Café Mezzanotte is Everything You Want Italian to Be
Come il cacio sui maccheroni. Like cheese on macaroni. It’s a colloquial phrase in Italian that means something like “the perfect pairing.” When Café Mezzanotte opened in Severna Park 20 years ago, it was the vanguard of fine dining on the Ritchie Highway corridor. Generous servings of Italian-American favorites delivered by friendly staff in an atmosphere that was as appropriate for a business lunch as for a romantic rendezvous were the restaurant’s recipe for success. A lounge and live music helped. The Mezz, as it became known, was the perfect pairing of good food, wine, and company.
When Kosmas “Tommie” Koukoulis purchased the restaurant in 2008, his goal was to continue to serve the dishes his customers loved while focusing on a finer degree of food quality, preparation, and presentation. Together, with Executive Chef Zack Trabbold, that’s exactly what he did. Tommie and his team worked conscientiously to upgrade the Café Mezzanotte dining experience in a way that would appeal to their intensely loyal clientele while drawing in new customers. In a time when restaurants face more competition, fleeting loyalty, and risingcosts, Café Mezzanotte thrived.
In celebration of 10 years of ownership (Koukoulis also owns Capiche Street Food Italiano in Severna Park and Uncle Hawaiian Grindz in Fallston), Cafe Mezzanotte recently underwent a $750,000 renovation. New, upgraded seating was carefully chosen. Gone are the wall sconces, tired fixtures, and ubiquitous greenery, replaced with overhead recessed lighting and farmhouse-style wooden plant boxes filled with bountiful succulents that hang from the ceiling. Large, colorful, and modern photographs of the farms and purveyors who provide the local and sustainable foods seen on the menu define dining spaces. Even the logo and signage were updated to reflect cleaner, lighter details that extend from branding to ambiance to plate.
Lest diners familiar with the former Cafe Mezzanotte fret that the parmigiana, calamari, and marinara might be perfunctorily pushed from the menu, there’s no need to worry. All is well.
The new menu is abbreviated for simplicity. This makes choosing from the variety of risottos, freshly made pastas, and traditional favorites less intimidating. Lifeguard Calamari, composed of Rhode Island squid, breaded and fried, set on a bed of marinara sauce highlighted by the addition of Calabrian chili pepper aioli and roasted sweet peppers, was best eaten on the spot. For those first moments when the dredged and fried calamari were hot and crisp, this dish was everything I wanted it to be. In fact, it was a welcome contrast to others I’ve tried, these typically presenting as a pitiful showcase of over-breaded, over-fried, over-sauced and tough fish served alongside an insipid version of plebian marinara. This squid was the opposite of that. It was salty and spicy, acidic and sweet, full of texture. I scooped the last of it from the bottom of the bowl with my bread and wasn’t motivated to share.
Our favorite option from the twelve appetizers on the menu featured another fish: octopus. Braised and charred, served with similarly prepared diced eggplant on a bed of squid ink and garnished with basil oil, the octopus was perfectly prepared. The addition of squid ink was cautiously executed. Infused with lemon, the emulsion was quite tasty. As a great fan of all forms of fond, whether it’s the crispy, salty, flavor-filled bites scratched from a roast pan or those crusty bits of rice scraped from the bottom of the cooker, I enjoyed the contrast of textures and flavors in the dish and believed it to be executed just as planned.
Lamb meatballs were delicious and everything lesser, beefier polpettes are not: tender and light, with strong flavors of lamb and the nuanced addition of butternut puree with a hint of cumin. The pomegranate demi-glace lent a layer of flavor and texture that played well off the richness of the lamb, the crispy fried onion and fresh pomegranate seed garnish. The roasted Baby Root Vegetable platter was an unexpectedly colorful item. A bright pink beet mousse, surrounded by whole roasted baby carrots, diced turnips, and radish seasoned with a sweet cumin rub was set atop a drizzle of saffron citronette. The roasted vegetables were rich, the turnips creamy and tender within, while the outside boasted the lightest touch of crust. The smaller carrots were perfectly roasted, the larger ones had a bit too much crunch, but overall the flavors of an autumn roast at your Nona’s house came through.
Pancia mia fatti capanna. It means “get your belly ready for a big meal,” and this is indeed what you need to do if you plan a night out at Mezzanotte. Our dinner course started with a cream of crab soup. It’s daring to put this Chesapeake staple on a gourmet Italian menu. Daring in the sense that you are adding an item that doesn’t match the cuisine, but not at all in the sense that if you don’t some locals might complain. This version is quite good.
Dishes labeled ‘From the Land’ feature pasture-raised, sustainably produced livestock, most grown in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Bison Lasagna was presented as fresh sheets of pasta layered with whipped ricotta and studded with bites of ground bison. The béchamel was slight on nutmeg, the nuance of flavor wandering as though a little lost through the slices of beefsteak tomato, melted cheese, and house tomato sauce. The bison, though tender and flavorful, was less integrated into the sauce then in the ragu of traditional lasagna, wherein the meat is an instrument that plays a part in the movement but doesn’t overwhelm the symphony. The overall effect was exactly what diners can expect from Mezzanotte: a dish that runs up to the edge but doesn’t jump over.
This is not the case with the Pumpkin risotto. Roasted pumpkin romps with Italian sausage, bitter greens, and Gorgonzola cheese. The dish is bursting with flavor and spice, the hearty nature of the rice playing come il cacio sui maccheroni with the seasonal vegetables. Koukoulis makes Mezzanotte’s chewy and hearty version of risotto with non-GMO arborio and carnaroli rice, a nod to his overall goal of using ingredients that are natural and wholesome.
We started our dinner with three flights of wine. Best suited to our particular meal was my flight of Italian Reds. The Luigi Righetti Campolietti had delicate aromas of berry, raisin, and spice that paired particularly well with the roasted baby root vegetables and the risotto. The Contessa Annalisa Primitivo was full-bodied and bold, easy to sip, and excellent with the lamb meatballs and bison lasagna. The Camp Al Mare Super Tuscan, a blend of merlot, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, and petit Verdot was perhaps my favorite and led me to reminisce on Tuscan wine tastings, where blending the Super Tuscans is a bold and exciting art. At about $16 for three hearty pours, I recommend the flights as a way to affordably explore the menu’s variety.
I was excited for the dessert course. A parade of sweets included profiterole, tiramisu, a semifreddo candy bar, and, of all things, crème brulee. I was eager to dig into the brulee, which did not disappoint. The desserts are made from scratch at the restaurant and I am excited to try the specialties of Signor Ettore, a recent addition to the kitchen and an experienced Italian pastry chef.
Koukoulis wants to make his customers happy and he wants to feel good about how he does that. Whether it’s choosing environmentally friendly packaging (he says the five percent increase in costs from foregoing styrofoam is well worth the effort), purchasing local and sustainable products, composting leftovers, or relying on an abundant potager he grows off the rear patio, Koukoulis is creating an experience that is cotto a puntino or “Cooked to perfection.”
