Road Tips

Port Cape Girardeau Restaurant and Lounge - Cape Girardeau, MO

On our trip between Memphis and St. Louis a few weeks ago, we had contemplated staying the night in Cape Girardeau having a nice dinner for an anniversary we were having and then heading back to Iowa the next morning. However, we found that many of the nice "fine dining" restaurants in the town were out of business.  We decided to head up to St. Louis for the evening.  But it wasn't before we stopped at a place in downtown Cape Girardeau for lunch - Port Cape Girardeau Restaurant and Lounge.  

Port Cape, as it's known to the locals, celebrated their 40th anniversary this year.  The building that houses the restaurant dates back to the 1830's making it one of the oldest buildings still standing west of the Mississippi.  Gen. Ulysses S. Grant used the building as an office during the Civil War.  During Prohibition, it housed a bootlegging operation and was basically abandoned in the early 60's.  

Missouri native David Knight came back to his home state after graduating college in Arkansas and teaching at a college in Alabama.  Upset that the old structure was sitting empty for so long and in such a state of disrepair, Knight bought the building along the riverfront in Cape Girardeau with the idea of putting in a restaurant with an emphasis on barbecue.  Along with his sister and brother-in-law who went in on the venture with him, Port Cape opened in 1974.  

Knight grew up in Poplar Bluff and one of his best friends, Dale Pruitt, worked in the Pruitt family's barbecue place.  When Knight opened his place in Cape Girardeau, he asked Pruitt to come to work for him at his new restaurant.  Pruitt eventually worked at Port Cape for 38 years - becoming the honorary mayor of Water Street - before he passed away in 2012.  

Dave Knight and his brother built a large brick barbecue pit in the restaurant.  He was able to control the temperature by opening or closing a damper in the flue.  The problem was that the flue went three stories up and there were times when the fire would flare up and cause problems.  After the third time the fire department had to come and douse the fire in the pit, Knight decided that he had to build a better smoker. Out of that came another company that grew into one of the most popular commercial grade smokers on the market today - Ole Hickory Pits wood burning smokers.  

With the success of Ole Hickory Pits, Knight decided to sell Port Cape to someone who could spend more time running the business.  In 1988, Dennis "Doc" Cain bought the restaurant and bar.  Cain's son, James, had a degree in culinary arts and had moved back to Cape Girardeau to run two fine dining restaurants - both of which sadly failed soon after they opened.  In 2012, James Cain joined his father in Port Cape as the head chef.  Earlier this year, the Cain's opened CQ (the Captain's Quarters) in what was the banquet facility of the building.  It features more of an upscale menu than what is offered at Port Cape.  As I said, Cape Girardeau used to have some fine dining restaurants in the 80's and 90's when I first began to travel there for work.  But they're all closed up.  I'm hoping that the old "third time's a charm" works for James Cain with CQ.  

We found a parking spot on Water Street in front of Port Cape (see map) and walked into the first door we found.  It turned out that we had walked into the lounge area of the restaurant.  

The bar, itself, wasn't large, but had a nice back bar filled with liquor.  The lounge had a nautical theme including a large ship's wheel on the wall.  It was just a bartender and a man sitting at the bar and I asked if this was where we could get something to eat.  The bartender pointed us down a hallway toward the dining room.

We went down the hall, past a number of articles on Port Cape that were hanging on the wall, and found the dining room to the place.  There were only a couple other people in the dining area so the server who greeted us said we pretty much had our choice of where we wanted to sit.   

The dining room was spacious and featured long rows of tables with sturdy wooden chairs.  Antique fixtures and artifacts were hung on the wall or sitting on shelves.  The original brick walls dating back to the mid 19th century gave the room an old time feel.  

Along the south side of the dining room was what amounted to an ice cream parlor.  Rows of ice cream in tubs were in the glass enclosed counter.  We were told that the ice cream part of Port Cape is a popular place in the evening.  

Our server dropped off menus for us and I immediately ordered a Deschutes Inversion IPA.  My initial reaction was that I was impressed that the place had a good beer like Deschutes (out of Oregon) available on tap.  

The menu was slanted toward barbecue, but they also had a number of appetizers and salads, as well as burgers and sandwiches.  Dinner entrees included a charbroiled filet steak, fried catfish, grilled salmon and a smoked rib-eye steak that actually sounded sort of intriguing.  

