In New York City, Mamma Guidara’s is currently the hardest reservation to book. In fact, all tables have been booked out up to December 2016 (there is, though, still a glimmer of hope in the form of a waitlist).
The Sunday evenings-only Italian-American ‘pop-up’ is the brainchild of three-Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park’s Will Guidara, whose father ran the now-defunct Italian-American institution, Mamma Leone’s in Times Square. For one day a week, Guidara who works with business partner and chef Daniel Humm to dress down the Nomad Bar’s sleek, mahogany interiors with red-and-white checked table cloths, complete with candles set atop recycled Chianti bottles.
Don’t expect any fancy food here, though. Mamma Guidara’s serves up some good ol’ ’red-sauce’ Italian-American, where dishes from the hearty four-course meal are meant to be shared and enjoyed, family-style, the last hurrah of the weekend of a weekend well-spent. When we were there, Tom Hanks, Steve Martin and Jerry Seinfeld were all on the next table— just an indication of how coveted these seats are!
Here are the 5 key things you need to know about them:
1) It’s open only on Sunday evenings.
“In addition to being business partners, Daniel and I are also best friends—and it’s always good for our relationship for us to find time together outside the restaurant,” shared Guidara.
“We have had a tradition for quite some time of dinner together at home on Sunday nights. And more often than not, we cook Italian-American food (my favourite!) A few months back, our general manager at Nomad, Jeff Tascarella, was at one of those dinners. He loved the food, and started really pushing us to bring the experience to the public. Since it started as a Sunday tradition, we thought it appropriate to offer it only on Sundays.”
2) There is no printed menu. A four-course dinner costs USD$68 per head, excluding wines.
“In the same way that having a printed menu at a dinner in one of our apartments would feel silly, it didn’t feel right here,” explained Guidara. “We wanted the experience to feel just as casual as if you came to one of our homes, and feel the conversational nature of the ordering process achieves exactly that. It’s also inspired by some of our favorite Italian -American restaurants, where dialogue replaces menus.”
While the menu may slightly change from week to week, it will always start out with an antipasti spread and house-made semolina bread; Caesar salad, baked clams, fried calamari and meatballs with marinara sauce; a choice of chicken cooked parmesan, marsala or piccata style; a choice between spaghetti marinara or cacio e pepe pasta; and dessert of tiramisu and cannoli.
3) Their chicken parm is the talk of the town—and with good reason.
The New York Post boldly declared it as “the best thing you’ll eat all year.” Eater NY’s headline reads, “Get ready for the chicken parm for two.” And yes, it is pretty memorable.
Firstly, it’s large—it takes up the entire surface of the plate it is served on—and the crispy breading cuts through to a juicy well-seasoned meat.
What’s the secret? It's made with love. “We are not reinventing any of the dishes, just trying to make them nice, and honour the time-honed recipes that people have loved for years,” shared Guidara. “But Daniel and his team have just put as much care into these dishes as they do anything we serve at our restaurants, so the result is pretty delicious!”
4) While Mamma Guidara’s was inspired by Mamma Leone’s, all recipes served at Mamma Guidara's are created by Daniel Humm.
“We did a bunch of tastings to make sure that they were appropriately nostalgic, but the idea was to make them taste even better than the ones I grew up with.” Yep, where else can you try a Humm-chicken parm or Humm-calamari?
5) The best news is… Mamma Guidara's will keep its doors open through 2017.
Book your reservations here.
In addition to Mamma Guidara’s, Humm and Guidara have also launched their food truck, the Nomad Truck in Los Angeles, and they will be opening Made Nice, their counter service restaurant next to the Nomad Bar at the Nomad Hotel in New York City in the next couple of months.
