Tasty pasta by the pound satisfies at Falsetti's Villa Restaurant
Background
At first, Falsetti's Villa Restaurant, opened 40 years ago, served as a new opportunity for John Falsetti, who at 41 lost his job in the machine shop at PPG in Ford City. But, he had a knack for cooking, something he realized while preparing meals for the local Latin American Club.
Falsetti, with the help of his mother, and later his siblings, began a humble operation that became a hot spot for the area's coal miners and other hungry workers.
"We've always had a lot of people, and it's just continued on from there," Falsetti says.
The original menu included less than a dozen Italian food staples, but with his mother's homemade red sauce on many of the items, the dishes became hits.
"It isn't just tomato; there are a lot of ingredients in that sauce," said Falsetti, who declined to give away the secret additions.
In 1988, Falsetti bought out his siblings, and his son, Lou, and daughter, Rose, joined the operation as co-owners. Together, the trio have spent the past two decades maintaining the Villa's reputation as a quaint, oft-recommended eatery just outside of Ford City.
Atmosphere
Odes to Italy are hidden throughout the dining room -- small ceramic busts here and there, a map of the country on placemats, a few signs that indicate the distance (in kilometers) to Italian cities. But the Villa's greatest recognition of Italy's culture is its encouragement of a large, familial setting.
With their booths and tables placed relatively close together, patrons share the Villa experience rather than exist on their own dining islands. They see their neighbor's heaping portions of pasta and smell the fresh garlic.
Rose Falsetti describes the Villa as "relaxed" and "cozy."
"When people are eating here, they're not only eating here, they're having a good time, too," Lou Falsetti says. "We have a lot of big groups."
Menu
The Falsettis take great pride in serving their pasta -- and pretty much anything else on the menu -- in pounds rather than ounces.
"I think that's part of the appeal, because just talking to customers, so many people say, 'Well, we have our food for today, and we have tomorrow's lunch,' " Lou Falsetti says. "If they didn't have tomorrow's lunch, they might be a little disappointed."
Portions are extremely generous at the Villa, and options are plentiful. The menu, once short enough to list on a single sheet of paper, now features several dozen dishes, including appetizers, salads, pasta, steak, seafood, chicken and dessert.
The breaded zucchini comes in small and large portions. The large portion ($4.50) included almost a dozen slices -- certainly more than the eight promised by the server -- and each piece had an excellent balance of crispy breading and soft-but-not-soggy zucchini.
An order of brushetta ($3) included four thick pieces of Italian bread topped with sweet chunks of tomato and onion.
For fans of leafy fare, a pecan-crusted chicken salad ($9.95) is a popular choice. And an Italian antipasto dish is available for $9.
But the famous red-sauce pasta dishes are what draw the masses. The sauce's consistency -- not very chunky and not very oily -- and subtle, sweet flavor will satisfy almost any palate. And a heaping amount of the sauce comes on an even more impressive mound of pasta.
The Italian platter ($16.75), tabbed by Rose Falsetti as one of the restaurant's signature items, included spaghetti, lasagna, rigatoni, ravioli and a meatball on one plate.
The arrival of the spaghetti with meat sauce ($11.75) led one patron to say, "That could feed a whole family."
An order of shrimp linguini ($14.25) included a mild garlic-butter sauce and more than 10 pieces of shrimp.
Stuffed flounder ($13) came with broccoli, cheese and lobster on the inside and a sizable side of spaghetti, just for good measure.
Dessert, though difficult to finish after such large entrees, included a pecan ball ($4) with fudge that, even split in half, completely filled two bowls.
Rose Falsetti says the Villa actually gets relatively few dessert orders because so many people are full already. And that's fine with her.
"I think it's just a tradition with our portions and our quality," she says, "and we want to keep that tradition."
Additional Information:
Falsetti's Villa Restaurant
Cuisine: Italian
Hours: 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays and Sundays; 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays
Entree price range: $11.75-$33.50
Notes: No credit cards accepted, but on-site ATM available. Reservations available. Take-out orders available.
Address: 1563 Ford City Road, Cadogan
Details: 866-883-1267
