Over the Labor Day weekend, when I had my good friends, George and Kathy in town to visit we popped into the Jack London Revue hoping they might have some live music playing. Alas, they did not, which is how we ended up having a great time at Kelly’s Olympian instead that night. I still wanted to see what all the rave was about so when the Mel Brown B3 Organ Group was on the schedule for one of their Thursday night jam sessions last week I knew I had to get a ticket.
Before the show though I needed to eat, so I grabbed a Lyft and decided to check out Mama Mia Trattoria down the street from the bar.
The restaurant is in an old building and still has some of the building’s distinctive features, but the inside decor is I would say, non-descript, characterless and lifeless. The physical bar itself though is pretty cool, but despite its size it still seems rather small and out-of-place for the space. I wasn’t there for decor though, so I started out with the Mozzarella Board - a sampler of fresh House-made marinated mozzarella, smoked mozzarella, burrata, roasted tomatoes, mixed nuts, basil oil, & a balsamic reduction served with herb buttered crostini all for $20. It was very good, rich and a nice start to the meal while I was waiting for the entree. It was also a sizable portion, and I was only able to finish about half of it.
I normally try to ensure that I have a veggie on the plate, but I saw from looking at other guest plates who had ordered the lasagna that it would be enough just to order that. When the pasta came out it photographed well, but once I bit into it, I found the meat to be on the dry side and pretty salty. The waitress must have seen this before as she was understanding, could see the look on my face and even offered to comp the Affogato that I later ordered, but I declined and finished off the entree and dessert (sorry, no picture, but just imagine a glass full of vanilla bean ice cream with a shot of espresso poured over top and served with a housemade biscotti.)
Even though I told the waitress that this lasagna was definitely not in my top 5 I thought the service was very attentive, the restaurant was clean and quiet and nicely located to where I needed to go. So, even though I gave this experience 3 1/2 stars out of 5, would I go back? Yes, I would. I would give it another shot for sure in the future.
Dinner enjoyed and out of the way, and with the doors opening at 7pm for an 8pm show, I headed over the two blocks to the Jack London Revue which is down the stairs and into the basement of the Rialto Poolroom Bar and Cafe.
