All Across Oregon – Season 3, Episode 8 – Eugene, Oregon

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Join Vincent DiCostanzo (Vinny) on a tour of good eats and interesting sights All Across Oregon. Now airing on Southern Oregon PBS.

Born in New York to a successful Italian restaurateur family, Vinny started his own restaurant businesses in Southern Oregon. He is the director and executive producer of All Across Oregon.

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today on all across Oregon we’re back in
the town of Eugene this time we start
our day off in the Market District
visiting a very popular breakfast and
lunch spot from there a landmark Italian
restaurant that spends hours a day
making their own pasta and a museum
where we’ll find a pair of the world’s
oldest shoes come with us as we go all
across
[Music]
Oran
[Music]
this episode of all across Oregon is
made possible in part by John warco CPA
tax professional and profit builder in
southern Oregon in Northern
California Superior Athletic Club owned
and operated for over 40 years with
three convenient
locations and travel Southern Oregon
travel Southern Oregon supports a
diverse thriving and sustainable visitor
economy to create a better life for all
our Region’s residents visit Southern
Oregon do something
great we start our day with a super
popular breakfast and lunch spot in
Eugene’s Market District I want you to
meet Josh owner and operator of Morning
Glory restaurant wait till you see what
they have prepped out for us the foods
the pastries the coffee the atmosphere
you’re going to absolutely love this
[Music]
place so what do you got going for us
today well um we were going to try some
pastries whichever you would like we
tapped out a little bit there but we
still have all our fresh in-house
pastries we’re from scratch kitchen we
got a few things prepared for you that
we’re we’re working on right now um you
want to come back we can check yeah you
know let’s let them to check it out guys
go ahead you go you
go
this place is cool man this place is so
cool I love it the energy is like off
the chart when you walk in yeah man we
got an amazing group of people here
these guys work their butts off and we
couldn’t ask for a more uh loyal group
of people man it’s it’s amazing it
really is and you can tell they’re all
happy they’re all happy to be here you
must be a good
guy we do a lot of business through here
so okay A3 is in the window Let’s go
people let’s find another gear let’s go
you got this come
on Juliana is going to get us
caffeinated yes caffeinated she wanted
to make you a special chai caffeinated I
don’t even know when I had a chai last
oh I do it was Newport we had the chai
now we get to have a chai right here eug
jeene so 13 years right 13 yeah we’re
about to finish 13 years start our 14th
on uh January 1st 7 to 3:30 this is what
it’s like 7:30 to 3:30 yeah we stay
hopping we have a really great customer
base super loyal regulars we get a lot
of people from out of town with our
proximity to the trains and the hotels
yeah the train you can throw a rock at
the train Yeah man so that and that just
came through while we were outside I’m
telling you the energy here you just got
to be
here
oh oat milk thank you I think a dairy
might be thank you not the thing oh my
goodness you got a smell I smell the
peanut stir fry there this is a
breakfast item no lunch it’s this is our
Lunch yeah I got a couple of breakfast
things coming too but these are some of
our popular dishes here well I’m going
to follow you like a hungry little puppy
outside this is your peanut stir fry
Super Lucky something noodle peanut stir
fry just enjoy sir just enjoy just are
these bruss no it’s zucchini tofu yep
what’s the noodle it’s like a wide rice
noodle
mhm oh man got a tiny bit of heat in the
peanut sauce MH we’re from scratch
kitchen so everything we make everything
we can we make in house I love this
peanut butter flavor in it isn’t that
good it’s just right it’s not
overpowering it’s a little apple cider
vinegar uh some crushed chilies yeah I
love the fact that is this zucchini yep
you got the zucchini and is nice and
firm the tofu is I love tofu like this
it’s not it’s not soft it’s not too hard
Y and this is all done in a skillet then
you bake it obviously no no we do it in
the pan that’s one of the things you
know the texture of it where did this
idea come from this one do you know did
you make it up yeah so a lot of the food
you know I worked in number of
restaurants throughout the years but
also when I was a younger man I traveled
a lot you know I got a lot of
