Diana Unsell Buthion
Bellini’s Underground owner Diana Buthion, 57, recently sat down with The Oklahoman to talk about her life and career.
It wasn’t long after Diana Buthion took full ownership of Bellini’s restaurant a little more than a year ago that she changed the name of the eatery on the southeast corner of NW 63 and Pennsylvania to Bellini’s Underground. She’d heard from enough patrons that they’d forgotten about the restaurant — or forgotten how to get there.
Along with reminding customers via the new name that parking for and entrance to the restaurant is located underground at 6305 Waterford Boulevard opposite the Waterford Hotel, Buthion has hung an eye-catching red neon “OPEN casual dining” sign in Bellini’s north-facing windows.
“Many people mistakenly assume the restaurant is just for occasions, and a more dressy spot,” said Buthion, who employs 15.But Bellini’s lunch menu features a selection of burgers, panini sandwiches, salads and glutenfree pastas and pizza priced from $10 to $14. It offers a similarly priced Sunday brunch menu. And its dinner entrees — including signature pastas, seafood and steaks — mostly range from $18 to $26. The restaurant, which is closed on Mondays, has televisions for sports, and a petfriendly patio with a fire pit. The patio’s spring grand opening is set for April 12 and will feature music by Steve Crossley. From the restaurant, Buthion, 57, recently sat down with The
Oklahoman to talk about her life and career, including the more than two decades she’s worked in the restaurant industry.
This is an edited transcript: Q: Tell us about your roots. A: My dad was a co-pilot in the U.S. Air Force and moved, with my older sister, older brother and I — when we were 4, 2 and 6 months — from Bakersfield, California, to Midwest City. He raised us on his own, which I think is pretty incredible. I never knew my biological mother; she died of cervical cancer when I was 7.
In Midwest City, we had a live-in nanny whom we called “Grandma.” When I was 12, my father remarried my second mom. She was great. I was a skinny little thing, and she took me shopping to find clothes that fit. I also had a touch of scoliosis and, through her efforts, I wore a lift in one shoe for two years to alleviate it. Unfortunately, she died of a blood disorder 10 years after my dad and she married. My father remarried again; the stepmother I have today. But he since has passed away.
Q: What were the highlights of your school years?
A: In junior high, I played guard in half-court basketball and in high school, I played infield on the softball team. I was in the pep club and was treasurer of another club; I can’t remember which. My classmates since have told me they thought I was stuck up. But I wasn’t stuck up. I was shy, poor, had no mother for most of my life, and was scared to death of my shadow. Q: And college? A: I took business courses at what was then Oscar Rose Junior College in Midwest City. But I married my high school sweetheart, and first husband, soon after I graduated high school in March 1978 and started working.
Q: You’ve worked more than 20 years in the restaurant business, mostly back office. Where did you work?
A: I worked in accounting for the Skirvin Hotel until it closed in '88; then for La Baguette in the Journal Record Building downtown, and then three years as manager of the 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. graveyard
shift of the Times Grill. My ex-husband, French native Michel Buthion, and his brother subsequently bought La Baguette. I worked for La Baguette for most of our 23-year marriage, mainly keeping the books. Michel and his brother were the previous owners before I took over.
Q: What changes have you made to the Bellini’s menu since you took over in February of last year?
A: We dropped dishes with a French twist, which didn’t work, and brought back Bellini’s favorite Italian dishes, including pollo pancetta, lasagna, and spaghetti and meatballs. The chef for Tony’s Italian Specialties, the predecessor of Rococo Restaurant on Penn, helped out in the beginning. Fan favorites include our honey pecan salad, the chicken or veal Marsala, the chicken or veal piccata, and gnocchi, a potato and pasta mixture that I fell in love with on a
trip through the Italian countryside when I was six months pregnant with my firstborn.
Q: What have been some of your challenges so far?
A: Everything from our Bellini machine breaking to our keg fridge leaking. But I’m not a weenie. I’m prepared to do whatever it takes. My manager and I put an antifreeze hose back on one of our work trucks. If I can do it myself, I don’t call a service guy.
Q: What’s in your signature frozen Bellini drinks?
A: Rum, Champagne, peach schnapps and peach puree.