I'm a chicken

My French Laundry post is very intimidating to me (just like the actual French Laundry itself). There were 12 courses of food! 12! How can I do justice to Thomas Keller if I rush it? I can't. Weak justification, thy name is Lena.

You know what's not intimidating? The Old Spaghetti Factory. It's so non-threatening that my dad was able to bring all of his weird screaming children there for years and years without fear of being glared at by other diners (because they all had weird screaming children as well). Plus, as an added bonus, it is quite the deal. My family went there for literally every birthday, graduation or any major event of our collective childhoods. There was a location right in Oakland near Jack London Square. If you brought a movie stub from the Jack London Cinema, you got an Italian soda in a collectible glass for free! Now you have to pay for them - but we got some anyways. You still get to keep the glass.


There is no more Old Spaghetti Factory in Oakland anymore, so we drove out to Concord, CA instead. We lived it up like it was 1990, eating our favorite meals of spaghetti with mizithra cheese and/or marinara.


They have whole wheat and gluten free pasta options now. I appreciate it greatly.

With your meal, you are entitled to bread, garlic butter, salad, a main spaghetti dish, milk, tea or coffee and spumoni ice cream. In 1990 it cost about $2.95, now it'll set you back about 7 bucks a person. But still! A steal. Plus, look at the snazzy decor.


It's like you're in an old time trolley car. With crazy lighting. And my mom. Plus, they have a fabulous new addition to the menu - broccoli with mizithra cheese.


I don't really know what mizithra cheese it. It's salty and yummy and I've never seen it anywhere else. My siblings really dig it. They also dig the ice cream.


Who doesn't like spumoni? It's all sorts of funny colors.


Actually, my dad doesn't like it that much. But it never stopped us from going there. Until we grew up and stopped embarrassing my dad in restaurants. Then he figured that he could take us nicer places. Or I could cook for them. Either way.....