inspiration for some of the dishes uh
from like just a lot of street food you
know I mean uh like food carts I mean
you find the right places and there’s
some of them in your Jee but traveling
around you never know what you’re going
to get and when you get it you go back
over and over as much as you can oh yeah
and uh this right here I would be here
every day for this every
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day so every month I rotate a new menu
with special of course you do of course
you do so I have six things and this is
our pumpkin waffle so we make a like a
pumpkin waffle batter and then this is a
uh a vegan cream cheese and then I I
candy I blanch and Candy some uh some
nuts uh walnuts candy some walnuts yep
so there Sal BR Su salted walnuts yeah
brown sugar a little cane sugar yep yep
breakfast is set
M oh my goodness oh my goodness that
pumpkin yeah just just enough you know I
even need the syrup really you don’t
need the syrup don’t worry all this food
is not going to waste this food is
getting eaten coming with you guys it’s
coming with us okay so if you’re
watching it he’s going to waste that oh
no oh no no cuz I I have uh plenty of uh
storage around here to go buy some
sweatpants to drive home in I’m set
these are pretty interesting or
vegetarian restaurant okay so this is
something that we call sausage patties
they’re made from so sausage sounds like
sausage saage not like a New York
there’s actually a reason uh so we make
a spice mix that’s pretty heavy on the
sage and we we make our own soy milk
here so when we make our own soy milk we
take those curds after they’ve been uh
processed Y and drain the milk out and
then we save the curd and reuse them in
these this is from the
CDs so it’s the Kurds it’s it’s uh you
know a bu bunch of other spices and
ingredients but it’s got a really nice
savory thing and it gives people a
little something you know we’re not we
don’t try and replicate meat here but
but we do try and like keep things sweet
and savory and just like real flavorful
you know so vegan food vegan and
vegetarian you just you really have to
um you really have to be willing to play
with your spices you know like to to
kind of find those ways to keep things
interesting for people there’s no short
of interesting on this table man dude
you Jos you have put out some serious
food out here yeah man yeah we’re really
happy with the product we put out this
is a three finger jack omelette it’s got
uh onions green chilies and uh seasoned
Tempe inside it’s got this is our uh we
call it a cream it’s a tofu sour cream
some fresh Pico deallo that we make in
house Glory potatoes this is banana
bread that we make in house uh some jack
cheese and eggs and this one is actually
eggs so I got some a little bit of the
picoto oh my goodness oh my goodness and
that’s our banana bread weade banana
bread did you make this today at 4:00
a.m. uh they make it uh my Baker made it
last night about
midnight okay guys um listen don’t touch
my banana bread this comes with me home
yeah you kidding me doing it kidding all
right man there’s a reason why there’s
line out the door yeah well we worked
really hard for that can we just stop
for today can we just we just
stop this is crazy well Josh thank you
everything is absolutely fantastic
everything here was so unique everything
had its own flavor profile from the
desserts to the eggs to that peanut dish
come on what a great time we had at
Morning Glory restaurant The Market
District is so cool there’s so many
things to do there’s so much action in
restaurants and hotels and shops a train
station historical landmarks now we’ll
head across town to a Cuisine that’s
close to my heart meet Giani co-owner of
bee and Giani Italian restaurant well
thanks for coming to our restaurant this
is uh bee and gian’s tataria my partner
bee is not here right now but we’ve been
in this location for the last 25 years
mhm cooking Italian food in the Eugene
Community for over 40 it’s a family run
business Pepe’s daughter works here my
head chef has been with us since day one
so 25 years and we’re just putting out
good Italian Sicilian food uh my partner
is full-blooded Sicilian myself and my
wife travel to Italy at least every
other year so we I’ve probably been to
Italy 30 times already in in my life
lifetimes Johnny that’s amazing that’s
great so we uh we go over we do research
my partner is the wine buyer here so
he’s got a really good palet on picking
out good Italian wines if you come in
you’ll see our wine list is
predominantly Italian there’s a little
bit of California a little bit of Oregon
