With every Boulder pub overflowing on St. Patrick’s Day, a group of us put Plan B into action

My husband, two visiting friends from the East Coast and I thought we’d go to one of the Boulder pubs for St. Patrick’s Day last week. Not downtown. Nothing too Irish-sounding, so no Conor O’Neill’s and no Murphy’s. The Hungry Toad, we thought. Silly us. The wait for a table was 45 minutes and the bar area was overflowing with revelers. We decided to subtitute one I-country for another. We weren’t going Irish or even British Isles-style, so we crossed Boulder’s Broadway to Radda Trattoria for some Italian food — specfically, Tuscan food. 

We like Radda for its reasonable prices and solid food — antipasti, soups, salads, pasta, pizza, entrees and desserts. Only two items cost more than $16 — and those are Bistecca alla Fiorentina, New York strip steak from Colorado beef.  They’ve worked at damping the noise, but our only issue is that it still is a louder restaurant than we prefer. Two of us had gnocchi and two had pizza — no prelude and no postlude that evening.

A bottle of Casa Bran Caia, Sangiovese with some Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, from Tuscany.

Both gnocchi eaters requested it alla Bolognese, the meat ragu that usually comes with papradelle.

Pizza bianca, white pizza composed a generous crust house-made herbed ricotta, thin disks of the flavorful air-dried meat called bresaola, fresh watercrsss, a hint of truffle oil and shreds of Grana Padano cheese.

Pizza Affrumicata features smoked mozzarella, Hazel Dell mushrooms, walted spinach and herbs on a grilled crust.

Whether an Italian meal is massive or modest, a cappuccino is a fitting finale.

Price check: At dinner, antipasti, $4-$9 (plus salumi misti, $14); insalate (salads), $5; contorni(side dieshes), $5; minestre (soup), $4; pasta, gnocchi e risotto, $11); dalla cucina (entrees ”from the kitchen”), $16; alla griglia (from the grilled), $14-$16, plus Bistecca alla Fiorentina for one or two,$27 and $45; pizza al forno, $9; dolci (desserts), $4-$8.