Quebec government declares truce in its spat with spaghetti

MONTREAL – The Quebec government says its language watchdog was a little too aggressive in chasing after an Italian restaurant for excessive use of Italian on its menu.

The provincial minister responsible for language says she realizes the agency went too hard after the Montreal restaurant Buonanotte.

“I recognized that there was an excess of zeal,” Diane De Courcy told reporters Thursday in Quebec City.

The agency recently visited the Montreal eatery after receiving a citizen’s complaint, and it agreed that certain words on the menu needed to be switched to French.

Among them: “pasta,” “calamari” and “bottiglia” ( which means “bottle” in Italian). They did leave the word “pizza” alone.