A few weeks ago, I watched the movie “Goodfellas” for the first time (I know, I know).
My friend has seen it countless times. But revisiting an old favorite alongside a first-timer brings a different sort of excitement, she said. Aren’t there some films, books or songs you wish you could experience again for the first time?
Food editor Jess Fleming asked you all where the new guy (that’s me!) should eat to learn the St. Paul dining scene, and I received more than 50 recommendations of your favorite restaurants. I grew up in a west metro suburb but moved to Missouri and then Boston and fell into a yearslong second career as a cheesemonger before joining the Pioneer Press food and features team this summer.
Now that I’m back home in the Twin Cities, I’m grateful to get to experience your favorite St. Paul restaurants for the first time. And I want to take you on my journey of discovery.
St. Paul’s Italian favorites proved to be a perfect place to begin. The old-school and the new are represented here. And I am firmly of the belief that any possible combination of a carb, cheese and tomato has a very high likelihood, statistically speaking, of being absolutely incredible.
So let’s get started.
LOUIS RISTORANTE
I’m a lifelong Cossetta fanboy, but I’d never climbed up to Louis. Like the downstairs eatery, the food at Louis shines best when the folks behind the scenes keep things simple.
My whole dining party agreed: The best plate on our table was the pollo florentine. The chicken scaloppine with sauteed spinach and a lemony sauce was juicy and bright. And that polenta on the side! I think the best bite I had all night was just a forkful of straight polenta. Seriously. Chicken parmigiana was also, as expected, delightful. About halfway through the meal, the server revealed it’s the same recipe as the cafeteria-style line downstairs, which I adore. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it — but at the same time, I might as well pay the downstairs price for it.
The appetizer department, on the other hand, was largely a miss. The spiedini di mozzarella felt squandered: The breaded and deep-fried cheese was doorstop-like in appearance, dryness, and, unfortunately, flavor. We also sprung for the beet salad from the fall specials menu; I like to imagine the kitchen had fun assembling the Lincoln Log tower of beet bricks, but it was too fancy for its own good. The joyful, jovial ambiance in the restaurant was contagious, though, and I went to sleep happy afterward.
Louis Ristorante + Bar: located on the 3rd floor of Cossetta at 211 7th St W.; (651) 222-7378; cossettas.com/louis-ristorante-bar
DeGIDIO’s
My dining partner and I started our meal with the garlic cheese bread, served with a tomato dipping sauce. Good stuff. I am pleased to report my carb/cheese/tomato theory stands. This spot came at the recommendations of both Mike and Lois, and to them, I am grateful. DeGidio’s has been around for almost 90 years; may they have 90 more.
The chicken parmesan was great — broiled, crispy cheese on top of a satisfyingly hearty chicken breast. I ate a lot of chicken parm this week, and these guys set the bar high. The sauce in the rigatoni alla vodka had a nice spice to it and the little burratini balls on top were a nice touch, although I wish the herb chimichurri on top had a skosh more salt.
With a glass of Chianti, a delightful evening that wasn’t terribly expensive for the amount of food we enjoyed. And the wedding reception we could hear in the back room sounded like great fun, so congrats to the happy (and well-fed) couple.
DeGidio’s: 425 7th Street W.; (651) 571-4928; degidios.com
MUCCI’S
Let me begin by admitting that my planning skills leave something to be desired. Mucci’s indoor space (reservations only) and their outdoor patio (walk-ins only) are each gorgeous in their own ways; on a recent evening, I enjoyed a meal outside. You can guess why. Luckily, the weather was gorgeous, and the wood paneling and lights felt appropriately European.
Our server knew the menu well enough to steer us in the right direction toward a meal that was not too bread-forward, not too tomato-heavy. The right balance. We started with the garlic montanara, a fun pizza-crust-turned-garlic-bread situation. The pleasantly spicy arrabiata dipping sauce — I noticed the same quality in the marinara-like “Mucci’s sauce” in the chicken parmesan, too — had a faint tinny quality, as if it hadn’t quite finished cooking down.
The chevre- and ricotta-filled agnolotti: Great. Pasta was cooked perfectly, and the kale pesto was much more herbaceous than saucy, so it didn’t feel smothering. The sheep’s milk pecorino on top was the right cheese choice, too. Parmigiano reggiano wouldn’t have worked as well here. What can I say; I’m a cheese guy.
The chicken parmesan, unfortunately, fell short. The cheese on top seemed unmistakably closer to the green-canister shelf-stable stuff than any fresh parm. And the ratio of breading to chicken, thickness-wise, was not quite right. The thick spaghetti was a fun touch, though. I’m sticking to DeGidio’s or Cossetta for chicken parmigiana, but I’ll wholeheartedly come back here for pasta or pizza.
