Bella Cucina owner Jennifer Pitt, above, says her restaurants offer ”authentic Italian food at reasonable prices.”

Editor’s note: Things change frequently in the restaurant business, and this article was written more than one year ago. The menu, service, atmosphere and quality may have changed.

Jennifer Pitt spent more than 25 years preparing to open an authentic Italian restaurant.

She traveled the country – eating at successful Italian restaurants – while working in product development, sales and marketing for an Italian frozen food manufacturer. She saw what worked and what didn’t. She experimented with recipes in her kitchen and then tucked her results on the back burner for years.

When she got tired of corporate travel and life in New York City, she moved to Oregon in 1985 and waited for the right opportunity.

An opportunity presented itself in Sunriver, and in May 2003, she opened Bella Cucina. A second location opened last month in Bend on the corner of Franklin Avenue and Third Street.

”I had been working on a menu for years. I tried to take the best of what I saw out there and put it all together,” said Pitt. ”Having researched the most successful Italian restaurants in the country, you figure out what the masses want and you give it to them.”

The philosophy for her restaurants is ”great food, great service, great prices.” Bella cucina means ”beautiful kitchen” in Italian.

The menu – which is the same at both locations – features fried mozzarella cheese with marinara sauce ($7), bruschetta ($7) and chicken pesto pizza ($8). Diners are served freshly baked focaccia bread with oil and vinegar within minutes of being seated. The restaurants carry a variety wines by the glass and bottle and offer Deschutes Brewery beers.

Popular entrees are the Pasta Milano ($14), a bowtie pasta with sauteed chicken and sun-dried tomatoes in a roasted garlic cream sauce, and Meat Lover’s Lasagna ($13), layers of pasta, meat sauce, spicy sausage, spinach and ricotta cheese. A house salad is $4 and a cup of minestrone soup is $3.

An Italian dinner wouldn’t be complete without tiramisu for dessert. Bella Cucina’s version soaks lady fingers in liqueur and espresso, layered with mascarpone cheese. The dish for two is $6.

Pitt said Atkins-friendly dishes are available for those watching their carbohydrate intake. The dishes are centered on the cheese sauces, which contain cheese, butter and cream. Vegetables are substituted for the pasta.

”It’s not zero calories, but it is zero carbs,” said Pitt, who is in her early 50s.

The restaurant offers a kids’ menu with dishes for $5.

”We’re a kid-friendly place. We’re not white tableclothes,” said Pitt. Reservations are not accepted, but patrons can call 20 minutes ahead for seating. The restaurant can handle private parties of up to 50 and is available for catering.

The Bend restaurant is located in the lava rock building that used to house Mexicali Rose and O’Healy’s restaurants. It features minimal decor with solid wood slab tables, many located in high-backed booths. Pitt was interested in the location nearly a year ago, but wanted to wait until the Sunriver location had been up and running for a while before venturing into Bend.

Pitt knew in June that the Bend restaurant would open in September and spent the summer training the cooks and staff in Sunriver. Other than working out the kinks of a new computer system, she said the opening has gone smoothly.

”Anyone who thinks it’s easy to run a restaurant, hasn’t run a restaurant,” said Pitt. ”It’s been a lot of excitement and very challenging. It’s also very rewarding when people say this is the best Italian food they’ve ever had.”

Heidi Hiaasen can be reached at 541-383-0351 or hhiaasen@bendbulletin.com.