Bella Venezia: No es para nostros.

From time to time through the years, Plotnik toyed with having his own restaurant. He got scared off by zillions of factors...for example, Chiefie worked for the last twenty years of his life for an organization of retired business people who advised perspective new business owners. 80% of the people who came in with new ideas for a new business wanted to open restaurants. A good 90% of them went broke within a year.

But what always scared Plotnik the most, was the above picture --- you're there at 6am making all your sauces and getting everything ready, and then you open for dinner and...nobody comes. Ducknik and Plotnik went to Bella Venezia on Mission Street, which had been recommended highly, and they were literally the only people eating in a 100+ seat restaurant, on a Saturday night. Very scary.

The food is not very good, either. An Italian restaurant in a Latino neighborhood where the waiters, the cooks and the few people who eventually straggled in off the street, all spoke Spanish to each other. The food tasted like Italian food the way the owners figure Mexican people want to eat it. The only thing missing was sour cream and chips.

Too bad. Prices are inexpensive and there would be plenty to try on the menu. But the Plotniks aren't going back.