Sons of Italy

Sons of Italy is not a restaurant in the usual sense. It's the hall of the Sons and Daughters of Italy Cristoforo Columbo Lodge #1419, a fraternal organization founded in Omaha in the 1920s to help Italian immigrants settle in. The lodge sits at 1238 South 10th Street in Little Italy, next to St. Frances Cabrini Church, and opens to the public for pasta meals that have been a local tradition since 1973.

Volunteers run the whole operation. Lodge members mix and cook the meatballs early in the week and make the Italian sausage on a regular rotation. You pay at a window near the door, pick up your plate at a second window, and grab salad, bread and silverware on your way to a table. The hall is plain, with family photos and lodge memorabilia on the walls, and it feels more like a church supper than a restaurant.

One pasta dish is served each day, rotating among spaghetti and meatballs, mostaccioli and meatballs, and mostaccioli with Italian sausage. Every plate comes with salad and bread, cannoli are sold separately, and the lodge bar is open during service. Fried fish is offered on Fridays during Lent, according to local press.

Go on a Thursday for the classic lunch crowd, which local press calls the busiest day, or on a Friday evening when families and groups of friends fill the tables. Sausage days tend to draw extra diners. Takeout is available if you want to bring dinner back to your rental. Bring cash or a checkbook.

What to order

• Spaghetti and meatballs
• Mostaccioli and meatballs
• Mostaccioli with house-made Italian sausage
• Salad and bread with every plate
• Cannoli
• Fried fish on Lenten Fridays (per local press)

View the full menu Opens Sons of Italy’s official menu

Good to know

• Pasta meals are $14 with salad and bread, per the lodge's site
• Cash or check
• Dine in or take out
• Meals run roughly September through May per local press; check the lodge's monthly schedule