Munch goes to Mateo's Cucina Italiana
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Munch has it all backward (so what else is new?). While the rest of the free world is limiting carbs, trying to fit into their skinny Lucky-brand jeans once more, Munch is somewhat liberated from the whole "New Year, New Me" artifice, in so much that your Elephantine Epicure never fit into those skinny jeans to begin with. Plus, Munch buys all Munch's jeans at Sears. Why go to two different stores to buy a pair of jeans and a miter saw when you can do it all in one trip?
In other words, bring on the carbs, jerks.
Last week, as you may recall, Munch took you to the squeaky new Noodles & Company in Market Square. This week, we shall venture into Brookline after dark (wouldn't you watch a show called "Brookline After Dark"? Starring Jimmy Motznik as the street-smart district judge who won't back down from a fight yet bolts at the sight of a TV camera? Munch would.) to visit Mateo's Cucina Italiana, a pocket-sized noodle-and-red-sauce spot that just so happens to be right next to the liquor store, all the better for grabbing a bottle of chianti before dinner.
As small as Mateo's is -- eight tables, with seating for maybe 20 -- its old location, about six storefronts away at 732 Brookline, was smaller still, almost comically so with just two tables. Now, the cafe is at 718 Brookline in a former hair salon, still small enough that it can comfortably be called adorable but with enough chairs that you could seat a full dinner party.
The kitchen may be bigger, but the menu hasn't expanded much since the move two years ago -- eight or so hoagie-style paninis, a few soup and salad options, seven noodles to choose from, a dozen side orders and a handful of entrees, including some rotating nightly specials on the blackboard (on the night of Munch's visit, those specials included spaghetti bistecca, eggplant parmesan, stuffed rigatoni and linguini con clam).
As John Goodman once possibly said, "salads are for nihilists," so let's skip those and go right to the rice balls, or arancini di riso , a Sicilian croquette treat ($5.50) that is surprisingly difficult to find on Italian menus these days. Mateo's serves them two on a plate, and that's plenty, as these fried mounds of rice, mozzarella, tomato, garlic and beef fall into your stomach like a muddy stone -- but in a pleasant way, in the manner of all good comfort food.
Also pleasing, though not a standout, was Cucina's beans and greens appetizer ($6.95), served in enough mild broth that it might have been considered a soup. There are two kinds of people in this world -- people who like more beans than greens, and people who like more greens than beans. Munch likes the former, Mateo's serves the latter.
But pasta is proprietor Franco Gualtieri's metier, so it's time to try some noodles. Munch settled into a nice plate of red sauce and meatballs over penne ($9.95), piquant, not too sweet, as can sometimes happen with an over-sugared red sauce. Dear One Of Munch's pasta fagioli ($4.95) was a proper mix of beans, pasta and red, earthy and plain, a reminder of its peasant-food beginnings. A small side of ravioli ($4.50) was lightly cheesy and doughy.
On a given night, dessert specials include spumoni or tiramisu cups, but there is only one dessert to be found on the standard menu -- cannoli ($3). Munch's was drizzled in chocolate, and DOOM's in raspberry syrup, but inside they were the same: "Pretty freaking delicious," to quote DOOM. Sweet, silky ricotta, housed in a thinly fried pastry shell, it might have been one of the lighter menu items, even though it's a dessert.
It's somewhat ironic that the new Mateo's opened in a former hair studio, because eating at Mateo's is a lot like a visit to the barbershop. If you linger after dessert, chances are even that Franco, who came to Pittsburgh from Italy in 1983 and married a Brookline girl, will wander out of the kitchen and into the dining room, holding court, talking religion and politics, as a barber might on a slow day. Wonder if Franco ever met Dan Cercone.
Munch has been at this gig for more than 16 years, and in that time, the Gloomy Gourmand has seen a lot of Pittsburgh's neighborhoods change. Brookline is one of them, but it's not the type of rapid, neighborhood-shattering change that frightens the old-timers. Instead, what Brookline Boulevard offers is a traditional main street, with a few gradual wrinkles -- a Lebanese grocery, a Mexican butcher, a pretzel shop, a new deli and a coffee spot all coexist with the old bakeries, sports bars and tobacco shops.
Mateo's, now 4 years old, is another of those slight wrinkles. Here's hoping it sticks around long enough to develop crow's feet.
First Published January 19, 2012 12:00 am
