Pagliai's stands triumphant for more than 50 years

In the scramble to find new, unusual places to eat, sometimes I forget about the survivors, those restaurants that have stepped into the gladiator arena and somehow beaten Father Time to a draw. One such restaurant that stands victorious through the sheer act of surviving for 53 long years is Pagliai's Pizza & Pasta in Cape Girardeau.

I'll admit that I haven't gone to Pagliai's (pronounce it like "polly-eyes-" if you really want to impress ... well, your waiter maybe?) for quite sometime. I do this sometimes — forget an excellent place to eat for years and years. But that's OK, because when I go back and the place still has it, that thing that makes eating there a pleasure and a joy, then it's like discovering it all over again.

I love the strong stone facing on the outside of the restaurant and the deep red doors. I immediately noticed the tabletop Galaga/Ms. Pacman sitting off to the side. Anyplace that has a Galaga on the premises gets instant cool points from me.

This time, I decided to put Pagliai's menu through the ringer and ordered something from the sandwich, pasta and pizza categories. I already suspected that the pizza was still yummy, but I truly didn't know what to suspect from the others.

While waiting on the food, I put some quarters in Galaga and accidentally eavesdropped on the waiter and another customer. The customer told the waiter that the food was "good, as always. " The waiter replied with, "It's a pizza kind of night, " referring, I suppose, to the downpour we'd been enduring that night. "I'm telling ya, " the customer replied, with an easy familiarity that warmed my heart. You just don't get that kind of easy banter in a lot of places, and it added to the charm.

A Chicken Fajita pizza from Pagliai s, light, fresh, and full of veggie goodness.Submitted by Rebecca LaClair

For the pasta, I tried the Cannelloni Florentine, a couple of huge penne noodles stuffed with spinach and ground veal, covered in white sauce with a spoonful of tomato sauce to top it off, and finished with a baked and melted white cheese. The tomato sauce was incredible, and the white sauce gave the whole thing a heavy richness. The filling reminded me of good stuffed ravioli filling, with the meat ground very fine and the spinach chopped up small.

For the sandwich, I tried the Submarine, with a simple name but a cool concept. This was salami, ham and cheese, with some tomato sauce and lettuce to top it off. The addition of the tomato sauce, instead of the more expected mayonnaise that most places use, really upped the ante on this supposedly simple hot sandwich. The meat was toasted as well as the bread, giving it those delightful crispy edges that add so much flavor. And that tomato sauce added a certain weightiness to the sandwich, making it feel like a true, filling meal and complementing the cheese and salami, in particular. The sauce made this sandwich taste a bit like a meatball sub, without all of the meatballs rolling around and with the saltiness of salami instead. It was delicious.

Then came the pizza. The chicken fajita pizza came with mushroom, peppers and chicken. I chose this pizza, because, quite honestly, I thought all of those red, yellow and green peppers would take a pretty picture. I wasn't wrong, but what I was surprised by how good this pizza was. Normally, I would have chosen something with heavier, greasier meat. I am so glad that I was influenced by aesthetics to choose this pizza. The crust was thin and crispy, and bonus for people who are watching carbs. You can also ask for a gluten-free crust, which I did not, but the option is there for others.

There were plenty of mushrooms, fresh of course, and thank goodness, because they are so much better on pizza than canned. The three colors of peppers were not cooked to sogginess, but still had a good, but not obnoxious, crunch. The chicken was tender and full of flavor, and cut into bite-sizes, making it easy to munch. Out of the three things I ordered, this was my favorite. It was the right food on the right night with the right amount of cheese that stretched like a photo shoot when I pulled it out of the pan.

Pagliai's still has it. If you want to see for yourself, you can find them at 1129 Broadway in Cape Girardeau. Play a round of Galaga for me.