The Romeos met again for lunch today, 12 noon, Tuesday, 12-21-10 at Rocco’s Restaurant in Wilmington, MA. You can see the web site and menu at the link…..Go to www.roccosma.com for more information.
Everyone arrived on time and we were seated in the solarium which is a glassed in greenhouse on the lower level with seating for about 60 people. Upstairs there are booths and tables for smaller parties. In addition, there is a horseshoe shaped bar with seating for 30 people.
The Restaurant just celebrated its 70th year in Wilmington and was started by Rocco DePasquale and now run by the two sons, Chucky and Mattie. It has been a favorite family place for generations and serves excellent food including seafood, steak and especially Italian.
As soon as we were seated, the waitress took our drink orders and passed out menus. The ten Romeos present were: Jim Terlizzi, Joe Lapiana, Joe Loduca, Peter Gabriel, Steve Winter, Brother Tim Paul, Jack Tweedie, Joe Pignatiello, Ed DeSchuytner and Mark Ryan.
The waitress quickly brought drinks which consisted of apple martinis, beer on tap, and sodas. It is hard to choose from such a large menu with choices ranging from sandwiches, to pizza, to lunch specials and full course meals. I started off my order with a Shrimp Scampi in white sauce with Angel Hair Pasta and house salad. Others ordered the Clam Plate (Large Bellies), Turkey Tips with side of pasta, Meatball Sub and Veal Cacciatore. In addition there were Caesar and house salads and refills on the drink orders.
When the food came, it was super size and delicious. The red sauce on the pasta was excellent and the white sauce had just the right amount of oil and garlic. I said they add just enough sugar to the red sauce to take out the sometimes bitter tomato taste. Jim and Joe Lap, then had a discussion on which was better (sugar or no sugar) in “real” Italian sauce.
During and after dinner the conversation bounced around on a variety of topics from the current news. Ed said the “Toys for Tots Theft” recently on the news had a good turnout of new givers. Toys-R-Us donated 50 thousand dollars in toys and private donors gave money and toys. There were enough gifts for this year and next.
Ed, Joe Lap, Jim and Mark talked about the IPOD Touch and all the things that it can do with all its APPS. It’s like a Magic Box. After, Mark showed his IPOD last month, the rest bought their own as a Christmas present. It’s like a pocket size mini computer. You can use it as a Web Phone with Text Messaging, email, surf the net, get the news, get GPS, Address and Phone Book, Date Calendar, Music, Photos, Camera, Radio, eReader (Books and Newspapers), and play games. I find a new APP every day that you can download from the Apple (ITUNES) store. Most are free and others start at $0.99.
Joe Lap. recently returned from a trip to Germany. He took a boat excursion down the Rhine River and was treated like a king. Because of the large amount of snow in Europe, the rivers were running very high and the last part of the trip was rerouted by bus because the boats couldn’t get under the bridges with high rivers. To make up for the inconvenience, the passengers were given a $500 allowance on their next cruise.
Brother Tim talked about flying in the winter weather. The air is much clearer with greater visibility. Joe Lap. asked how often he could fly. Brother Tim said that to keep his license current he had to do 3 landings a take offs per month.
Joe Loduca then told a few jokes to keep us all laughing. Ed D. then said he heard a joke in church told by his priest. After a brain freeze he remembered the punch lines. …. “Three men waited at the Pearly Gates and were told that they had to take something out of their pockets that was about Christmas. The first man took out some keys and shook them like Jingle Bells. The second man took out a cigarette lighter and said that the flame was the Light of Christmas. The third man pulled out a pair of women’s panties and said these are Carole's”.
We then ordered coffee and a few desserts with plenty of spoons to share. Mark then handed out “Photo Christmas Cards” with a collage of photos of 14 Romeos. Pictured were all the 14 Romeos that attended the lunches this passed year. The card also read – “Season’s Greetings” – The Romeo Gang.
You can see some photos of the group at the link below……
http://picasaweb.google.com/markryan312/RomeLunch122110#
Suggestions and Comments Welcome…. markryan82@comcast.net
