Maureen B. Fant

REVISED. It's getting harder and harder to eat anything but pizza on a Sunday evening. Here are a few ideas from the Gambero Rosso guide. The ones I've tried and liked have an asterisk. In addition, there are a number of hotel restaurants and pizzerias as well as a few wine bars and ethnics.

*Dal Bolognese (classic, upmarket, haven't been in years)
Al Bric (Campo de' Fiori) (never been)
*La Campana (I find it tired but often irreplaceable)
*Cavour 313
*Al Ceppo (upmarket, in Parioli, great food)
*Checco er Carettiere (Trastevere, stick-to-your-ribs Roman)
*Cul de Sac (wine bar, much love, much uncomfortable)
Il Focolare (Monteverde Vecchio; it's fine, just not fantastic)
Giggetto al Portico (the Ghetto classic)
*Giuda Ballerino! (Tuscolo; very good creative restaurant)
*Grano (upscale trattoria near the Pantheon)
'Gusto (hate it, but it's the 800-pound gorilla of off-hours eating)
Le Jardin du Russie (never been)
Mamma Angelina (Quartiere Africano) (never been)
*Montevecchio (adorable, near via dei Coronari)
*Il Sanlorenzo (stylish seafood place in via dei Chiavari)
*Tram Tram (San Lorenzo, chaotic but yummy)
*Vecchia Roma (P. Campitelli, beautiful, food is uneven)

Maine poet Duff Plunkett has given me permission to publish some of his work here. Please don't reproduce it without asking first.

Love Chowder

Let us praise one fine chowder
Thick with fish in the drink of a broad bowl
We couldn't think praise any louder
Big spoons clink bottom catching it all

Thick with praise sung by all in the bar
It must take days to stir and to taste
She grills the fish first swum from so far
Amid such thirst not a drop is to waste

One day the right recipe wowed her
Stirred the appetite all down the coast
No ordinary soup just milky love chowder
Sing if you must thick enough to boast

—Duff Plunkett

I'm working on a nice list of books by my friends, with links.