Puccini's Smiling Teeth keeps teeth happy, customers smiling

According to their website, the people behind Puccini’s Smiling Teeth feel that after you visit them “each of your teeth should individually be happier than they have ever been before.”

Yes, this is still a website that reviews bars and restaurants. No, Puccini’s Smiling Teeth is not a dentist’s office. What Puccini’s is: a surprisingly delicious pizza and pasta place “with personality”; part of a 13-locations-in-two-states chain, started in 1991 in Indianapolis; an affordable, friendly, completely unpretentious place to eat in a part of town otherwise devoid of a soul (That’s not an opinion. Puccini’s shares a strip of road with two malls, a Best Buy, a Chick-Fil-A, a Cheesecake Factory and an immeasurable amount of strip malls, one of which it is part of.); possibly (and a bit inexplicably) this Examiner’s better half’s favorite restaurant of all time.

Puccini’s credo may be a bit whimsical, if nonsensical, but no one is going to claim it inappropriate. The place is laid back – servers often wear whatever they want, the kitchen’s boombox often overheard in the dining room – and irreverent – a faux cubism motif adorns the walls and gives a sort of Tim-Burton-had-a-bad-acid-trip-and-decided-to-open-up-a-Chuck-E.-Cheese feel to the place. In fact, speaking of Chuck E. Cheese, kids will be there, but Puccini’s is good and cheap enough that you (probably) won’t notice.

So, in a town egregiously overrun with mediocre pizza joints, why brave the trip into the suburban sprawl that is Shelbyville Road to Puccini’s Smiling Teeth, a chain restaurant no less? It’s satisfying. It’s relatively inexpensive. It’s a chain, but a local chain. Pasta dinners come with (really fresh) salads (with made-in-house dressings), most appetizers are, like, four bucks (and often half-off), and everyone of their specialty pizzas start at around $8 for a “personal” sized pie that you most likely won’t be able to finish (try eating for that price at Impellizzeri’s). 

And what of their happy hour, daily specials and everyday drink prices? Collectively, some of the best in Louisville:

Happy Hour:

• Monday – Wednesday: ½ off appetizers, 4pm-Close

Daily, All Day $2.95/glass Wine Specials:

• Sunday: Cabernet
• Monday: White Zinfandel
• Tuesday: Chianti
• Wednesday: Chardonnay
• Thursday: Merlot

Slice, Salad and Drink Weekday Lunch Special:

• Large slice of pizza (one specialty veggie, one specialty meat slice offered daily), garden salad and soft drink, $6.95

Every Day Deals:

• Bud Light $2.95/pint, $8.95/pitcher
• Kentucky Ale, BBC Nut Brown, Sam Adams Seasonal $3.50/pint $10.95/pitcher
• Glass of house wine $3.95.

Puccini's Smiling Teeth

4600 Shelbyville Road

(502) 721-0170

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