After thinking about getting a burger, I ended up getting the brisket and pimento cheese sandwich.  It was served on toasted Texas toast and came with an ample side of what they called steak fries, but were nothing more than hand-cut fries.  A small amount of a smokey and sweet barbecue sauce came with the sandwich.  

The sandwich was filled with thin cuts of the smoked brisket and topped with pimento cheese.  Quite actually, the brisket was very good and the combination of the taste of the pimento cheese with the brisket was a great combination.  The fries were basically a throwaway for me.  It was like they had been made a half hour earlier and put into a warming bin.  But the sandwich - especially the brisket - was very good.

Cindy ended up getting the Gala apple salad with marinated grilled chicken.   The salad featured sliced Gala apples with chopped walnuts and shaved red onions on a bed of spinach and topped with chunks of gorgonzola cheese and a citrus vinaigrette.  Cindy's been on some spinach kick recently, trying to eat better or something like that, and as soon as she saw the spinach salad with the Gala apples she went for that.  She said she was very happy with her choice, but she was having a tough time finishing the salad. 

My dealer in Cape Girardeau just semi-retired and closed his doors after over 30 years in business so I probably won't be getting back to "Cape" anytime soon.  But if I do, I think I'd like to come back to Port Cape and give the barbecue a try.  With what I experienced with the brisket and pimento cheese sandwich, I'm somewhat intrigued by what else they may have in terms of barbecue.  Port Cape was a nice little stop for a late lunch and we were both happy with what we got.  

Bagger Dave's - Cape Girardeau, MO

While on a trip to Cape Girardeau, MO to see a dealer earlier this spring, I was looking for a quick place to get a burger and a beer after the meeting.  I found someplace that looked interesting called Bagger Dave's Legendary Burger Tavern on William St. (see map).  I was sort of intrigued by the name of the place, especially with the word "legendary" in it.  I pulled into the Cape Girardeau Town Plaza shopping center and parked in front of Bagger Dave's.

I knew nothing - zero, zip, nada - about Bagger Dave's before I walked into the place.  I was sort of hoping that it was a locally owned restaurant since I'd never seen or even heard of Bagger Dave's before.  Well, I found out later on that it is part of a chain of restaurants that began in Berkley, MI in 2006, but the Cape Girardeau location was the first non-company owned franchise in the Bagger Dave's universe.  

Bagger Dave's is owned and run by Diversified Restaurant Holdings, a corporation that also owns a number of Buffalo Wild Wings franchises throughout Michigan and Florida.  Michael Ansley had graduated from the University of Dayton and took a job with an adhesive and sealant company in Dayton.  After work, Ansley and friends from work would get together for beer and wings at a new place called BW-3 which stood for Buffalo Wild Wings and Weck.  Ansley got to know the three owners and it turned out they were all about the same age as he.  The three owners had gotten together to borrow money from family members to open the BW-3 franchise.  Suddenly, Ansley got the bug to open his own BW-3.

Ansley pestered a college roommate to join him as a partner and procured a loan from family members to open a BW-3 franchise in Ypsilanti, MI in 1995.  Three years later, Ansley was bought out by his partner and he used the money to open a Buffalo Wild Wings in Sterling, MI outside of Detroit.  That was the first of many Buffalo Wild Wings that Ansley opened in Southeast Michigan.  In 2002 when he convinced Buffalo Wild Wings corporate officers in Minneapolis to let him open the first full-service BW-3 complete with waitstaff and bartenders.  No longer did people have to wait in long lines to order chicken wings, burgers and beer. The concept was such a hit that the first full-service Buffalo Wild Wings in Novi, MI was the top grossing BW-3 from 2003 to 2006.  Today, I believe all the BW-3 locations are full service locations.  

In 2006, Ansley developed the concept for Bagger Dave's Legendary Burger Tavern as an "ultra-casual" burger joint that also featured a number of micro-brewed beers from around the Midwest.  The concept quickly grew with a number of locations throughout southeastern Michigan.  

In 2011, Diversified Restaurants Holdings gained approval to franchise Bagger Dave's restaurants in six more states in the Midwest.  Brothers-in-law Bill Zellmer and Lonnie Griggs operated six Buffalo Wild Wings franchises in southeast Missouri and southern Illinois and knew Ansley quite well.  They opened the first franchise of Bagger Dave's in the summer of 2012 in Cape Girardeau.  

