Despite a promising start as a fun, kitschy Italian-American chain restaurant, Buca di Beppo has been struggling for the past two decades.

"You've gotta be joking. You can make fun [of] Buca di Beppo. It's always OK for you to do it. It's always OK and it's always funny," she says. "But for me, it's not. And again, you have treated ...