Vitale's Italian Cuisine, Oshkosh

For more than 30 years, the cooks at Vitale's Italian Cuisine have served up authentic Sicilian fare made from imported pastas, sauces built from scratch, and fresh Italian bread. Jaws warm up after yearlong vows of silence by chewing through calamari and deep-fried mushrooms before delving into patron-beloved spinach rotolo composed of three baked pasta wheels rolled with cheese and spinach. In the kitchen, meat entrees such as chicken parmigiana are prepared by chefs locally renowned for their artful use of chicken and seafood. Cooks roll out slabs of pizza dough to meet diners' extra-thin or stuffed-crust specifications, then invite green peppers, sausage, or sun-dried tomatoes to mingle on its bubbly golden surface. A full bar pours beer, liquor, and 30 wines culled from vineyards across a 4th-grade classroom's globe.