You might be asking yourself, what in the heck is Mr. Thrifty doing talking about a restaurant?  That has nothing to do with saving money.  The answer is simple: Mr. Thrifty is all about making the most of his time and money.  Part of doing that is sharing advice on how to save money- the other is how to get the most out of it.  The other night Mr. Thrift had a great experience at Buca di Beppo and wants to share his ideas with others.

For those of you who have never heard of Buca di Beppo, it is a chain restaurant with locations all over the United States.  While Mr. Thrifty is generally not a fan of chain restaurants (e.g. Ruby Tuesday or TGIF—yuck!), Buca di Beppo is an exception.  Buca di Beppo bills itself as “specializes in Immigrant Southern Italian Food, served family style” and it lives up to its reputation.

Here are some tips to get the most out of your Buca di Beppo experience:

1) Plan on going with a party of 4-8 people (Mr. Thrifty recommends a party of 6 or 8).  Buca di Beppo is definitely not a place to go for a first date, as it can be loud and rowdy, yet friendly place (more on first date couples in a minute).  If you are planning on going to Buca di Beppo grab a group of your rowdy friends- your experience will be more fun!

2) Get Buca di Beppo gift cards ahead of time from Discover Card.  Are you a Discover Card member?  If not, you should be.  Not only is Discover Card the only credit card that is accepted at Sam’s Club, but you can parlay your cash back bonus into 25% more dollars at Buca di Beppo.  Simply log on to Discover Card and hunt down the Buca di Beppo offer to get a $25 gift card for $20 (you can order several of these).

3) Reserve the “Kitchen Table” at Buca di Beppo.  Mr. Thrifty is not totally sure on this one, but he thinks that all of the Buca di Beppo restaurants have a special table that is literally located in the kitchen.  It is a blast to sit there!  Not only do you get to see all of the action going on in the Buca di Beppo kitchen, but almost every group being seated in the restaurant will be paraded by you on the way to their table.  Call your local Buca di Beppo (or go online) and specifically reserve this table as it is only available for reservation.  Note: in order to get this table you will most likely have to call Buca di Beppo a couple of days ahead of time.  A must do!

4) Be rowdy (but nice).  Mr. Thrifty went to Buca di Beppo a little while ago and had a great group of friends with him: Mr. and Mrs. Marine, Mr. and Mrs. Almost-Engaged, and Mr. and Ms. Been-Dating-for-Awhile.  Mr. Marine set the tone for the evening by applauding and whooping for every group of people that were paraded by our table (he attended Texas A&M University so this is normal behavior).  After awhile, the entire table was hollering and applauding for each group (in a friendly way)- even Mrs. School Teacher.  Then our table started to yell food recommendations to the new groups being lead through the kitchen.  We shouted things such as “Try the spicy meatballs!” (in an Italian accent!).  Additionally, every time a couple walked by (especially the ones that looked like were on dates), our Buca di Beppo table would yell out to them “Good luck.  Go get her!”

5) Have fun and be nice to the wait staff.  In addition to being rowdy, our group got our waiter and kitchen folks into our cheering.  Not only did we have a good time with them, but we must have made a favorable impression on the restaurant manager.  Later on in our meal we were comp'ed some wonderful Buca di Beppo food and dessert (probably for all of the food recommendations that we made).

6) Order a variety of entrees.  As stated earlier, the food at Buca di Beppo is served family style.  Basically that means you order a couple of entrees and share with everyone.  Note that the entrees are HUGE (our table ordered 3-4).  Our group found all of the food we ordered to be wonderful!  Of special note were the: 1893 Salad, Chicken Parmesan, and twice-baked ravioli.  Yum! Great stuff!  Oh, also, if you have room for dessert, try the strawberry shortcake and the chocolate cake.

Overall our bill came to about $30 per person (including adult beverages, tip, etc.).  Not exactly a cheap meal, but all of us had a great time and really enjoyed the food at Buca di Beppo.  The next time you are looking for a fun restaurant in which to go, try Buca di Beppo.  You will not be disappointed!