The ancient Romans were the first civilization to construct aqueducts to facilitate a steady flow of marinara into city centers. Savor their appetizing architectural innovations with today’s Groupon: for $10, you get $20 worth of Italian cuisine and drinks at Salerno Pincente Ristorante in Hodgkins.
Salerno Picente Ristorante owners Andrew Salerno and Frank Picente furnish tables with a menu of homemade Italian classics. Pepper palates with familiar Old World flavors with the fresh basil and mozzarella of the bruschetta caprese ($8.95), or haul in a fresh catch of grilled or fried calamari to warm up taste sensors with a spirited game of ring toss($12.95). Homemade cheese ravioli smuggles luscious ricotta cheese into unsuspecting mouths inside fresh noodle pouches ($13.95) as forks slide morsels of veal scaloppini away from unsuspecting strangers' plates ($22.95). Appetites enamored of disk-shaped fare can also pursue stuffed ($9–$22) or thin-crust pizzas ($5.75–$16) topped with flavorful confetti of add-on ingredients including sausage, mushrooms, garlic, fresh basil, and hot giardiniera ($0.50–$2).
Tall, arched windows bathe Salerno Pincente’s high-ceilinged dining rooms in natural light. Outdoor patios realize al fresco fantasies at both restaurants, and the Hodgkins location is also connected to an off-track wagering facility papered with 60 high-definition TVs to cover every second of high-stakes pizza-making contests.
Groupon Says
The Groupon Guide to: What Makes a TV?
Enjoying television is as patriotic as knitting an apple pie or eating American flags. Here's a look at some of the components that make up these high-tech picture boxes:
• Glass: A high-end TV has a glass screen that when turned off (not recommended) will reflect your image. When turned on, it will reflect how awesome TV is.
• Cathode Ray Tube: No longer needed for modern TVs to work, but manufacturers still put one in every set just for old times' sake.
• Gold: TV signals, like men's hearts, are lustily attracted to gold, causing them to fly out of the sky into the gold brick in the back of every TV.
• A Couple of Horse Bones: 'Cause why not, right?
• Wires: They hook up to the wired helmets that all the actors wear to beam their acting into your TV.
• An Eternal Flame: To honor the former TV stars who have died.
• Tiny Fire Extinguisher: In case the eternal flame gets out of control.
• IBM PetaFlop SuperComputer: Guesses when you want to change the channel, lower the volume, etc., all to cover up the fact that the remote control doesn't do anything.
• Martin Sheen: He's gotta live somewhere.
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