Scali

,     "You ever been to Scali?" asked my friend Barb.
     As I'd neither been to, nor in fact had ever even heard of Scali,  we agreed that I definitely should make the acquaintance of the place, and so we made a date including our hubbies Kevin and Tom for last Friday night to meet at Scali.
   Scali, as I learned, is an Italian restaurant located at the end of a strip mall located in Reynoldsburg, Ohio (the next suburb over from Gahanna, Ohio), set back off the busy 5-way intersection of  Route 256, Livingston Avenue, and  Slate Ridge Avenue.
     It never ceases to amaze me that, even when tucked away in some obscure, out-of-plain-sight nook or cranny, a good restaurant will always be discovered and will pick up a following.

     This is indeed the case with Scali,

...which is apparently the place to be in Reynoldsburg on a Friday night.

     Happily, early in the week Barb had made a 6 pm reservation for us.  Otherwise our chances of snagging a seat  at Scali at that time would have been zip-o-a-lady-o.

     Despite its unassuming outward appearance in its humble place at the end of the strip mall,

...the interior decor of Scali is fun,

...and the menu and wine list offerings are upscale.

    Soon after we were seated we all fell upon the bread, which was spread with melted butter and which one of us came up with the phenomenal idea

  of topping with some of the the Parmesan sitting in a glass canister on the table.   I for one found myself subscribing to Woody Allen's quote from the movie "Scoop":  "I could make a meal out of the bread, I could make a whole meal out of just the bread".
      Considering all the Parmesan-topped bread we scarfed down in advance we all  probably should have made a  whole meal out of just the bread.

     But no, the best was yet to come, and I'm not even talking about

the lovely house salad,

...or our entrees,

the Vitello Piccata (veal scallopini) with a side of kale that Tom ordered,

...my Pollo Alla Marsala (chicken marsala) with a side of pasta,

...or the yummy-looking  pasta  that Barb and Kevin ordered;

    No, for me the pieces de resistance of the evening were the desserts:

...the gargantuan portion - think twice the size of Cheesecake Factory - of blueberry cheesecake that Kevin and Barb shared,

..and the almost-plate-filling, nut-and-whip-cream-topped-caramel-drizzled-cream-cheese-and butter-cream-iced-and-layered-carrot cake,

...one of which Tom and I each ordered and I believe cost $8.95 a piece and probably weighed in at 3 calories per penny, but I swear it was worth every penny and calorie. 

     Calories and cost be hanged, there's nothing like a great meal with great friends.