cuz yeah of course our food is uh all
homemade you know we make our pastas
here in house we’ll go back and show you
us making homemade pasta our seafood and
our meat we we Source from local
purveyors here in town a local
fishmonger that’s been in the community
for a 100 years is our fishmonger that
we pick up fish every day so we don’t
have to bring it in and let it sit we
get the the exact amount of fish that we
need for each day pick it up impressive
so we keep it fresh keep it good and uh
try and keep it authentic but keep our
customers happy well it smells authentic
in here it looks authentic I I can’t
wait to taste it but I could not come to
a town and know that there’s a landmark
Italian restaurant
and not be here so so here we are I can
see your wine Celler right there yep I
love it we can head back I can show you
I can show you the wine Celler I can
show you our pasta making our pastas one
of our signature dishes and then we’ll
cook some up and eat it love it let’s do
it let’s do
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it so we got our wine room in here this
is Bee’s little Cavern of of Love
hundreds of varietals look at this 2009
Baro holy mackerel yeah we run
the gamut from $40 bottles of wine to
$300 bottles of wine any taste that
anybody wants this reminds me of my
family and in the garage yeah the
homemade setup yeah love it we don’t
need to have it custom built they they
make these nice tiles and we just bought
them and stacked them and they do a
really good job of of maintaining
temperature that we wanted to
have
this is one of our pasta chefs Daniel so
what we’re making here are called
Capelli deeso their Bishop’s caps is
what that translates into all right so
it’s a fresh homemade pasta and the
filling is going to be rotta Swiss chard
and petta little bit of nutmeg oh my
goodness really and then each one of
these will be hand folded then we’ll
cook them up with a just a very simple
traditional brown butter Sage sauce top
it with some fresh parmesan cheese and
you go from there now we’re talking
buddy man little egg wash so how many
hours a day you making pasta all it
depends anywhere from about 5 to 9 5 to
9 hours yeah a day you’re a monster
you’re a beast fresh pasta that’s what
it takes that’s it is what it takes you
can’t skimp on it it’s it’s a labor
intensive thing but what we found is
that the quality of the product is just
so much better than anything you can buy
that’s prepackaged or pre-made but for
the most part you’re makeing making it
for the day yeah exactly what we would
hope is that we would make exactly the
amount that we need for tonight um and
then he comes in and starts fresh
tomorrow I’m going try to do one of
those right with you man oh yeah let
them try I’m going to do one right there
with you yeah all right and so when
their pasta comes out like it’s not
supposed like it leaks out like that you
can just play me okay wait a second wait
put let’s compare these two okay ready
there you go so there’s Daniels there’s
Vinnie well yeah but I’m talking so I
have an excuse okay okay look here I’ll
do another one here there you I’ll do
another one there now you got it now I
got it okay there 3,000 more and I’ll
give you you’ll be you’ll be 3. I get a
bey and Giani t-shirt hey thanks buddy
thank you thanks for doing that for us I
really appreciate your hard work man
thank you all right now we’re going to
go eat some there we
go
this is our line so it I mean it’s small
we got three guys that’ll work here so
you guys ready to yeah watch some
cooking you ready are you ready to make
some pasta at Bey and Giani all right
all right so we got the pasta that we
just made in the back okay we’re going
to dump that in there that’s going to
take three maybe 4 minutes at the
most and then I’ve got a brown butter SA
here very simple that we’ve made up
before that’s going to go in that pot
we’ll heat that up throw it in hit it
with some Parmesan holy Simplicity yes
there you that’s right and so that’s
what we’re doing so these are getting
pretty close one more minute so I’ll
start heating up my my sauce here oh you
know what it smells so good it’s like
it’s like just being
home what a nice place to take a break
right here in an Italian Kitchen oh man
this is great
yeah and we’re a working kitchen you
know it’s not some Char on our pots and
on the bottom of our sa they’re not all
brand new okay it’s a beautiful thing
they’ve been there for for a long time
but they serve the purpose no I hear you
I hear
you beautiful yeah beautiful that’ll go
on a plate so simple we’ll put it on a
little uh perm cheese over the top we’ll
