Eats Beat: La Piazza for a nice price-a

When La Piazza Ristorante opened nearly 25 years ago, owner Vito Ciraci described his Italian cooking.

“It’s not ‘southern Italian’ or ‘northern Italian,’ ” he said then.

“It’s Italian Italian.”

Nearly a quarter-century later, Fort Worth still loves Italian Italian, and La Piazza is serving $25 specials Monday nights to celebrate.

It’s part of the buildup toward a 25th-anniversary celebration in late February.

“We want our customers to join in,” Ciraci said.

“They’ve stayed with us in three locations. Our customers are so good to us. And we’re starting to see the younger generation.”

From the original location on West Seventh Street, then through moves to University Park Village and now to Bledsoe Street (near the West 7th shops), La Piazza’s diners are not only loyal but portable.

Yet no matter the location, La Piazza is about tradition, and family, and memories. The choices of seven pasta dishes, veal, chicken, steak or seafood never goes out of style.

The Monday special is a three-course dinner featuring an entree such as veal Parmigiana, chicken meatballs in marinara, rigatoni al forno or (this past Monday) chicken cacciatore with a salad and chocolate flan.

One important point: La Piazza’s website notes the “strict dress code.”

No T-shirts, neat jeans only with a dress shirt, etc., etc. Basically, dress for a nice restaurant.

La Piazza opens at 5:30 p.m. weeknights and Saturdays; 2930 Bledsoe St., 817-334-0000, lapiazzafw.com.

Croissant craze

The Black Rooster Bakery, a genuine artisan bake shop in south Fort Worth, is premiering a new fall menu this week and offering $1 croissants through Thursday.

The croissants come with a variety of fillings including chocolate, bacon and cheddar. The new menu also includes turkey-cranberry-goat cheese and almond-pear, along with a maple-pecan Danish.

The Rooster is open at 7 a.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 8 a.m. Saturdays; 2430 Forest Park Blvd., 817-924-1600, facebook.com/roosterbakery.

Joe T.’s equals ‘comfort’

Texas Highways’ new “Comfort Food” issue didn’t comfort Dallas-Fort Worth very much.

All the great comfort food is somewhere else, except Joe T. Garcia’s Mexican Dishes and El Rancho Grande in Fort Worth (No. 1 and No. 3, respectively, in the Tex-Mex category) and Mary’s Cafe in Strawn and Po’ Melvin’s in Irving (No. 1 and No. 4, respectively, in chicken-fried steak).

We didn’t register with Texas Highways readers for barbecue, burgers or seafood either. The magazine’s “best pies” list is due Wednesday at texashighways.com.

This story was originally published October 20, 2015 at 10:24 AM.