CC's Dugout Italian Eatery

The Chicken Bombs are the tell. Fried wonton wrappers packed with spicy chicken and cheese, they announce a kitchen more interested in a good idea than in running the Italian-American standards straight. CC's Dugout Italian Eatery sits near Lincoln Street and Thorold Road East in Welland, and it wears its name the way it cooks — a wink at the dugout and the ballgame, built over a kitchen that makes its own sauces. The DeCiccio family took the place over in 2022 and kept the Aiello family's recipes and rhythms going, which is why the cooking reads as both settled and a little restless.

The pizzas hold the line between comfort and invention. The Sicilian arrives with house-made sausage crumble, roasted red peppers, pepperoni, basil and mozzarella; the eight-slice Margherita keeps to fresh mozzarella, basil and tomato sauce; and a Greek version loads on red onion, black olives, feta and grilled chicken. The Classico stays plain — cheese and cup-and-char pepperoni — for the table that wants the baseline done right. Pasta covers the expected ground: lasagna, homemade gnocchi, lobster ravioli, a vodka sauce that turns up in more than one dish. But the current special menu is where the kitchen stretches its legs. Fettuccine Al Pesto Di Mimmo comes in a homemade pesto cream with pancetta, red onion and roasted red peppers. Parm-crusted chicken lands over risotto alla vodka. The Killer Bee finishes house-made sauce and sausage crumble with jalapeno, pickled red onion and hot honey.

Read the whole menu and the picture sharpens: this is an Italian eatery that refuses to stay in one lane. A signature smash burger shows up under a bourbon bacon jam on brioche, next to a Philly cheesesteak, poutine, alfredo fries, a buffalo chicken sandwich and a plate of chicken wings. Starters run from arancini and fried calamari to oversized mozzarella sticks, pizza rolls, fried cheese ravioli and a pull-apart garlic bread ring built for the middle of the table. The desserts, all made in-house, close the range where the kitchen started — creme brulee, golden hazelnut frittelle and churros beside a Toblerone cheesecake and a chocolate peanut butter cup cheesecake stacked with ganache, caramel and peanut butter cups.

The Dugout in the name isn't only a flourish. The dining room leans into a casual, sports-bar look, and the crowd it pulls — families on a weeknight, a group settling in over the weekend — matches the menu's generosity more than any white-tablecloth ambition. Portions are big enough to guarantee a box on the way out, and the pricing sits in the comfortable middle. Walk-ins are welcome, there's a kid-friendly path through the classics, and gift cards wait at the counter.

The family thread runs underneath all of it. CC's carries the Aiello family's traditions forward under the DeCiccio family, who stepped in without treating the handover as a reset — the from-scratch sauces and the neighbourhood-restaurant instincts came with the keys. There is no celebrity chef here, and the restaurant doesn't reach for one. What it has instead is continuity: a Welland Italian kitchen passed between two families who both understood what the regulars kept coming back for, and a menu that has grown rather than turned over.

How the place gets used is built into the week. Lunch opens Thursday through the weekend and dinner runs later Tuesday through Saturday, with beer, wine, takeout and delivery rounding out a night that doesn't need much planning. An online booking page handles the evenings when timing matters — a family dinner, or a group that wants starters and a couple of shared pizzas without waiting for a table. Mangia Monday and a Thursday date-night dinner give the regulars a reason to keep a rotation going. Come hungry: the portions are sized for leftovers, and by the time the frittelle arrive the table usually holds more food than anyone planned for.