Dining Out: Mamma Lucia

Buon Gusto!

It seems there are Italian restaurants on every corner, in some parts of Brooklyn, yet many of them deliver what is ultimately more an American experience than an Italian one.

On the other hand, there is Mamma Lucia, a staple in Victorian Flatbush for 38 years.

With Neapolitan-style cuisine served up in a cozy restaurant that seems more like a trattoria on a side street in the Mezzogiorno than a restaurant in Brooklyn, this jewel box of an eatery brings together authentic atmosphere and cuisine, skillfully yet unassumingly.

Our early Saturday evening dinner included several of the restaurant’s traditional dishes, made to order. Good food takes time, stresses owner Giorgio Migliaccio, who opened the restaurant with his brother and his mother, who worked in the kitchen and for whom the eatery is named.

In the meantime, diners can sit back, relax in the candlelit dining room, enjoy the Italian pop music that’s being played and dunk their chunks of bread into a dish of olive oil studded with black olives.

Our meal started with a restorative bowl of Pasta e Fagioli ($5.50), one of two classic Italian soups (the other is Minestrone) that alternate on the menu. It was filling and warming, chock full of pasta, white beans and chunks of celery, the perfect antidote to the winter chill.

We then shared an Antipasto Casa ($10.50), a platter brimming with vegetables and accented with olives, slices of salami and cheese, as well as marinated artichokes and peppers.

In classic Italian style, the pasta course came next. “In Italy,” joked Migliaccio, “it’s against the law to serve the pasta with the main dish.”

We sampled the Spaghetti Marinara and the Spaghetti with Garlic and Oil (both $13.50 for a full-size portion).Both were perfectly al dente, the clearly long-cooked Marinara sauce displaying a wonderful depth of flavor which was enhanced with a finishing touch of fresh basil. The Spaghetti with Garlic and Oil boasted numerous slices of garlic and flecks of parsley, for a classic take on a classic dish.

The primo piatto was followed by the main course: in our case, Shrimp Parmigiana ($19.95) large, tender and succulent, blanketed in marinara sauce and topped with melted mozzarella, and Chicken Frances ($16.75), battered cutlets bathed in a rich and unctuous, lemon-inflected sauce.

To accompany the food, we drank Passa Tempo Chianti, which Mamma Lucia offers for $26.50 a bottle. It was smooth and buttery, and a perfect foil for the food.

For dessert, we enjoyed Cheesecake and Tiramisu (both $6.75). The cheesecake, which is Italian style with ricotta, was light and luscious; the Tiramisu, an elaborate construction of ladyfingers, Marsala-soaked sponge cake and mascarpone cream, was served like a slice of cake, for a grand finale that was as elegant as it was delicious.

Before heading back into the cold, we each savored a cup of cinnamon-sprinkled Cappuccino ($4.50), which really was the perfect finishing touch to a marvelous meal.

Besides its a la carte menu, on most evenings, Mamma Lucia offers several dinner specials for $21.95 that include an appetizer, a main dish, a side of pasta, coffee and dessert.

For Valentine’s Day, the eatery will offer a special menu, with a choice of six entrées whose price is determined by the main dish (Chicken all Mamma Lucia and Frances are $27; Veal Marsala, Veal Parmigiana, Shrimp Marinara and Shrimp Parmigiana are $28). The menu includes an appetizer, a pasta, coffee or tea, and dessert.

MAMMA LUCIA
1701 Foster Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11230
718-434-9858
Mammaluciasbrooklyn.com
Wednesday-Sunday: 3-11 p.m.
Take-out available