Bagali's of Broomfield

Popular Vail restaurant has expanded eastward as far as FlatIron Crossing

Although Bagali's Italian Kitchen in Vail has been dishing up southern Italian fare with a New Orleans flair for more than 10 years, I'd never eaten there. I had heard that owners Stu and Scott Bucy grew up in the Big Easy. They gravitated toward southern Italian food when they opened their restaurant but couldn't quite get away from their roots. Is there such a fusion as New Orl'Italian? I had heard that the prices were, for Vail, reasonable.

More recently, their friends Lance and Margaret Hollinger partnered with Stu Bucy to open an outlier in FlatIrons Crossing, an area that is so choked with chains that I never thought to go there to eat. Never, that is, until our friend Dave, who lives in nearby Superior, suggested that we join him and give Bagali's Italian Kitchen a try. On Sundays, the happy hour pricing is available all day, so we were able to select from both the happy hour and regular menu without a ticking timeclock to interfere with an effort to save a few dining dollars. We sat at a high-top table in the pleasant bar. Dave is a regular, we were treated swiftly, though I have read reviews on consumer sites that had issues with the service.

We started with the Spicy Black Olive Tapanade (below), which had a nice N'Orleans kick to it. Many restaurants are stingy with whatever breadstuff they serve with tapenade, but Bagali's kitchen sends out enough grilled flatbread so that we didn't run out while we still had some tapenade left.


Bagali's is known for its interesting mix-and-max menu concept for pasta (and pizza too). The pasta choices are spaghetti, linguini, fettuccini, penne and capellini, and the sauces are all-you-can-eat, plus arrabbiata, puttanesca, hot garlic pesto, Alfredo, Corsara and Bolognese. Such add-ons as meatballs, Italian sausage, eggplant Parmesan, chicken Parmesan, veal Parmesan, roasted veggie mix, chicken breast and more are offered too. Plus, something called "Yummy Angel Hair," which merits a separate spot on the menu, but I have no idea what that might be.

Then there are the highly praised, design-your-own pizzas, which we didn't try. Other specialties include such baked pasta dishes as stuffed shells, ziti, cannelloni and lasagna, plus eggplant Parmesan, which isn't a pasta but which is baked. Both the hefty portions of chicken-stuffed shells and the lasagna (two images below) had been browned on top, were swimming in pools of thick tomato sauce and sprinkled with a touch of green. Excessive sauce is not my favorite way of having baked pasta (or any other kind of pasta, for that matter), but both my husband and our friend like it that way, so who am I to disagree?

As I often do, I opted for a salad and a happy hour app'. The Classic Bagali Salad, which might not be Italian or New Orleans, did hit the spot. A lightly dressed heap of fresh, crisp greens, candied pecans and fresh fruit (strawberries, blackberries, blueberries) worked for me on a summer evening.

Because I wanted to sample the New Orleans side of the Bagali's culinary family tree, I picked Momma B's Crawfish Cake (below) as the other component to my dinner. This huge crustacean cake was flavorful, breadily soft inside and fried just enough so that it didn't decompose before hitting the plate.

I usually rely on take-out menus or restaurant websites when adding a Price Check to my restaurant postings, but Bagali's online menu is cyber-mum on the topic. The prices are mid-range.

Bagali's is located at 570 Zang St., Broomfield; 303-465-9463. My husband used to work in Louisville and is more familiar than I with the FlatIrons network of roadways surrounding parking lots and clusters of shops and offices, so he had no trouble finding the place. I am not sure that I could return to it by myself. FWIW, I'm told that it occupies the former Big Bowl location.

Just last month, the third Bagali's opened at Fourth and Main in Frisco, where the late, lamented Samplings, a wine bar and restaurant, was previously situated. The Bucys' partner in the Frisco restaurant is chef Marc Rouse.

Bagali's of Broomfield