Mosca's
Encyclopedia
Mosca's is a Louisiana Creole
Italian
restaurant in Avondale, Louisiana
, near New Orleans. Operated by the same family since it opened in 1946, it has long been regarded as one of New Orleans' best restaurants, known for dishes such as Oysters Mosca, crab salad, and Chicken a la Grande.
before they moved to New Orleans in 1946, after their daughter, Mary, married a Louisiana oysterman, Vincent Marconi. They opened Mosca's in Avondale, a remote area on the West Bank of the Mississippi River
, in a building owned by New Orleans crime family
boss Carlos Marcello
, who became a regular customer of the restaurant. Marcello's son still owns the restaurant building. (It is also sometimes reported that Provino Mosca had been a chef for Al Capone
in Chicago, but the family says this is untrue.)
Provino died in 1962. Lisa (by then known as "Mama Mosca"), two of their children, Johnny
and Mary, and Mary's husband Vincent took over the restaurant. "Mama Mosca" died in 1979 and Vincent died in 2004. The restaurant was damaged in Hurricane Katrina
but reopened in 2006, repaired and with a larger, air-conditioned kitchen, but otherwise mostly unchanged. Johnny mostly retired after the hurricane, but Johnny's wife Mary Jo Angelotti, who took over as chef after Mary retired, continues to operate the restaurant with other family members, including Johnny (until his death in 2011) and Mary Jo's daughter Lisa.
Mosca's received an America's Classics award from the James Beard Foundation
in 1999.
bridge, and its ramshackle exterior, as well as for its distinctive Italian Creole food.
Writing in the 1970s, pioneer New Orleans food writers Richard and Rima Collin described the restaurant as "a white shack on the left in almost total isolation" and rated it as one of New Orleans' "Best of the Best", calling it "a joyous place with no airs whatsoever, bubbling over with the noise of serious eating on a massive scale" and a "New Orleans institution". They described the food's heritage as deriving from "the middle of Italy, the Romagna-Lazio region, rich in seafood." (According to the restaurant's website, Provino Mosca came from San Benedetto del Tronto
, a coastal city on the Adriatic Sea
in the Marche
region of central Italy.)
In her New Orleans food memoir Gumbo Tales, Sara Roahen says, "Mosca's is just the sort of family-run restaurant that New Orleanians tend to covet: it's creaky, set in its ways, and no picnic to find."
In an edition of Roadfood written after Hurricane Katrina, Jane and Michael Stern
comment that the restaurant seems unchanged since its reopening. They ask the rhetorical question, "can this two-room joint with the blaring jukebox really be the most famous Creole roadhouse in America?"; then they describe the experience as a "culinary epiphany", and say that "roadside food gets no better, or more garlicky, or heartier, than this."
Calvin Trillin
, in a November 2010 article about the restaurant in The New Yorker
, also remarks on its seemingly unchanged nature since 1946. He recounts that the Mosca family had once considered moving the restaurant to a more convenient location, but the idea had met substantial resistance from their mostly local customer base.
Reviews of the restaurant often note that almost every party orders more or less the same items from Mosca's relatively short menu, served family-style in very large portions. These popular dishes include:
Louisiana Creole cuisine
Louisiana Creole cuisine is a style of cooking originating in Louisiana which blends French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Greek, Asian Indian, Native American, and African influences, as well as general Southern cuisine...
Italian
Italian-American cuisine
Italian American cuisine is the cuisine of Italian American immigrants and their descendents, who have modified Italian cuisine under the influence of American culture and immigration patterns of Italians to the United States...
restaurant in Avondale, Louisiana
Avondale, Louisiana
Avondale is a census-designated place in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States, on the West Bank of the Mississippi River. The population was 5,441 at the 2000 census...
, near New Orleans. Operated by the same family since it opened in 1946, it has long been regarded as one of New Orleans' best restaurants, known for dishes such as Oysters Mosca, crab salad, and Chicken a la Grande.
History
Provino Mosca, an Italian immigrant, and his wife Lisa, had a restaurant in Chicago Heights, IllinoisChicago Heights, Illinois
Chicago Heights is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 31,373 at the 2005 census. Chicago Heights is nicknamed 'Crossroads of the Nation'.-History:...
before they moved to New Orleans in 1946, after their daughter, Mary, married a Louisiana oysterman, Vincent Marconi. They opened Mosca's in Avondale, a remote area on the West Bank of the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
, in a building owned by New Orleans crime family
New Orleans crime family
The New Orleans crime family is one of the oldest American criminal organizations in activity. It is based in New Orleans and parts of southern Louisiana in the United States. Its status today is unknown, as it remained in the shadows since 1993...
boss Carlos Marcello
Carlos Marcello
Carlos "The Little Man" Marcello was a Sicilian-American mafioso who became the boss of the New Orleans crime family during the 1940s and held this position for the next 30 years.-Early life:...
, who became a regular customer of the restaurant. Marcello's son still owns the restaurant building. (It is also sometimes reported that Provino Mosca had been a chef for Al Capone
Al Capone
Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone was an American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate. The Chicago Outfit, which subsequently became known as the "Capones", was dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early...
in Chicago, but the family says this is untrue.)
Provino died in 1962. Lisa (by then known as "Mama Mosca"), two of their children, Johnny
John Mosca
John Mosca was an American restauranteur and owner of the famed Mosca's, a Louisiana Creole and Italian restaurant located in Avondale, Louisiana, near New Orleans....
and Mary, and Mary's husband Vincent took over the restaurant. "Mama Mosca" died in 1979 and Vincent died in 2004. The restaurant was damaged in Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
but reopened in 2006, repaired and with a larger, air-conditioned kitchen, but otherwise mostly unchanged. Johnny mostly retired after the hurricane, but Johnny's wife Mary Jo Angelotti, who took over as chef after Mary retired, continues to operate the restaurant with other family members, including Johnny (until his death in 2011) and Mary Jo's daughter Lisa.
