I was on my way to look up this new and exotic dish when I pronounced it out loud.
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Altoona seemed like a perfectly nice small city in central PA when I visited 5 years ago.
Some of you sound like snobs.
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I was born in Brooklyn and grew up in northern NJ. You can take the girl outta Joisey, but the accent comes back when appropriate. 
Then again, I actually didn’t HAVE a Jersey accent growing up, as my mother and grandmothers were speech and English teachers, so i wasn’t allowed to absorb any of them. But now, as a Massachusetts resident, I definitely say “wicked pissah” on occasion.
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I’ve kind of lost my “R’s” since I married a man from New Bedford in 1978. My family comments on it when I go home to Ohio…
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It’s a small town with a big opioid problem, a cute ball park, and mediocre food. The Popeye’s is the only thing it’s got going for it.
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Finelli’s is pretty good.
Altoona, with a population of 43 000, looks like it has more good Italian food options than London, Ontario, population 424 000.
We have a huge opioid (and meth) problem here, too.
I lost an 18 yo cousin (Aliquippa, PA) to Oxycontin overdose on Feb 1, 2000. Another older cousin who was addict in PA died from liver failure in 1996. So- that’s why some family weddings in the Pittsburgh area are dry weddings.
I feel bad the Rust Belt has had so many addiction problems.
Corporate greed led to this.
I like Popeye’s, but if I’m stopping in Altoona, I’m going to support a small business.
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Also, and this has been bugging me from the start: it’s unique. Not “so unique,” or “very unique.”
Unique isn’t gradable. >takes off teacher’s hat<
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I don’t like IA food. In a local food group on Fb, dining options in Altoona came up. People touted “great” Italian food (Finelli’s), Thai was mentioned, a ‘new’ American restaurant.
I checked their websites. Meh.
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Finelli’s is still better than Popeye’s for me. Pretty sure I had veal scallopine al limone, or veal parm, but it was pre-pandemic, and the menu on their FB page looks different than I remember.
Of course, your mileage may vary.
I can understand not liking or seeking out Italian American food.
Philosophical question: Does a town/city need an Italian community and history to have good Italian food?
We could obviously fill in the blank with city and ethnicity, but
since we’re talking about Altoona, I went with this.
I’m interested in the idea that good food can only be found in big cities.
No, but it helps.
Altoona and many parts of Central and Western PA had a lot of Italians, Poles, Ukrainians, Irish, Germans, etc.
Thank God some of my cousins married Italians, and improved the food situation at weddings, parties and funerals.
That whole Pittsburgh Cookie Table thing? Thank the Italians for that.
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Interesting. I am from Philly, which has no shortage of good Italian–from red sauce to high-end regional specialists. But I think my favorite Italian meals were served in a restaurant in Staunton, VA, 
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I’m not sure why Agriturismo hasn’t taken off in the States, other than at places like $$$ Blackberry Farm.
Some of my best meals have been in villages or towns.
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There is no good Italian (actual Italian, not IA) within a radius of about a 100 miles where I live, but there is mod def good food to be had…… just not Italian.
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Yes, it bugs me too.
Sort of like how you can’t be “very” pregnant.
Which begs the questions, can a person be uniquely pregnant?
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Besides Mary?
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This drives me nuts. Unique (the uni is a clue!) means there’s only one. Either there is one, or there is more than one. There cannot be “so much one” or “very one” of something. What’s happened is that unique is now used as a synonym for special, like “frequent” is sometimes used as a synonym for “visit,” resulting in sentences like “We frequent that restaurant often.” 
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I sense a strong logomachy is among us …
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It’s incurable.
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Epic, quintessential, artisinal and uber drive me nuts.
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