go we’ll go out front I’ll pour you a
glass of wine and let you taste it you
do all right give it a shot see if this
is something that you might like might
like please this is a beautiful thing
right
here oh yeah I got to go give danieli
another hug there you go this is one of
the dishes that when we have true
Italians come to town this is the one
they they order and they say this
reminds them of
home
light delicate oh on that butter stage I
can sit here all day guys I’m sorry I
know you want some yeah the crew the
crew is drooling
mhm there you go my friend impressive
thank you impressive and
simple and the flavor
profile is
incredible I got one word respect the
hours that it takes to make these pastas
and these sauces and all the work that
goes behind that one plate that you
receive at the table and the passion
that these owners have to have to do
this for the wine selection the
foods go see Bey and Giani if you’re in
Eugene the must now here’s a great place
to visit when you’re spending the day
here in Eugene the museum of natural and
cultural history a museum by definition
is an institution dedicated to
displaying and preserving culturally
significant objects the purpose of
modern museums is to collect preserve
interpret and display objects of
artistic cultural or scientific
significance for the study and education
of the public museums are above all
storehouses of knowledge and that’s
exactly how we’re finishing our day
today we’re going to get some knowledge
this is Lexi Briggs and she’ll be our
guide today this is the museum of
natural and cultural history uh here on
the campus of the University of Oregon
we’ve been a part of the University of
Oregon almost as long as the University
of Oregon has been around and we are uh
the place where all kinds of stuff
happens we connect to each other we
learn about our communities and we learn
about all of Oregon from the people who
lived here long long ago to the people
who are living here now now to the
communities who uh still are around and
the geology and the history and the all
everything so can we just take a tour
can we see what we’ll just follow you
this is Oregon where past is present
this is where um we have our
archaeological area I mean the first
thing you want to see is the world’s
oldest shoes the yeah the for real the
world’s for real the world’s oldest
shoes they’re not from China they’re not
from India we figured people were
wearing shoes before this but these
shoes are are more than 9,000 years old
what um yeah and if you think about like
2,000 years ago was about when like
Roman times were happening right 4,000
years ago roughly that was Moses and
everybody yeah exactly and pyramids and
things this is 9,000 years ago or 10,000
years ago and that’s even further back
um and then also uh we have ancient poop
ancient poop ancient poop yeah so we did
some hey these old shoes say Nikon them
they’ve been around that long no I’m
just
kidding says Nike but they just spell
different yeah okay okay all right back
okay now we’re going to check out some
old poop old poop yeah this is the
evidence that we have that people were
really here that long ago this is 14,000
years old well this piece is
approximately 13,000 years old but we
found stuff that is as old as 14,000
years and it’s basically really really
really old dried poop yeah coprite
exactly coer light next time someone
tells me a story I say you’re so full of
copper light exactly yeah yeah it’s just
it’s been there a while it’s been there
a while that’s crazy you can tell a lot
about people based on like what their
diet was vegetarian guaranteed right not
necessarily okay I just wondering not
necessarily there’s but definitely not
what people would call the paleo diet
nowadays people ate a lot of plants back
then a lot of seeds um a lot of you know
small local animals uh yep all kinds of
stuff so so I got to ask is this Oregon
poop this is Oregon poop wow okay yeah
everything in here is Oregon based well
let’s see what else we
got so one of my favorite things here is
this um children’s sandal which is uh
you can see it’s like fuzzy it’s got
rabbit fur in it which is just something
that’s so cool like to think you know I
feel like that really connects us to the
people who lived back then right they
had mom and dad took care of their kids
right they wanted their kid to be warm
and comfortable and you think about
bundling your kid up in a car seat or
you know tuing them in at night sure
same thing same thing so look at that
Sage Brush and rabbit fur mhm very cool
look at
[Music]
that one of the great things about this
