Cucina! Presto! offers Italian eats at cheap prices
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Student Activities Reporter
It’s 1:30 p.m., and you’re on the comer of 13th
Avenue and Kincaid Street with your stomach
grumbling. Where do you eat? Is your stomach
saying sub sandwich, crepe, Chinese food, pizza
or bagel sandwich? But your stomach probably
also says that those sound like the last three
years of University eats.
It seems as if students spend half their time
searching for some new taste, something tanta
lizing to their taste buds or pleasing to their
palates. Then, over spring break, presto! Like
magic, Starbucks and Cucina! Presto! appear in
the night to take their place on the comer of
Alder Street and 13th Avenue.
A little variety never hint any student looking
for a quick bite on the go. Cucina! Presto! may
not replace your Italian mother’s cooking or take
you back to that summer vacation in Italy, but it
does promise to bring students a hot plate of pas
ta and a bread stick to boot in less than five min
utes.
Cucina! Presto!, translated as "quick kitchen,”
promises quality with a quickness, according to
general manager Julie Baliva. She has owned
and run restaurants all over the United States
and has managed Cucina! Presto! and Cafe
stores for over two years.
"There’s too much repetition around college
campuses,” she said. “People don’t always want
to eat at tacotteii.
Unique aspects of Cucina’s menu include
goat cheese and artichoke pizza with pesto and
pine nuts and imported Italian lager. The Italian
sandwiches range from meatball and Italian
sausage to paninos — a form of Italian flat bread
wrapped around chicken, veggies or pepperoni
and cheese pesto. The prices range from $3.79
for a meatball sandwich to $5.99 for a plate of
spaghetti puttanesca with rock shrimp, olives,
capers and artichoke hearts.
Most of the pasta dishes are spiced up with
special additions such as sauteed peppers, sun
dried tomatoes, ricotta and bolognese, depend
ing on your preference. But I can vouch that
Cucina’s does have identifiable vegetables in the
fettucine with roasted eggplant, carrots, mush
rooms, tomatoes and broccoli. Cucina also roasts
their garlic to make garlic oil.
The wood-fired 9 inch pizzas include vari
eties such as: basic cheese, veggie, BBQ chick
en, pepperoni, sausage and mushroom, and the
illustrious goat cheese and artichoke pizza with
pesto and pine nuts. The Eugene store uses oak
to fire up the dough because wood-fired pizzas
have more flavor, Balvia explained.
I have heard from other students that Cucina
gets kudos for their minestrone soup, which has
awesome croutons that soak all the stuff up.
Salads include Caesar, chicken Caesar, Asian
chicken salad, mixed greens and the famous
chopped salad. The chopped salad includes
chicken, salami, lettuce, tomatoes, basil, garban
zo beans, scallions, provolone, mozzarella and
vinaigrette.
For those watching their weight, the menu
boasts some items with less than 30 percent of
calories from fat. The pizzas can be made with
low-fat mozzarella and the salads can be
drenched in fat-free Caesar dressing.
The best deals for a meager college wage are
the presto combos. For $5 to $6, a student can
purchase a pepperoni, sausage and mushroom
pizza and salad; an Italian sausage sandwich and
salad; penne with bolognese meat sauce and a
side caesar Salad; or minestrone soup and a side
of chopped salad with a bread stick.
For those looking to feed the masses, family
meal choices are available. The $10 to $14 meals
serve two to three people, and the $19 to $27
meals feed four or five.
Cucina! Presto! is open Monday through Sat
urday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and on Sundays
from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Live local music is fea
tured on Saturday around 8 p.m.
We’re talking food, folks — something differ
ent when the noon hour strikes. Students will
need to eat every day, and sometimes a plate of
pasta with some goat cheese and chicken might
hit the spot. Cucina! Presto! is just another stop
on the way to class, or maybe even all excuse not
to go at all.
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