Staying healthy the recipe for Saracino

CEDAR RAPIDS - Try the Chicken Parmigiano for supper. The spaghetti and meatballs are from an old family.

If it's breakfast you crave, here are some tips, too.

“Great omelets, great pancakes,” Nick Saracino said. “I like the omelets. Very filling. Everything's big portions.”

The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders forward's grandfather and grandmother immigrated to America from Italy in the 1950s and started a restaurant. The Saracino family now owns three well-known and popular eaterys in the St. Louis area: Bartolino's Osteria, Bartolino's South and Chris' Pancake and Dining.

The latter is named after and run by Nick's father, Chris. The Saracinos also make their own sauce and wine, which you can buy online or at your favorite St. Louis grocery store.

The scouting report says it's all very fine food and drink.

“I had one of their chicken dishes,” said RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson, who ate at Bartolino's Osteria with his family last summer. “Really, really good. They sell their sauce and wine, too. We've enjoyed those in the Carlson house.”

“I started working there when I was, like, 14,” Nick Saracino said. “I wouldn't always be at my dad's place. I'd bus tables and stuff. No cooking.”

And no being a restaurateur after he graduates from college and is done with hockey. He'll save that for other members of his family.

“It's not really on my radar,” Saracino said. “It wouldn't be a bad occupation, but I see how my dad works. It's just a lot of hours. He logs a lot of hours. I mean, he's very happy with what he does. But I don't think it's something I want to get into.”

Instead he'll take hockey as far as it'll go. Saracino, 19, has five goals and 20 points in 36 games in his rookie USHL season, despite being hindered by injuries.

The RoughRiders host Indiana tonight and play Saturday at Omaha.

“I wish I would have done a little better than I have,” said Saracino, whose older brother, Chris, played in the USHL for Green Bay and now is at the Rochester Institute of Technology. “I've been battling injuries and stuff. But I feel like I'm getting better every day. That's what counts, I guess.”

“I just think he keeps getting better,” Carlson said. “He's been doing a good job playing center for us. He has earned the right to get more ice time, no question. He'll be playing a lot more.”

There's no truth to the rumor Saracino had his father send Carlson a to-go order recently in order to make that happen.

“It's competitive down there. The restaurant business is competitive, especially with the economy and everything,” Saracino said. “But it's getting better. They're doing well.”