
Jay Marks writes the Foodie Friday each week. You can read his blog at http://iamjaymarks.wordpress.com
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