(To close our meal, I opted for the dessert special — rice pudding arancini with spiced orange marmalade — which was a mistake. I adore the concept; poor execution, though.)
Mucci’s Italian: 786 Randolph Ave.; (651) 330-2245; muccisitalian.com
CARBONES PIZZA
Before you ask, yes — I went to the right place. The one on Randolph. In an email, Linda told me they “make our dough, sausage and sauce in house from the original recipes brought back from Chicago by the Carbone family,” and I could tell. The classic cheese pizza? Incredible. Give me spoonfuls of that sauce. I also ordered spaghetti and meatballs. Why not? When in Rome, as they say. The meatballs were particularly well-seasoned, and the marinara sauce was once again just as sweet and savory as I hoped it would be. Plus, they give you your own mini-loaf of garlic toast. I proudly joined the clean-plate club.
I also grabbed The Lafay, which they tout as “our own special creation” that involves sub sandwich ingredients “stuffed between two pizza crusts.” I’ll admit I was envisioning some sort of calzone or stromboli situation, so I was a little surprised (and disappointed) to receive a somewhat dry concoction with fillings simply placed between two loose, sauceless 10-inch pizza crusts. Skip that. But Carbone’s was the most affordable of all the Italian favorites Pioneer Press readers recommended to me, and I’ll be back for sure.
Carbones Pizza: 1698 Randolph Ave.; (651) 698-0721; carbonesonrandolph.com
HYACINTH
A former co-worker consistently raved about birthday dinners here, so I was excited when reader Leah emailed me to recommend Hyacinth among her favorite spots in St. Paul. “Let me tell you all the ways these places are unique and have the best food and great ambiance,” she wrote to me. Walking into such a cozy and well-designed space, I could see what she meant.
A salad with trendy Badger Flame beets, apple, tomatillo, and a cheddar pesto was wonderfully inventive. My dining partner commented that it felt like a “Top Chef” dish, with every carefully chosen component playing cleverly off one another. When she got up to use the restroom between this course and the next, I was impressed to see a staff member quietly re-fold her napkin; in another city, I thought, Michelin guide scouts would have their eye on this place. The chicken liver crostini (more of a toast, really) felt like a fun riff on a PB&J, with Peking Duck vibes.
I honestly, sincerely, passionately wish the rest of the meal had lived up to the stellar first half. We opted for the garganelli (“cauliflower, capers, anchovies, breadcrumbs”) as a primi and the risotto al salto (“chanterelle mushrooms, hazelnuts, robiola”) as a secondi. Both were white, creamy, starchy, somewhat dull dishes, which made me sad. The beautifully rolled garganelli pasta deserved a better fate than to be buttered up and buried in bland breadcrumbs. (Where were the anchovies? Or other strong flavors? Bueller?) The risotto, which was pan-fried and resembled a giant latke or a perfectly round hash brown, had an overpowering flavor of burnt cheese-oil that was extraordinarily unpleasant.
Did we make a mistake in ordering? On this small of a menu, with dishes as pricey and ostensibly well-honed as these, a diner shouldn’t be in a situation where they accidentally stumble into a series of less-exciting options — or, at least, servers should stop us before we do. Soon after our dessert (the churro-like siringate) was served in a chipped ceramic bowl, staff flipped on the overhead fluorescent lights over the open kitchen behind the bar. One guy sat on a counter back there, swinging his legs, while we settled our check. Time to go home, I guess.
Hyacinth: 790 Grand Ave.; (651) 478-1822; hyacinthstpaul.com
LA GROLLA
For the final stop on my St. Paul reader-recommended Tour of Italy, I found myself at La Grolla, the neighborhood spot in Cathedral Hill. Rumor has it they have one of the city’s best patios, and I duly sat outside, at least until it began to rain.
Pre-rain, I enjoyed their hot rosemary bread with olive oil (the first basket is on the house) and the gorgonzola-stuffed fried green olives. Steamy and salty on a dreary day, which was exactly what I wanted. After being ushered inside, I sprung for the gnocchi salentina. The potato gnocchi themselves were wonderfully tender with just a little bite. As for the sauce, the menu boasted “fresh tomato,” and I was quite pleased to encounter large chunks of hand-cut tomato, which felt special. The light spice added some welcome intrigue to the dish, too.
In her recommendation email to me, Kathy praised La Grolla and said she’s “so happy that it survived COVID.”
I am, too.
La Grolla: 452 Selby Ave.; (651) 221-1061; la-grolla.com
