A taste of Roma in Long Beach

La Parolaccia isn’t like the majority of Italian restaurants in the United States, serving pedestrian spaghetti and meatballs on top of a stereotypically red and white checkered tablecloth.

The inside of the restaurant, from the brick wall façade to the wood burning pizza oven, emanates authenticity, which is what proprietor Stefano Procaccini wants.

He was born in Rome, and tries to maintain his Roman roots through his restaurant, which is located in Long Beach, California.

Not only is there memorabilia from his favorite hometown team dotting the walls, but there’s also references to the club and the city on the menu.

“Since I was a little boy, I was going to the Stadio [Olimpico] with my dad,” recalls Procaccini. “And then I kept going with my friends, and I’m still following Roma today.”

He’s developed a number of rituals while watching Roma over the years.

“I’ve got a lot of them,” he admits, “but sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. I’ve got my blanket, my pillow; I always sit on the same side of the couch.”

Procaccini pays homage to the club on the menu by having a pizza that’s named after Francesco Totti. The ‘Totti Pizza’ is a half pizza-half calzone with mozzarella cheese, salami, sausage, mushrooms and arugula on it.

Procaccini says he chose to make the ‘Totti Pizza’ a hybrid “because you never know what he is going to do next with the ball. If he’s going to go right, if he’s going to go straight, left or whatever. So I didn’t know what to do, that’s a ‘Totti Pizza’. A little bit of calzone, a little bit of pizza, I didn’t really know what it was. That’s pretty much what Totti does on the field.”

Another pizza on the menu with Roma connections is the “Testaccio Pizza,” which is named after a neighborhood in Rome that’s dear to many Roma fans. “Testaccio is the heart of the Roman supporters” explains Procaccini.

La Parolaccia is a family run establishment; Procaccini’s children, Francesca and Michael, have been working in the restaurant since its opening ten years ago.

Francesca waits on tables, while Michael, who has a degree in pizza making from a school in Italy, mans the pizza oven.

“I didn’t used to see my dad growing up a whole lot because he worked,” says Francesca, “so now it’s kind of cool that we get to make up for that by working together.”