This Review article is part of a Narcity Media series. The views expressed are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Narcity Media.
A visit to Italy's Old Wild West Steakhouse was a bizarre trip through Americana that started out innocently enough.
When Veronica, the only other American student at my Italian university, inherited her grandmother's car, the first (and most American) thing we thought of doing was driving to a shopping mall.
Our destination, Shopville Le Gru, was nestled in a charming industrial suburb of Turin. It successfully replicated the look and feel of an American mall, including several square kilometres of parking. Le Gru's exterior — boxy and mysterious — revealed nothing about the interior.
1. So many peanuts
While shopping, our encroaching hunger grew impossible to ignore. Our imperative was to feed, and our best bet — it seemed — was to follow the unmistakable trail of peanut shells leading out of sight. We hadn't eaten peanuts for what felt like decades, so the choice was easy. It led us to the signage outside a busy restaurant. In a font I'll describe as "saloon-adjacent," flanked by clipart horseshoes, it read, "Old Wild West."
We gathered this was an American-themed restaurant. Although we only came in pursuit of peanuts, we stayed for lunch. While loitering in line, we spotted the peanut wellspring. Wooden barrels lining the entryway were filled to the brim with whole peanuts — shells littered everywhere, crunching like leaves under our shoes. Amused, we grabbed handfuls of peanuts and cracked them open, giggling — it never occurred to us that peanuts might be considered a stereotypical American snack.
2. Cultural insensitivity as "decor"
The "Pioneers" section in Italy's Old Wild West Steakhouse.Giulia Alvarez-Katz
I surveyed the restaurant and noticed two kinds of tables, each in its opposite zone. The first type had wires and white cloth resembling covered wagons overhead. This area was labelled "Pioneers" by a plank hanging from the ceiling. The second type featured something evidently meant to be a tepee in an area labelled "Indian People." We cringed.
A teepee in the unfortunately named "Indian people" zone at Old Wild West Steakhouse in Italy.Giulia Alvarez-Katz
They seated us in the "Pioneers" section, where the surrounding decor consisted of artificially worn fencing separating tables, ropes (most of which featured a lasso knot) hanging from the wall, sloppy murals of Arizona landscapes, and old-timey photographs of cowboys. In the other section, shackles hung from the wall, directly below a quote from Crazy Horse (in grammatically incorrect English) that read: "The land where we walk is not in [I assume they meant 'for'] sale."
A grammatically incorrect Crazy Horse quote at Old Wild West Steakhouse in Italy.Giulia Alvarez-Katz
Ironic, considering this cheap "Indigenous aesthetic" was being used to sell their restaurant. By the time menus arrived, I wondered if my presence was itself an endorsement of the racist decor.
3. The gimmicky menu
The menus did little to calm this worry. They were shockingly lengthy for Italy — by North American restaurant standards, fairly typical — with subheadings like "Grand Canyon Meats" and "Saloon Specialties." Each burger was named after a surviving Native American nation, with the same flippancy the U.S. military must have employed when naming planes and weapons after those same tribes.
The menu offerings at Italy's Old Wild West Steakhouse.Giulia Alvarez-Katz
Other menu items, including wraps, chicken sandwiches and tacos, were named after various U.S. cities and states, something we both found less objectionable than the burger titles. Veronica, who is from San Diego, felt compelled to order the San Diego wrap. I sheepishly pointed to something named "Kentucky," a salad vaguely resembling a Caesar.
The food wasn't bad. I'd describe it as a step below Denny's but above Burger King. Not worth writing home about, but by Italian standards, a passable American meal.
4. Seriously, what's with all the peanuts?
There were some perplexing details: the peanuts from earlier found themselves on our table, overflowing from a tin pail. Our entrees were served with French fries, but with a twist — the inescapable inclusion of "OWW" (Old Wild West) sauce. It accompanied every entree, whether it made sense or not. OWW sauce, a cousin of Thousand Island dressing, was punctuated by a vinegary tang and, although palatable, was not appropriate for my salad.
My verdict
This representation of the Old Wild West was cartoonish, like a Spaghetti Western starring a young Clint Eastwood. Italy has had a strange fascination with the American West for decades, as evidenced by the Italian media's fixation on exaggerated, highly romanticized versions of the era — which led us to believe that Spaghetti Westerns were, to a large part, the source material.
Clearly, the Old Wild West Steakhouse is an extension of this fascination.
Altogether, the meal wasn't offensively bad — at least, not as offensively bad as the decor. Ultimately, the perturbing thing was using a historical period as a theme, not to mention the subsequently poor execution of said theme from the standpoint of historical accuracy.
Also, racism (accidental or not), with a side of anything, is still off-putting.