 
I walked into the Bagger Dave's location in Cape Girardeau a little before 2 p.m. and the restaurant was nearly deserted after the lunch rush.  I took a seat in a booth along a short wall that divided the main dining area from the bar area of the restaurant.  There was an open kitchen area off to the front side of the restaurant.  A number of old reprints of pictures of Cape Girardeau from back in the early 20th century were on the walls throughout the place, many showing some of the Mississippi River floods that used to inundate the town before the flood wall was built.  On a shelf that ringed both the bar and dining areas was what looked to be a Lionel Standard "O" Gauge train set that ran along the wall.

A young lady by the name of Holly came over to greet me and to drop off a menu.  She asked me if I wanted anything to drink and I asked what kind of beer they had.  She pointed out the beer menu and I immediately found a Bell's Two Hearted pale ale.  I immediately ordered that.   

Bagger Dave's burgers are made from fresh and never frozen quality locally grown beef.  They feature six "legendary" burgers on the menu including the Train Wreck which had two ground beef patties topped with hand-cut fries, a fried egg, sharp cheddar cheese, sauteed onions and mushrooms, lettuce, and their version of Thousand Island dressing called Railhouse Burger Sauce, then served on a toasted sesame bun.  Ooo, that did sound like a train wreck.  

They also had the Kickin' Cheddar Burger that was topped with sharp cheddar, a horseradish sauce and all the garden variety veggies you normally put on a burger.  There was the the Blues Burger that was topped with blue cheese and Cajun spices; and something called the Ono Burger that was topped with sliced pineapple, Swiss cheese, BBQ sauce, jalapenos, applewood-smoked bacon, and sauteed onions.  Uh, no.  I was definitely going to pass on that one.

None of the legendary burgers sounded all that good to me.  I wanted to make my own burger up, but I couldn't figure out how to do that.  Suddenly in the lower right hand corner of the menu, I saw a little box that said, "Create Your Own Legend".  It gave instructions - select a burger, select a bun, select cheese, etc., etc.  I'm like, "OK, where in the hell are the choices for toppings, cheese and the other stuff?"  Then I saw at the bottom of the box in very small font, "See that sheet on the table?  Pick it up and start assembling."   I looked over and found a sheet that had 30 different types of toppings including bacon, fried egg, sauces, veggies and condiments, six different types of cheese to choose from, and three different buns.  I was going through the list when Holly came back with my beer and said, "Oh, good!  You found the little order sheets."  She gave me a few minutes while I checked off what I wanted on my burger with a small pencil they provided on the tables.

Man, all those decisions to put on a burger.  They had smoked gouda on the cheese list and it was either getting that or with the pepper jack cheese.  I had already figured out that I wanted the regular ketchup, yellow mustard, pickles, fresh chopped onions, sauteed mushrooms and applewood smoked bacon on the burger with a sesame seed bun, but I was torn on the cheese.  When Holly came back and I told her my predicament on the cheese, she said, "Order both!"  I almost did, but I opted for the smoked gouda instead.  She asked me if I wanted any of Bagger Dave's fresh-cut fries with Cajun seasoning or the sweet potato chips they're supposedly famous for.  Nope - just the burger was fine with me.

When the burger came out It was wrapped in wax paper with the Bagger Dave's logo all over and placed on a small round metal plate with high sides.  The standard burger I ordered featured two flat grilled, smashed (still trying to get used to having burgers like that) beef patties and then topped with the cheese, mushrooms and bacon, while sitting on the ketchup, mustard, pickles and chopped onions on a lightly toasted sesame seed bun.  

 
The taste of the burger was good - although I couldn't detect any of the smoked gouda with all the other taste sensations going on.  The burgers are normally cooked medium-well at Bagger Dave's.  When I saw that on the little order sheet I filled out, I had asked Holly if it was OK to get the burger cooked medium.  She cheerfully replied that would be no problem.  There was some juiciness to the burger and from what I could tell it wasn't overcooked.  The chopped onions were fresh, pungent and flavorful, reminding me of an old time grill cooked burger that I used to get growing up in small-town Iowa.  It was a good and filling burger.

