It can be hard to find great Italian food in the Northwest. Compared to Italian-American meccas like New York and New Jersey, the Puget Sound's dominant cuisine focuses more on smoked salmon and hot dogs with cream cheese than boscaiola or picatta. And no, Olive Garden doesn't count. Still, there is a place in Tacoma (okay, fine, Parkland) where the Italian cooking is as top-of-the-line as what you'd find in NYC, or even Italy itself, and that place is Marzano.

Marzano was founded right across the street from Pacific Lutheran University by Elisa Marzano and her son. After a divorce, Marzano needed to find a way to support her children, and she decided that starting an Italian restaurant was the perfect solution.

"I knew that I could cook, so I had someone who had a small restaurant down the street, and with some help from my ex-father-in-law, we bought it from her, and got bigger and bigger and better, and created all different kinds of recipes," Marzano said.

Since the restaurant's beginnings, Elisa Marzano has been the head chef as well as the owner. Growing up in Vicenza, a city in northern Italy, she said she learned starting at 13 years old how to successfully operate an eating establishment, and also got to observe the chefs work their culinary magic.

Today, Marzano continues to feed hungry Tacomans and PLU students. Elisa Marzano said she has a secret for keeping customers coming back for more: a revolving-door menu that constantly changes.

"We change the menu quite a bit, and there are some things that I love on the old menu that are no longer there, and there are some things that I love now, but they won't be there next month," Marzano said. "When you go into a restaurant, sometimes, you get kind of bored to see the same things on the menu all the time."

However, Elisa Marzano makes it clear that the main emphasis for her restaurant is the quality of the food.

"I like to treat every customer that comes in like if I was going to dinner, and create the experience that I would like to have going to dinner," Marzano said. "We care about what we put out; money is not the number one focus for us, the food is, and creating a place where people really love to come back with their family, and most importantly, enjoy the meals."

Marzano Italian Restaurant, Lunch: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Dinner: 4 p.m.-8:30 p.m. Tues-Fri, 4 p.m. Saturday; Closed Sun and Mon, 516 Garfield St., Parkland, 253.537.4191, dinemarzano.com