Forty years ago Tony Mandina purchased a little place on the Westbank and did a major renovation, opening as Tony Mandina’s restaurant. He served the food he grew up eating, the recipes his family cooked in Salaparuta Sicily and brought with them to the States. A few years ago he sold the restaurant to his daughter Kolette and her daughter, Lindsey, continuing the family tradition of serving the family’s “red gravy”, as they call it, heavily infused with love.
The place has been a Gretna neighborhood staple, but more people should make the trek there to experience this little charmer. It’s not actually on the Westbank Expressway, but a little to the side of it, on a strange little street called Pratt St.
Every night they are open Tony and his wife Grace hold court at their table in the front of the restaurant, greeting everyone that walks by. Whether or not they know everyone that passes, it certainly seems that they do. As the evening wears on the place fills up, two large rooms and a small one that includes a grand piano, from which emanate melodious tunes from the skillful hands of Barry Bouvier, who arranges his eclectic mix of music in a way that is truly unique.
The rooms are lit low, setting a romantic mood throughout the place, except for the light from the television over the bar, where Guy Fieri gobbles food far below the standards served here. The food at Tony Mandina’s is not brilliant, but it is very good.
Post-COVID, the menu is definitely smaller, which is not a problem unless you start hanging out there as we have lately.
On our recent first visit, we started with the meatballs and a half order of fried eggplant, but of which are attended by the exquisite “red gravy,” a deep-red and rich tomato gravy with that cooked-all-day depth and thick, smooth texture.
The eggplant was thin and crispy with just the right thickness of breading. Totally greaseless, these were irresistible. And that sauce!
Also on the table were the three meatballs. This trio included pretty large meatballs which were so obviously handmade as to be irregularly shaped. Texturally, they weren’t as soft and crumbly as I prefer, but they weren’t hard, either. I like them to fall apart with the touch of a fork. These didn’t do that, but we liked them anyway.
We also got the garlic bread, which seemed odd the first time we got it, but on the next visit, we realized these were made with the Parker House-type rolls that are made in-house. This could benefit from more garlic and herbs.
We were practically full from all this, but we kept going with lasagna, and Tom had the Trout Reggio. The lasagna was a large portion which presented a problem because I couldn’t stop eating it. Loaded with meat throughout, I would have liked more mozzarella on top. But the red gravy smoothed out any imperfections. This was really good.
Tom’s Trout Reggio was not what I expected, though it clearly said on the menu that the fish was fried first. A lot of the dishes on this menu start out with the word “crispy.” Next time we go I’m going to ask if the item can be adapted without the first step of frying. The pieces of trout were lightly fried and tossed with linguine pasta, then napped with shrimp and corn bisque. Tom was not crazy about this. I think he was puzzled by the fried fish pieces integrated into the pasta.
On another visit, we started with the Italian salad, which was a pile of fresh greens, including some odd ones. There was a very generous amount of cheese throughout, including some whole olives and some olive salad. This was not the best or worst of these I have had, We liked it fine.
Tom had the Redfish Alla as an entree. It was a pan-seared fish with linguine in a white wine, lemon, garlic butter sauce topped with crabmeat. The sauce was addictive, and the rest of the dish included capers, mushrooms, and artichokes. A lot going on here but this was good.
.jpg)
I got a special for the evening, which was angel hair pasta aglio olio with grilled shrimp. I always get this to see how other people do it. This one had bits of bell peppers and black pepper in the olive oil. The olive oil here comes from the family’s villa and vineyards in Sicily, and it is complex, rich, and really delicious.
.jpg)
For some reason, we are completely full when it comes to dessert, though I do want to try them. It is an interesting menu of desserts. One of the offerings is Sicilian fig cookies from Tony’s mom’s recipe, made
in-house.
We also get distracted just listening to the wonderful music Barry Bouvier plays. All of this is a gratifying way to pass a Saturday night. Everyone else in the packed house seemed to think so too.