I was impressed with Bagger Dave's - even after I found out it was a franchise chain restaurant.  The burger tasted good, the service was good from Holly, and the restaurant had a nice ambiance to the place.  I see that they've opened a couple locations in Indianapolis and that more locations are planned for Wisconsin and Illinois.  There's starting to be a lot of similarly-themed burger places like Bagger Dave's.  But with their concept of fresh burgers and eclectics beers, I think they'll be able to hold their own against the competition.   

(Update - I happened to be in Cape Girardeau the latter part of 2014 and found that Bagger Dave's had closed.  No word as to why, but some online reviews seemed to point that it had gone downhill pretty fast in terms of food quality and service.)

Broussard's Cajun Cuisine - Cape Girardeau, MO

Earlier this fall, I had to go to Cape Girardeau to do some training for the guys from Stereo One. I got in the evening before and I got hold of an old friend and former co-worker from years ago, Aaron, who works at Stereo One and wanted to see if he was up for getting some dinner and drinking some beer. He said he was and wanted to know where I wanted to go. I said, "Wow, man, I don't know.  This is your town." He said there was a great Cajun place in downtown Cape Girardeau by the name of Broussard's. I told him, "We're there!"

Broussard's Cajun Cuisine started in 1986 when Louisiana transplants Barron and Kathy Broussard moved to Cape Girardeau and opened up the restaurant in what was the site of the old Town Pump restaurant. Broussard also owned restaurants at one point up the road in St. Louis and out in Lodi, CA. Many of the foods that Broussard served in his restaurant in Cape Girardeau were from family recipes he garnered over the years.

The center piece of the restaurant was a tank with a live alligator in it. For years, Broussard's kept a small alligator in a fish tank for the customers to look at when they visited the place. I don't know what they did with the alligator after it got too big, but they do serve alligator dishes at Broussard's. The alligator had a name - Felix - and an alligator continues to be the prominent feature of Broussard's logo.

In 1991, Dennis Stockard took over the business and kept a lot of the touches Barron Broussard had put into the place. Dennis Stockard believed in a more professional approach, heavy upon customer appreciation. Broussard's began to gain a following throughout Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois. Many Cajun aficionados said the food at Broussard's was as authentic as any Southwest Louisiana bayou restaurant.

Dennis Stockard retired in 1997 and turned the business over to his son, Shawn. He kept a lot of the same elements of the restaurant his father ran, but marketed the bar toward more of a younger crowd, all the while maintaining the dining room for Cajun cuisine. For years, Broussard's has hosted a number of local bands to play in the place during the weekends.

In 2004, former employee Hunter Clark, and his wife, Stephanie, bought the business from Shawn Stockard. Clark, who had a background in the restaurant business with both Shoney's and Captain D's, worked as a supervisor for Dennis Stockard at Broussard's from 1992 to 1994. Clark had been driving a truck before he and his wife bought Broussard's, but wanted to get back into the restaurant business. They took over and other than a few cosmetic changes to the place, Broussard's is pretty much the same as it was 20 plus years ago. Many of the items on the menu are still true to Barron Broussard's family recipes, and now Broussard's has garnered a national food following with their great Cajun food.

At one point, Cape Girardeau had an outstanding upscale Cajun restaurant - the Royal N'Orleans, but it shut down a couple three years ago. I had been there on a couple occasions and it was certainly a treat to have some excellent Cajun and Creole food from that place. I hadn't been familiar with Broussard's Cajun Cuisine because during my limited travels to Cape Girardeau, I'd focused on wanting to go to Royal N'Orleans. I made my way downtown - past the darkened Royal N'Orleans - and found a parking place in a lot just north of Broussard's.

Broussard's is housed in an 1890's building that is part of the Cape Girardeau Commercial Historic District and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places a couple short blocks from the Mississippi River (see map). I met Aaron near the front of the building and we went in.

The main entrance into Broussard's takes you into a vintage 50's style bar area with a long bar, blue neon lights circling the ceiling, and some booths along the wall. To the left is the gaming/music area of the place, and to the right is the dining area.

We were seated in a booth along the wall, just under one of the bright red neon crawfish lights. Our waiter came over with menus and we ordered up some beers. I wondered if they had any Abita beers, since it was a Cajun restaurant and Abita is out of Louisiana. The waiter said, "No, sorry. We do have them, but they're for catering only."

I said, "Wait a minute! Catering only?"

