Crowds flock to Sons for Italian food

By Kevin Coffey
Assistant Editor, the Creightonian Online

Extracted from the abovementioned document by Dan Shelby, OSIA Recording Secretary

If you have $6 and some free time on a Thursday, you also have the opportunity to drown yourself in a veritable flood of pasta and red sauce.

Every Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. you can visit the Order of Sons of Italy in America Hall at 1238 S. 10th St. Sons of Italy is an organization for men and women of Italian descent and the local chapter serves pasta every Thursday for lunch.

Creighton students, faculty and staff can always be seen at Sons of Italy stuffing their faces, but so can other people like Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey, and various other public figures. You might end up sitting next to one of them, as all of the long tables are in a few large rooms where everyone sits next to everyone else.

Before the November 2004 elections, various politicians campaigned inside and out of the hall because of the large number of people who go through. Expect to see similar campaigning for the upcoming city elections.

The large hall attracts everyone from mechanics to business people and the same familiar faces can be seen each week.

Most people stop by for their lunch break eat fast and head back to work. Others stay and eat as much as possible.

The modest fee of $6 will get you a mountain of pasta and sauce topped with sausage or meatballs that requires serious stomach capacity to take down. Besides the main course, you also receive two slices of bread and a salad.
The menu alternates each week from mostaccioli to spaghetti, and between meatballs and Italian sausage as a topping. Extra meatballs or sausage are only $1, but an extra plate or two of pasta is on the house if you can finish the first one. And you get to cut in line.

The sauce is of the red variety and has a spicy kick to it. Suggestion: After you eat all of the pasta, use your bread to sop up the sauce.

The sausage also is somewhat spicy, and the meatballs are delicious and moist. Salad and bread are tasty additions to the meal.

If you get thirsty, saunter over to the bar, where you can get whatever you want to drink. Choices include different wines, beers and sodas.

All of the food is made in-house by lodge members, who can be seen cooking the pasta and sauce in huge, stainless steel vats on top of stoves lined up along one wall in the kitchen.
If you cannot spare the time to go inside and sit for a while, there is a takeout entrance on the east side of the building where you can get everything to go.

Some people order as many as 30 or 40 dinners to take back to work. Takeout portions are on the plentiful side, which just leaves more for later.

You can become a member of Sons of Italy if you go to their Web site: www.osia.org. Members receive Italian American magazine, among other benefits.

So, next Thursday, head down to the hall, grab some food and get some sauce all over yourself. Just remember to wear a red shirt, because that sauce tends to stain.