area is that we have some things these
Technologies and these ways that people
were were building and weaving things
together lasted and and have lasted for
so long like people still are using the
same techniques the same materials the
same uh ways of doing things some of
these um baskets in this case we were
made in the past 10 years and some of
them were you know a thousand years old
basically maybe not a thousand years in
this case particularly but same the same
technology is still Happ is still
happening here oh look at this this is a
plank house this is actually for living
in yeah this would be like on the south
coast people would live in these plank
houses and this is a smaller this is not
like this is a a minized one um but this
is a similar like it was made the same
way that people would have made larger
plank houses this is before the mill
times yeah they did it without these
power tools that we have nowadays but
still did it in a way that works really
well wow very cool
yeah so here is our explore Oregon this
is another permanent area exhibit this
is now this is what I’m talking about
right here that we have we have one of
the larger collections of oraons in the
world um orod Dons are uh something that
doesn’t exist anymore it was a um Ice
Age creature it might have looked a
little bit like a sheep or a pig or
something like that but it has these I
see the picture of it right there did
you ever find the the body parts to them
too you did not just the skull not just
the skull yep we’ve got full full bodies
and we have they were all over Oregon
now Oregon was underwater for most of
the age of dinosaurs so we don’t have a
lot of dinosaur bones in Oregon it’s
just the truth um we do have this
terrasaur we say it flew out over the
ocean fell into the water this is a
replica but we have some some real
terrasaur bones but yeah this is a cool
sloth and what we have so this is the
real fossil this is the leg fossil here
it’s the femur so from this bone from a
sloth okay uh I thought sloths were like
this big but that’s not not back in the
day and these guys were 9 ft tall and
they’re actually the reason probably
that we have avocados now you look at an
avocado what ate an avocado what was big
enough to eat an avocado and spread
their
seeds SS okay yeah and they they’re
actually they were pretty fast and they
they coexisted with humans there have
been places where people have found
sloth Footprints with human Footprints
inside of them this is a Spike too
salmon we found these fossilized salmon
skulls and the first ones that we found
they were squished from the top
down and we saw that they had these
teeth we didn’t know how the teeth were
oriented so we figured you know you
think about salmon today they have that
kind of hook on there we thought all
right they must be like saber-tooth like
like the cat right turns out we found
another skull that was and several other
skulls that were not squished from the
top down those teeth actually come out
from the side so we figured those were
used as like and this is about the size
that they were or would have been it was
they were Big Fellas yeah that’s a
that’s a big I mean salmon is a big fish
but this is a real big fish that’s a
real big fishing oh saber to
[Music]
Salmon this is a dinosaur toe bone I
would have never guessed that yep right
it was an orn pod dinosaur it
probably died somewhere on the shore
bloated up floated into the ocean and
sank and then that’s why it’s here in
Oregon wow yeah that’s how we feel right
now like we’re all bloated up we’ve been
eating all day all these Eugene has a
ton of amazing restaurants restaurants
yeah I feel like I could be bloated up
and float and end up somewhere else and
they find me oh yeah they definitely ate
seeds
I’m sorry they look like there’s little
seeds in
there thank you for spending another day
with us in Eugene I hope you enjoy these
places as much as we did from The
Breakfast to the pasta to the museum we
had a really nice day and I can’t wait
to get back up here and see everyone
again real soon we’ll see you next time
as we go all across
Oregon
this episode of all across Oregon is
made possible in part by John warco CPA
tax professional and profit builder in
southern Oregon in Northern
California Superior Athletic Club owned
and operated for over 40 years with
three convenient
locations and travel Southern Oregon
travel Southern Oregon supports a
diverse thriving and sustainable visitor
economy to create a better life for all
our Region’s residents visit Southern
Oregon do something great
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