Aaron said, "Dude, you're catering to US!" We couldn't quite grasp our minds on how a place could have beer, but wasn't willing to sell it. We asked for other types of beers and the guy kept saying, "No, we don't have that either" to our requests. I just decided to cut my losses and order a Bud Light - they DID have that, and Aaron got a Sam Adams.

On the wall facing me, there was a big mural - one of many paintings in Broussard's - by local Cape Girardeau artist Scott Kelley. Each mural or painting has something to do with people who have either worked at Broussard's over the years or who have graced their doors with regularity. Some paintings are a tad twisted with animals depicting some of the people. This one was overly colorful - even with the bright red light from the glowing neon crawfish on the wall.

Aaron gave me the drill about Broussard's - everything he'd ever had there was great. They had four different variations of etoufee, they had shrimp creole, jambalaya, gumbo, and chicken creole parmesan in a spicy creole sauce over rice. They had ribs, steaks and sandwiches - including Po' Boys. They had boiled crawfish (probably from China), red beans and rice, frog legs and blackened catfish. My head was spinning from all the possibilities they had to offer.

Aaron suggested we split the four combo platter - crawfish etoufee, shrimp etoufee, alligator etoufee and jambalaya. Red beans and rice came with it and we both got a bowl of gumbo for good measure. Aaron said, "There's no way we'll be able to finish all of this food, but it will give you a good idea of how good all their food is here."

The waiter was a little slow with both our food and our beers. He didn't bring out our gumbo at first like we wanted. It came out with our combo platter. And he was a little lax on getting our beers to us after we'd ordered them. I think he was the only waiter in the place that evening, but it was only Aaron and I, with people at a couple other tables in the dining room. 

Aaron wasn't fooling about not being able to finish everything. There was a lot of food to sample sitting in front of us. The first thing I tried was the gumbo. It was simply outstanding. I zipped it up a bit with some Tabasco, but it was pretty zippy to the taste on it's own. The gumbo at Broussard's was some of the best I've every had.

We had asked for an extra spoon and an extra plate apiece to scoop portions of the platters for individual servings. The waiter was woefully spacey and we had to remind him again before he ran and got the spoons and a couple small plates.

I tried all three of the etoufees and the best of the three was the alligator etoufee. The taste sensation sent me to the roof. While the shrimp etoufee and the crawfish etoufee were very good in their own right, the alligator etoufee was just outstanding. It wasn't rubbery like I've found with some alligator I've had in the past, but was moist and easy to chew. The taste was a knock out. "When I come back here - and I WILL come back here," I was tellling Aaron, "I'll get the alligator etoufee on its own."

The jambalaya was certainly on par with the alligator etoufee. Big chunks of andouille sausage permeated the jambalaya and with a little zip from Mr. Tabasco, it was even better. And I was also surprised with the red beans and rice. Too often, places that serve red beans and rice don't do anything other than the beans and rice. At Broussard's, they put large chunks of andouille sausage in with the red beans and rice and it was some of the best I've ever had. I'd never had red beans and rice with andouille sausage. I don't know if I'll be able to get red beans and rice at any place other than Broussard's.

Later in the evening, I had ordered a beer and it was a good 10 minutes before I realized that I hadn't gotten it yet. I said, "I thought I ordered another beer."

Aaron said, "You did! I think our waiter is slacking."

I got up to go to the restroom and when I came back, the waiter was standing up by the host stand talking to the cute little hostess. I said, "Hey buddy, I ordered a beer from you over 10 minutes ago and I haven't gotten it yet."

We both looked up at the bar and there was a solitary Bud Light on bar, waiting to be picked up and brought to my table. He grabbed it and handed it to me. I said, "Man, this has been sitting up there for quite awhile. Can I get a cold one?"

He said, "That felt cold to me." Whatever... I just took it from him and went back to the table.

We certainly did have a pile of food left over and I told Aaron to take it home with him. He said, "That's great. Thanks. The kids love coming here and they love the leftovers."

The waiter came with a container for Aaron and he asked us if we needed anything else. As he was scooping up the leftovers, Aaron looked over at me with a devilish grin and said, "They have the most outstanding bread pudding here."

I groaned in agony, completely full from the excellent food we'd had, not wanting to have another bite of anything. I said, "You bastard! I LOVE bread pudding."

The waiter said, "We have great bread pudding."

