Family Dinner at Sarafinos

My visit home to Pittsburgh has now flashed before my eyes.  Don't you worry, I have 700 photos and 8 new pounds to remember it by.  The first meal of the trip was a family dinner at Sarafino's to celebrate the birthdays of 2 of my cousins: 7 year old Spencer and 39 year old Eric.  Sarafino's is an adorable little Italian restaurant that is home to delicious food and allows visitors to BYOB.  Pittsburgh is filled with great Italian restaurants and Sarafino's is one of my favorites, especially because I used to sneak glasses of wine there before I was 21!

Our reservation was for 19 people and we took up half of the dining room!  Our family completely overtook the restaurant and it was absolutely wonderful to be around each other, all talking at once and eating together.  We enjoyed everything you'd expect at such a restaurant:

Bruschetta with goat cheese - very yummy!

Standard bruschetta.  Both types were delicious, despite being served on incredibly rock-hard toast.

Pizza.  This was a small pepperoni, clearly!

Here, the kids eyeing up their half-olive pizza!  Left to right are Cooper (5), Spencer (7 and one of the birthday boys), Morgan (9), and Mackenzie (7).  The only missing child is Marissa, my Goddaughter, who was clung to me all night!  She was probably right next to me as I took this photo.  (Don't let me convince you that I didn't love every second of the attention from her!)



Pasta, of course!  This one is chicken diabolo, I believe.  It was literally the hottest day of the year and the poor souls who ate this dish were even warmer than the rest of us sweaty monsters.

Here's my pasta dish - ravioli with spinach and sun dried tomatoes in pesto sauce.  It was awesome!  I'll add pesto to my list of things to make :)

Another pasta dish with chicken and a large pile of parmesan cheese.

Sandwiches - this is "Duck's Italian" which includes cappocollo, salami, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and roasted red peppers.  It's drizzled with Sarafino's dressing, topped with provolone cheese, and served with pasta salad.  Very colorful!

We brought our own birthday cake, which happened to be a cupcake cake in the shape of a fish!  Birthday boys Spencer and Eric (wearing a lei that I brought him from Hawaii) seemed thrilled to blow out the pretend candles.

I was so busy chatting that I never got a cupcake, but everyone else loved them.  Especially Kenzie, who clearly ate a blue one!

We braved the heat outside for a few quick pictures.  Here are 4 out of 5 cousins of the former kid's table: Amy, Eric, Me, and Dana.

Here I am with the 5 current kids table cousins: Spencer, Cooper, Morgan, Rissa, and Kenzie.

It was a great night and a perfect way to begin my vacation - eating Italian food with my Italian family.  Mangia, mangia!