Mucci’s Italian is a very small restaurant with an
unassuming (and unlabeled) storefront and room for about 40 people inside. On
weekend mornings, Mucci’s makes delicious fancy donuts. I don’t mean the same
garbage that everyone is doing, where they put on maple glaze and a strip of
bacon. That isn’t fancy. Fancy is what we saw when D.Rough and I rolled in and
shook hands with the super personable owner Tim (who may or may not recognize
us from frequenting his other restaurants). The donuts have some creativity and
they’re also larger than most donut places. I mentioned these weren’t snacking
donuts, these were meal donuts.
We got a vanilla glazed donut (with tons of
vanilla beans),
a salted caramel glazed something-or-other twist, a chocolate
glazed donut,
and a donut filled with mascarpone cheese, covered in chocolate
glaze, and then sprinkled with fried salami bits. I’m not joking. I can put
back some donuts, and I was honestly full after I ate the ONE mascarpone filled
donut. So embarrassing. I loved the donut, though! Salty and sweet and fried
and chocolate. There’s no bad part of this donut. We brought the other ones
home to eat for lunch, since we were quite full.
But, wait! There’s more! During the evenings, they serve
really interesting modern Italian food at an extremely reasonable price. We
knew right away after eating the donuts that we’d be back for dinner sometime.
That sometime was VERY shortly after the donut experience. This place doesn’t
take reservations, so when we rolled in, we were told there was a little bit of
a wait, but they suggested we walk down the block to The Spot – a wonderful St.
Paul dive bar – and wait for a call. We walked down, ordered a drink, Mucci’s
called, we pounded the drinks in one fell swoop, and walked back to Mucci’s.
They’re REALLY friendly here, and not in a bad or creepy way. Just super
helpful. We got seated at the counter (not a bar, despite it having high stools
to sit on), and everyone was able to help us.
The drink list is short, but they have everything you need
on it, including Prosecco on tap and a custom-made beer from Maine called Hive.
But they also have something called Mucci Juice – it’s red wine with Orange
Fanta in it. And it’s cheap. And it’s DELICIOUS. Just shut up and order this.
So good.
Deciding what to order was more of a challenge. Too many
good things on the menu. There is also a tasting menu available, which changes
each night, so you’ll have to ask about it. While it sounded wonderful, we had
sort of decided on getting one of their signature items: Deep fried pizza. They
roll out the dough, deep-fry it, and then put toppings on it before putting it
in the oven. Brilliant. So we got the Kenzie-Jo – crème fraiche, pears, pecans,
pancetta, mozzarella, and a red wine reduction. We also ordered the Devil Hair
pasta, which has cioppino, guanciale, mussels, mint, and chili oil. And since
we obviously needed a starter, we ordered some potato croquetas. Then we hung
out with the serving staff and got caught up on all the happenings and what
their favorites were and what were the best and worst sellers on the menu and
why. I will say, the counter is the place to sit – you get to watch ALL the
food being brought out, and you get to chat with really fun and helpful people.
The croquetas arrived and they were like big tater tots with
a delicious marinara-type sauce and locatelli (a very nice parmesan). They were
stacked high and looked incredible. They also tasted incredible. Very crunchy
outside and light and fluffy on the inside. I’m not sure how they got that
crunch on the outside, but it was perfect. The Mucci’s sauce has great flavor
with it and paired well with the salty cheese. A great start! Time to order
some wine!
Our entrees came out after we had finished up the croquetas.
The Devil Hair looked like a simple dish, but it had some very complex flavors
in it. The mussels were perfectly cooked and not chewy nor rubbery, and the
black pasta noodles were also cooked perfectly. The sauce the whole thing was
in was amazing, we were dipping everything in it to make sure we didn’t waste
it (yes, even the pizza crust, like savages – don’t judge us). The chili oil
just made this dish sing. Soooooooo good.
The Kenji-Jo pizza was awesome. The fried pizza dough is
like nothing I’ve had before – it’s brilliant. It tastes fried, but doesn’t
taste greasy. I’m a huge fan of this now. Each of the flavors had their own
profile in this pizza and the mozzarella didn’t hide any of it. Plus the wine
reduction was perfect on top of this pizza. Seriously, the best pizza I’ve had
in a really long time. You ned to get one of these Pizza Montanara (that’s what
they call the deep fried pizza).
Since we were already on a roll, we decided to get dessert,
although the decision was difficult. So we just doubled up. The chocolate
budino (like an Italian lava cake) has a scoop of olive oil gelato drizzled with olive oil and salt and is
exquisite! This was awesome. They home-make all of their gelatos, so you should
order a trio like we did. The red wine gelato was great, the pistachio was also
good, but the real winner was the coffee gelato – really great!
As you can see, we had nothing bad here. In fact, while we
were still eating, I was texting some of our friends and setting up a dinner
date with them the following Wednesday. That’s how good this place was. And we’ll
keep going back!!! Thank you, Mucci’s!!
Top 5 things about Mucci’s Italian
1. Kenzie-Jo Pizza Montanara
2. Devil Hair Pasta
3. Potato Croqeuta
4. Mucci Juice!!!
5. The staff was so impressive and fun
Bottom 5 things
1. Just a heads up, it isn’t labeled at all on the outside,
so you’ll likely drive past
2. No reservations (like the other restaurants they own),
but you won’t mind waiting for this food
3. The waiting area inside is pretty small, so you may end
up outside waiting for your table (or… go to The Spot! down the street to wait)
4. They’re not set up for groups of more than 4 (although
they were incredibly nice about rearranging furniture and booths for our group
of six when we came back with more people!)
5. The Mucci’s sauce is delicious, but some people like it
more spicy (which they are totally willing to spice up or change out for arrabbiata
sauce if you ask)
For example, these donuts are Blood Orange glazed and Pistachio glazed, respectively. They were absolutely incredible.
We also got a slice of their homemade pizza for breakfast. Brilliant idea, Mr. Niver. Thanks for making me give you all my money at all of your restaurants. hahaha