Aaron looked at me and said, "They really do. It's probably the best bread pudding that I've ever had." I winced, shook my head and looked down at the table. Aaron looked up at the waiter and said, "We'll have a piece with two spoons."

That bastard!

And it took a long time for the bread pudding to come out. This time, I didn't mind because it gave my stomach time to digest the rich Cajun food I'd had. Over 10 minutes after he'd ordered the bread pudding, I said to Aaron, "What did they have to do? Go down to New Orleans to pick it up?" Quite honestly, as scattered the waiter was, I thought he'd forgot to put the order in.

The waiter finally came out with it and the bread pudding was sitting in a shallow bowl, drenched with a rich rum butter sauce with powdered sugar sprinkled on top. From the first bite, it was just simply divine eating. The bread was moist and flavorful. I had about four bites before I couldn't eat any more. Aaron, who is a pretty small guy, finished off what he could and there were still a couple bites left. We couldn't do any more damage to the meal than we had.

Our bill with the combo platter (which was $19.95), the bowls of gumbo, bread pudding and multiple beers came to $50 bucks. The waiter got a $5 dollar tip because, well, he was bad. And it's too bad because that was the only thing bad about our experience at Broussard's. The food was excellent, some of the finest Cajun I'd ever had in my life. I love coming to Cape Girardeau - it's a pretty neat little city - and I'm hoping that I can make it down to see the guys at Stereo One a couple times a year. And when I do - as I said - I WILL be back at Broussard's.

Bella Italia - Cape Girardeau, MO

When I was in Cape Girardeau, MO recently, I had the pleasure of taking the owner of Stereo One, John Selby, out to lunch.  John is one of my industry's true gentleman and it's always great to spend time with him.  We went to a spot in downtown Cape Girardeau called Bella Italia.

Actually, I really wanted to take him to one of my all-time favorite places, the Royal N'Orleans in Cape Girardeau.  But John wasn't certain they were serving lunch any longer.  We stopped in and, unfortunately, he was right.  The Royal N'Orleans was closed for lunch.  That's too bad as it had been a long time since I last ate the Royal N'Orleans and I don't get to Cape Giradeau all that much.

Bella Italia is literally around the corner and down the street from Royal N'Orleans (see map), so John suggested we try there.  They were definitely open for lunch and had a nice sized crowd in the place when we walked in.  We were seated at a table by a host and started to peruse the menu. 

The interior of Bella Italia is subdued and sort of elegant.  The tables are adorned with red and white checkered table cloths.  There's a nice bar area with a large walnut bar and a small outside patio in front of the building. 

Our waitress came out with a basket of bread and got our drink orders.  She gave us a few minutes to go over the menu.  And I'm glad she did as there were a lot of great things to choose from.  And it gave us time to dive into the great homemade bread.

I was looking at a couple of things - the Europa Cavatappi, grilled chicken, artichoke hearts, broccoli, tomatoes, black olives and Cavatappi pasta in a garlic cream sauce.  Man, that sounded great.  I also had my eye on the fettuccine carbonara, peas, pancetta and proscuitto in their white cream alfredo sauce. 

But I ended up going with one of their lunch specials that day - baked rotelle pasta in a tomato cream sauce with Italian sausage, grilled chicken and artichokes topped with mozzarella and parmesan cheese.  John got the canneloni stuffed with ground beef and veal, then topped with marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese.  We both also got the house salad made with their homemade Italian dressing.  

Mainly because we were talking so much, we didn't have our salads finished when they brought out our lunch.  The baked rotelle in the tomato cream sauce was very, very good.  It had a little bit of a spicy bite to it and was very flavorful.  I really liked the Italian sausage.  It was nice big chunks of spicy pork sausage.  And the chicken wasn't dried out like you sometime get with grilled chicken that is, in turn, baked into a dish.

John proclaimed his canneloni was "excellent".  He said, "My wife and I haven't been down here for quite some time.  I keep forgetting how good this place is."

And it was very good.  I would put Bella Italia up against any Italian restaurant I've eaten at in St. Louis or Chicago.  It was that good.  John also told me Bella Italia also had very good pizza.  I thought they probably would as the Italian sausage was excellent.  I'm hoping to make it back to Cape Girardeau sometime in the future to give their pizza a try.  All in all, I have to say I was happy Royal N'Orleans was closed or I would have never been introduced to Bella Italia.