Bravo! is a large regional chain of Italian restaurants which, like a number of other chains, have latched onto the dirty little secret of Italian food: if you have good recipes and are willing to diversify the menu beyond spaghetti and meatballs, you can create a restaurant that most Americans will find indistinguishable from the gourmet Italian places. They don't give you the top twenty percent that the best Italian restaurants do, and it's a far cry for the food served in Italy. And it's good enough that not even a gourmet would leave the place mad.
Bravo! began with a single restaurant in Columbus, Ohio, and spread several dozen restaurants through the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states. It came the New Orleans by a family connection: Alton Doody, entrepreneur and Carnival royalty, opened the first of two on St. Charles Avenue. It closed after the hurricane, but the second location in Metairie survives. There's another New Orleans connection, according to the company's website: "Chris [Doody, who started Bravo! with his brother Rick] attended Tulane University in New Orleans to learn how to cook."
The interior design creates an interesting, faux ruins-of-the-Roman-Empire scene, spacious and comfortable.
Come here for pasta, pizza, and salads are the best dishes. If you want to concentrate on meats or seafood, there are many better restaurants in the neighborhood. If you have been to Italy, fuggeddaboutit.
| Attitude | 2 |
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| Environment | 1 |
| Hipness | 0 |
| Local Color | 0 |
| Service | 2 |
| Value | 1 |
| Wine | 0 |
