West View's Bella Ria's cooks up a 'melting pot' of care, taste

Bella Ria's Restaurant & Catering in West View may sound like a very Italian eatery, but you'd be surprised at the range of food you can find there.

The small, family-owned restaurant, which seats 32, offers pizza on its menu, along with some pastas. But it also serves a wide range of breakfast foods, burgers, salads, crab cakes and other seafood, calzones and more.

“We do a melting pot of things,” says Rich Bagnato of Ross. He and his wife, Kelly, own the restaurant that will celebrate its ninth anniversary in May. They chose the Bella Ria's name because of their adult daughter, Maria, whose brothers called her “Ria.”

Customers don't seem to have a favorite time of day for Bella Ria's, Bagnato says. Some days, the biggest crowds come for breakfast — and other days, lunch or dinner are the most crowded times. Chef Eric Bagnato and the kitchen staff also make food for catering events like business functions and weddings.

Breakfast fans can come to the eatery in the morning and get breakfast food until 2 p.m. Breakfast favorites include the corned beef hash ($7.99) and roast beef hash ($7.50), which feature homemade hash along with eggs, toast and other ingredients. Bella Ria's makes many omelets ($5.99 to $7.50), including a Greek one with gyro meat, fresh spinach and tomato and feta cheese; an Italian omelet with fresh banana peppers, tomato, onions, Italian sausage and Italian cheeses; a cheese omelet and veggie-loaded vegetable omelet; and a Western omelet with ham, onions, peppers and cheddar cheese. Bella Ria's also makes blueberry, buttermilk or chocolate-chip pancakes ($5.99 to $7.99), Belgium waffles ($6.99) and more.

For lunch and dinner, customers love Bella Ria's five burgers ($5.50 to $10.99), including the hefty Royale with Cheese, which includes a half bound of beef, along with bacon, crispy onions, American cheese, Thousand Island dressing, lettuce and tomato on a sesame kaiser roll.

Bella Ria's pizzas also are popular, and come in six cuts ($5.99), eight cuts ($8.99) and 12 cuts ($10.99). White pizzas are $7.99, $10.99 and $12.99. Along with common pizza toppings, Bella Ria's offers specialty pizzas, the most popular of which are shrimp with goat cheese ($13.99 to $18.99), and chicken fajita ($10.99 and $15.99). Vegetarians have several options for meat-free meals at all times of the day.

You can either eat at Bella Ria's, which has an eyecatching green-and-white awning outside, or take the food to go. The restaurant has a steady clientele from people who live nearby, but also gets people that live many miles away, such as in the South Hills. Some people come three or four times a week, says Bagnato, who makes some changes to the menu twice a year.

What do people like about Bella Ria's food? “It's homemade; the care in making it,” he says.

Bella Ria's Restaurant & Catering, 5336 U.S. Route 19, West View, is open 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays, 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, and 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturdays. Details: 412-939-3610 or www.bellarias.com

Kellie B. Gormly is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at kgormly@tribweb.com or 412-320-7824