The oversize portions. The red-and-white-checked tablecloths. A carafe of the house red. Old-school Italian-American restaurants, a.k.a. red sauce joints, are the kind of institutions you’ll find, with very few deviations, in just about any city in America. But as we discovered upon reaching out to dozens of writers, chefs, and celebrities, these restaurants are about a lot more than a plate of penne alla vodka. Whether or not you’re Italian, red sauce likely means something to you—about family, or home, or history, or politics, or class, or citizenship, or selfhood, or otherness, or all the above, or a million other things. And that’s what this package is all about. Welcome to Red Sauce America.

A Home Is More Than a House. Sometimes It’s Also a Red Sauce Restaurant “The longer I live in Los Angeles,” writes Roxane Gay, “the more I try to find places where I feel like a thread in the fabric of something bigger than myself.” Enter: Little Dom’s. View Story

Meet the Waiter With Half a Century’s Worth of Wisdom and Wisecracks to Share Silvio Frlic has been working at Brooklyn red sauce stalwart Bamonte’s for 41 years. Silvio Frlic has seen some things. He shares the juicy details with Hilary Cadigan. View Story

Red Sauce Heaven Is a Place...in New Orleans Brett Martin grew up in Brooklyn, the epicenter of Italian-American food. But it wasn’t until he moved down South that he learned to truly appreciate the stuff. View Story

The Chef Carrying on Chicago’s Red Sauce Legacy Is Ecuadoran Immigrant Arturo Aucaquizhpi After quietly rising through the unsung ranks at local icon Gene & Georgetti, one ambitious cook opened his own classic Italian steakhouse, reports Mike Sula. View Story

MY GO-TO “My parents took me to L&B Spumoni Gardens when I was a kid. Every time I come back to New York I have to go to Brooklyn to have that pizza. I have yet to have someone come close to re-creating it.” —Joey Fatone, singer, *NSYNC

The Incredible Costless Abundance of Macaroni Grill’s Free Bread Sarah Jampel asks: But how does it even make sense for them to offer this? View Story

When Will American Chinese Food Get the Red Sauce Treatment? Chris Ying looks at the way Italian Americans have progressed from a demonized immigrant group to an unquestioned part of the country’s fabric, and thinks, damn, I want that too. View Story

MY GO-TO “When I do get the chance for a slow, excellent meal with good company, Sotto Sotto in Atlanta never fails. I rarely stray from their strozzapreti alla salsiccia, a thick pasta layered with a last-meal–worthy bolognese.” —Stacey Abrams, politician

Six Degrees of Chicken Cutlet: A Dish-by-Dish Explainer How many ways can you possibly cook a pounded-thin piece of chicken breast? Well, as any self-respecting red sauce menu will tell you, the answer is…a lot. Amiel Stanek explores the options. View Story

How I Got My Booth: Coach Barry Switzer on Othello’s in Norman, Oklahoma When the legendary football coach first moved to Oklahoma, the only Italian food available was Chef Boyardee. Then he met chef Pasquale Benso, reports Greg Elwell. View Story

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About NYC's Most Exclusive Italian Restaurant...But Couldn't Get in to Ask The hardest reservation in New York is Rao’s, a one-room red sauce joint in East Harlem. Co-owner Frank Pellegrino Jr. gives Aliza Abarbanel a peek through the hallowed red door. View Story

CHEF’S PICK “Lynette Hawkins of Giacomo’s may be the most underrated chef in Houston. She makes a crispy porchetta that has the right amount of fattiness, and the menu reads with the warmth and kitsch you’d expect from a place you’d truly call a joint.” —Justin Yu, Better Luck Tomorrow, Houston

How Did Italian Food Become “Red Sauce”? Paul Freedman, the Yale historian who wrote the book Ten Restaurants That Changed America, breaks it down. View Story

Pesto Alfredo and the Power of Emotional Eating How dairy-doused cutlets at La Famiglia Giorgio’s in Boston became Cleopatra Zuli’s ritual—and a space for fantasizing about what family could look like. View Story

Sure, Chicken Parm Is Great, But Have You Tried Limoncello? At Frankies 457 Spuntino in Brooklyn, the real fun starts when the after-dinner drinks hit the table, argues Andrew Knowlton. View Story

MY GO-TO “I lived upstairs from Il Cortile in NYC during the first years of The Sopranos. I would look from my window into the restaurant to see who was around, and I would go down. It eventually became home base for the cast—that’s where they would take you after you got killed.” —Steve Schirripa, actor, The Sopranos

My Three Decades of Pizza at Sergio’s But for Amanda Shapiro, it was never really about the food. View Story

At Atlanta’s Longest-Running Italian Restaurant, You Don’t Fix What Isn’t Broken For the owner of Nino’s, the hardest part of letting go is making sure things stay exactly the same, reports food critic Christiane Lauterbach. View Story

CHEF’S PICK “For my favorite northern Ohio, cash-only, nostalgic fare, I go to Geracis in University Heights. We order the salad of sliced deli meats, follow that with some stuffed peppers, then some gnocchi or cavatelli, and we finish with a chicken scallopini or osso buco. All is bliss.” —Jonathon Sawyer, The Greenhouse Tavern, Cleveland

What It’s Like to Bartend for the Stars...for 51 Years Mike Gotovac, a bartender at the legendary L.A. celebrity hangout Dan Tana’s, talks to Maggie Lange on working half a century in the biz. View Story