Royals reliever loves iconic KC Italian restaurant but not for its signature dish
Sometimes life comes at you fast as Royals relief pitcher Lucas Erceg learned.
Erceg and his wife, Emma, had closed on a new house in July 2024. That’s a big moment in someone’s life. Just hours later came another big moment: Erceg had been traded to the Royals.
That meant a move to KC, at least during the season.
The Ercegs found a temporary place to live in the Columbus Park area of Kansas City. In their free time, the couple began exploring Kansas City and stumbled upon Garozzo’s Ristorante, one of the best-known Italian spots in the area.
Garozzo’s is known for its Chicken Spiedini, but that’s not what made Erceg fall in love with the restaurant.
“My favorite dish, and it’s the only thing I’ve ordered, but it’s the Vodka Rigatoni, and then I add the Italian sausage that they offer,” said Erceg, who a 2.55 ERA and a pair of saves this season.
“The way they cook their onions in the Vodka Rigatoni, they do it so well. They obviously cook it in vodka, right? So you get the immediate flame from pouring vodka into a hot pan. It almost burns the outside of the little diced up onion, but it leaves the onion itself on the inside nice and crunchy. So when you’re eating the Vodka Rigatoni, you get the rigatoni, the shredded tomatoes and all that, and the vodka sauce, obviously. But then you get a random little piece of onion, and it gives you that nice, crunchy texture that you’re kind of missing, right?
“Because, other than that, it’s just rigatoni and vodka sauce. And they do a really good job of cooking that rigatoni al dente, which is what I like. So it’s like a little under done, but the more it sits on the plate, and as you eat it, the noodles kind of soak up the sauce and get softer, but that crunch from the onion is wow. And then they make homemade Italian sausage and all that stuff. So you slice that up and take a bite of that, get some protein.”
Erceg uses Vodka Rigatoni as a litmus test when trying a new Italian restaurant. He is a self-described fan of rigatoni, so get that right and Erceg will be sold.
And to Erceg, Garozzo’s nails it.
“I like seeing what their take on just a normal Italian dish is, and rating it from there,” he said, “and I think the Vodka Rigatoni is way at the top.”
While Erceg has only ordered the Vodka Rigatoni, it’s not the lone dish he’s tasted at Garozzo’s.
Emma Erceg’s go-to dish is the Cannelloni.
“It’s huge. It’s three big, tubular pastas filled with really ground up almost like a puree of pork, beef and veal, and then it’s sitting in a tomato green sauce,” Lucas Erceg said. “Dude, it’s incredible.”
Like many couples, the Ercegs like to share dishes, and often there is enough food to bring home. Yeah, even pro athletes like a good deal on a meal.
“We share, and at Garozzo’s, they give you a huge portion,” Erceg said. “So it’s nice going there. I get to have my own thing. If she wants a couple of bites of mine, she can have it. But the nice thing is, whatever she gets is something I usually like too, and she doesn’t ever really finish it, so I just kind of clean up, so I get the best of both worlds in that scenario.”
