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COBB COUNTY, Ga. - It's been an Atlanta area legend for years. If you're pregnant and near your due date, rumor has it you're supposed to go eat the eggplant parmesan at Scalini's Italian Restaurant. It's supposed to put you into labor. Doctors even send patients there!
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Recently, the two resident pregnant ladies of Good Day Atlanta, Katie Beasley and Alyse Eady, took a trip out to the Cobb County restaurant to try it out.
For nearly 38 years, Scalini's Italian Restaurant has been a hot spot with expecting women. "I would say on any given night we get about five to six pregnant women in, weekends even more, but it's very popular," says Robert Bogino, the General Manager of Scalini's Italian Restaurant.
By word of mouth, the restaurant and it's eggplant parmesan have become well known for helping women go into labor within about 48 hours.
"My mother actually ate this dish when she was pregnant with me, therefore I became the first eggplant baby," Robert shares.
"So what's the secret?" Alyse asks. "Well if I told you that, then you'd open your own restaurant!" Robert replies to laughter. "We have had doctors do special studies on it and eggplant does have a special enzyme in it called that helps to induce labor. Also they say it's probably a combination of the spices we use, and kind of overeating when you're here a little bit, because you get the salad and bread with it and probably just a little bit of belief in there too, that probably helps."
The restaurant estimates they've helped with thousands of eggplant babies, but it's a tough number to calculate. They keep a log of expecting women, and highlight those that call back or send in a baby photo.
"Then we put their baby's picture up on the famous baby wall and they get a gift certificate and a little baby t-shirt, so it's like they become part of the family forever," Robert says.
What started as one frame, has now overtaken the walls of the restaurant. So could Alyse or I make the wall? We were willing to try!
"It's going to be eggplant medallions, lightly breaded and fried. You can get it with marinara or meat sauce and it's going to have a little bit of ricotta cheese in there topped with mozzarella cheese, and then of course you get all the salad and bread with it too," describes Robert.
"Is your bag packed?" Katie asks Alyse. "No, it needs to be though. Is yours?" Replies Alyse. "No," responds Katie.
For a while, there were only Mmmmm noises coming from our table.
"This is really good," says Alyse. "Oh wow. This is awesome," adds Katie.
"48 hours. Who's it going to be first? You or me? My money is on you. It's totally going to be you," says Alyse.
The clock is ticking, and only time will tell if one of us can make the wall, but one thing is certain right away. We both give Scalini's Eggplant Parmesan a Buck Lanford thumbs up.
Robert says the farthest anyone has driven from to eat the eggplant parmesan is Arizona. He says they get a lot of requests to ship the dish, even overseas, but they do n't do that for food safety concerns.
After we taped this piece, Alyse Eady went into labor during that 48 hour window after eating the Scalini's eggplant parmesan. Baby Sofia made her arrival at 11:19 p.m. on October 3. So she made the wall!
If you can't make it to Scalini's, you can get this same dish somewhere else. The owner of Scalini's also started Provino's Italian Restaurants too, and the same dish is on the menu there.
The restaurant also lists out the recipe to the dish on their website, click here.