Mosca's received an America's Classics award from the James Beard Foundation
James Beard Foundation
The James Beard Foundation is a New York-based national professional non-profit organization named in honor of James Beard that serves to promote the culinary arts by honoring chefs, wine professionals, journalists, and cookbook authors at annual award ceremonies and providing scholarships and...
in 1999.
Location and cuisine
Mosca's is known for its out-of-the-way location, a seventeen mile drive on U.S. Highway 90 from the Crescent City ConnectionCrescent City Connection
The Crescent City Connection, abbreviated as CCC, refers to twin cantilever bridges that carry U.S. Route 90 Business over the Mississippi River in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. They are tied as the fifth-longest cantilever bridges in the world...
bridge, and its ramshackle exterior, as well as for its distinctive Italian Creole food.
Writing in the 1970s, pioneer New Orleans food writers Richard and Rima Collin described the restaurant as "a white shack on the left in almost total isolation" and rated it as one of New Orleans' "Best of the Best", calling it "a joyous place with no airs whatsoever, bubbling over with the noise of serious eating on a massive scale" and a "New Orleans institution". They described the food's heritage as deriving from "the middle of Italy, the Romagna-Lazio region, rich in seafood." (According to the restaurant's website, Provino Mosca came from San Benedetto del Tronto
San Benedetto del Tronto
San Benedetto del Tronto is a city and comune in Marche, Italy, in the province of Ascoli Piceno. It lies on the Adriatic Sea. San Benedetto del Tronto is an important little town on the Marche coast, an active fishing port and one of the main seaside resorts on the central Adriatic coast.Located...
, a coastal city on the Adriatic Sea
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges...
in the Marche
Marche
The population density in the region is below the national average. In 2008, it was 161.5 inhabitants per km2, compared to the national figure of 198.8. It is highest in the province of Ancona , and lowest in the province of Macerata...
region of central Italy.)
In her New Orleans food memoir Gumbo Tales, Sara Roahen says, "Mosca's is just the sort of family-run restaurant that New Orleanians tend to covet: it's creaky, set in its ways, and no picnic to find."
In an edition of Roadfood written after Hurricane Katrina, Jane and Michael Stern
Jane and Michael Stern
Jane Grossman Stern and Michael Stern are American writers who specialize in books about travel, food, and popular culture...
comment that the restaurant seems unchanged since its reopening. They ask the rhetorical question, "can this two-room joint with the blaring jukebox really be the most famous Creole roadhouse in America?"; then they describe the experience as a "culinary epiphany", and say that "roadside food gets no better, or more garlicky, or heartier, than this."
Calvin Trillin
Calvin Trillin
Calvin Marshall Trillin is an American journalist, humorist, food writer, poet, memoirist and novelist.-Biography:Trillin attended public schools in Kansas City and went on to Yale University, where he served as chairman of the Yale Daily News and was a member of Scroll and Key before graduating...
, in a November 2010 article about the restaurant in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, also remarks on its seemingly unchanged nature since 1946. He recounts that the Mosca family had once considered moving the restaurant to a more convenient location, but the idea had met substantial resistance from their mostly local customer base.
Reviews of the restaurant often note that almost every party orders more or less the same items from Mosca's relatively short menu, served family-style in very large portions. These popular dishes include:
- Oysters Mosca (also called Oysters Italian Style), which the Sterns call "a festival of garlic, olive oil, Parmesan cheese, and bread crumbs").
- Shrimp Mosca (also called Shrimp Italian Style), summarized by local food critic Tom FitzmorrisTom FitzmorrisTom Fitzmorris is a New Orleans food critic, radio host and author. Mr. Fitzmorris a Certified Culinary Professional by the IACP. He began publishing a newsletter, The New Orleans MENU, in 1977. That newsletter continues to this day at his website, NOmenu.com. He also currently broadcasts daily...
as "enormous, whole, unpeeled, with olive oil and tons of garlic".
- Marinated crab, served as a salad or in the shell.
- ChickenChickenThe chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...
a la Grande, a simple dish cooked in a skillet with (in Trillin's words) "only saltSaltIn chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...
and pepperBlack pepperBlack pepper is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit, known as a peppercorn when dried, is approximately in diameter, dark red when fully mature, and, like all drupes, contains a single seed...
, rosemaryRosemaryRosemary, , is a woody, perennial herb with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple or blue flowers, native to the Mediterranean region. It is a member of the mint family Lamiaceae, which includes many other herbs, and is one of two species in the genus Rosmarinus...
, oreganoOreganoOregano – scientifically named Origanum vulgare by Carolus Linnaeus – is a common species of Origanum, a genus of the mint family . It is native to warm-temperate western and southwestern Eurasia and the Mediterranean region.Oregano is a perennial herb, growing from 20–80 cm tall,...
, white wine, and, of course, ten cloves (or is it heads?) of garlicGarlicAllium sativum, commonly known as garlic, is a species in the onion genus, Allium. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, and rakkyo. Dating back over 6,000 years, garlic is native to central Asia, and has long been a staple in the Mediterranean region, as well as a frequent...
".
- Spaghetti bordelaise, described by the Collins as "perfect homemade pasta and a remarkable, perfectly balanced oil and garlic sauce", and which Roahen calls "as much butter, oil, and garlic as your body can process without suffering a systematic failure."
- Pineapple fluff for dessert, which the Collins called "a bit of delicious New Orleans kitsch."
External links
- Marti Buckley Kilpatrick, "Mosca's: Cucina on the Bayou", Edible New Orleans, Summer 2010.