Boccie to open with new menu

Students will finally be able to sink their teeth into Boccie Pizza and Salads July 8, after months of anxiously awaiting its return. The new restaurant, located at 4040 Locust Street, combines the old Boccie and Saladalley restaurants, which closed last November. Under new ownership, the eatery has undergone numerous changes since the last time students dined on make-your-own pizzas and all-you-can-eat salads. There is no longer a boccie court in the center of the restaurant, and the wall which was situated between the two old restaurants has been torn down. And according to co-owner Henry Louie, the menu has also changed a bit -- but the old Boccie favorites are still there. "The aura of Boccie Pizza will still live on -- but a little tinkering has been done where tinkering has been needed," co-owner Dan Lei said. "Hopefully people will enjoy the changes." New on the menu will be four types of pastas with five different sauces, a variety of homemade sandwiches and salads, and a hot buffet with daily ethnic-oriented specials. Louie's wife, Connie -- who says she loves to cook -- is the restaurant's general manager in charge of the kitchen. Starting in the fall, Boccie Pizza and Salads will also serve a Sunday brunch, where patrons can choose from a menu of breakfast pizzas or calzones, as well as traditional breakfast items. The owners also hope the restaurant will become a late-night hangout for students. "We may keep the restaurant open after we stop serving pizza so we can serve the cappuccino after 10 o'clock and people can come in and have desserts," Henry Louie said. "But it's more of a casual hangout -- nothing too loud," added Lei. Desserts are Connie Louie's fortZ, so she has selected everything from chocolate mousse cake to the Boccie Ball -- ice cream with sorbet dipped in chocolate -- to be on the new menu. Both Lei and the Louies are no strangers to Pennsylvania -- Lei is a 1986 Wharton graduate of the University, and both the Louies attended Penn State. And interestingly enough, Henry Louie was once a fly fishing guide, and Connie Louie was a school teacher -- who "moved into the kitchen out of boredom." While at the University, Lei said he was a frequent customer of the old Boccie restaurant. "I used to come here to Boccie Pizza?as a customer because I really liked the pizza and I thought it was a great place," he said. "There was a lot of affection for this place -- people in the student body really liked it and they were very sad when it closed." Lei added that going from customer to owner has been somewhat of a dream come true, especially because now he can get his favorite kind of pizza -- scallops and bacon -- any time he wants. The restaurant has passed all health inspections, and is currently awaiting its liquor license, which should be in place by the July 8 opening, the owners said.