Chow, Baby can admit to not getting down Rendon way just every week. Next time it happens, though, dinner at Bella Vita II, right there east of the main intersection, will surely be on the itinerary. The nine-month-old place is owner Mike Seji's second restaurant in North Texas, after one in Mansfield. Fellow Albanian immigrant and brother-in-law Richie Hodza, who learned the trade at the Mansfield store, is in the kitchen.

Your meal will start with a basket of warm homemade rolls that inject aroma into the atmosphere when they're pulled apart. Then you'll choose from among seven seafood ($9.95-$12.95) and 10 chicken dishes ($8.50-$8.95), varieties of pizza ($8.95-$13.95) that include the Special Giant Pizza, which comes with all the ingredients on the list. Other options include the ziti arrabbiata (macaroni with peppers and mushrooms in a Marsala sauce for $7.50), and fettucini modo mio, sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts and mushrooms in a creamy pink sauce ($7.50). The chicken scarparella comes with mushrooms, onion, peppers, and Italian sausage in marinara sauce ($8.95). Everything that Chow, Baby tried was delicious, and the pizza that came by for a nearby family of five looked outstanding.

Bella Vita's menu also includes salads, hot subs, baked pasta dishes such as lasagna and eggplant rollatini. Chow, Baby's purist friends, especially those of Italian descent, complain about the restaurant stake that Albanians have claimed here, but Bella Vita II is hard to complain about.

You'll think you've stepped back in time (and who doesn't want to these days?) when you walk into The Café, a Haltom City diner that's been around since 1975 but seems straight out of the '50s, with its neon, faux pink flamingos, gleaming stainless, black leather booths, chatty waitresses, and pretty damn good blue-plate specials. Even the hungry noontime crowd on one weekday seemed mostly golden oldies, not surprising given that "85 to 90 percent of the folks who eat here are retired," said owner Mike Schroder. He's the good-eats-runs-in-the-family brother of Peter of Old Neighborhood Grill fame, both fourth-generation restaurant entrepreneurs.

At Mike's place -- open 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. six days a week, closed Saturdays -- the prices are as delightful as the décor: $4.99 for the blue-plate special (meat loaf, roast beef, catfish, et al., and a wide selection of vegetables) and a VIP breakfast (bacon, sausage, or ham; eggs and grits; pancakes or biscuits) for $2.99. Schroder pegs his prices to his loyal customers' needs, he said. "They're on a limited budget, you know." Now that's what Chow, Baby calls a compassionate and smart capitalist. He has regulars who've been coming in for 26 years.