Mamma Lena’s may be new, but it’s not exactly a fresh take. From the gargantuan bone-in veal chop Parm to the Bee Gees soundtrack and clusters of well-tanned regulars dining in their white leisure slacks, this is very much your Pop-Pop’s Shore Italian destination — refreshed with a sunny view of a Ventnor condo pool and the shimmering Atlantic just beyond.
“Am I old school? To the core!” says chef-owner Domenico “Dom” Rizzo, a Shore kitchen veteran whose pork chop agrodolce I’ve missed since he closed Domenico’s in 2019. “I’m old-fashioned in everything I do, including taking care of people.”
Rizzo’s comeback after a few years on the country club scene is newsworthy in part for his family’s revamp of a once-generic dining room into a sleek destination for a special occasion meal. It’s even more notable as a point of reference for how good classic Shore Italian dining can be when it’s done right: The seafood cocktail gets a triple upgrade with a generous helping of sweet colossal lump crab, shrimp, and a half-lobster tail, perfect with cognac-splashed salsa rosa dip. The massive meatball, fluffy with fresh-grated cheese and house breadcrumbs, meanwhile, is a tribute to the chef’s Abruzzese mamma — Filomena “Lena” Rizzo — simmered in pomodoro sauce with ricotta on the side.
The main dishes are where Rizzo’s kitchen steps on the gas, embellishing already rich carbonara with truffles and a one-pound, hand-cut veal chop that gets pounded, gratinéed with mozz, and served over a marinara wave of toothy spaghetti. It’s a luxury nostalgia splurge worth the $70, especially if you share. I also can’t stop thinking about the couscous alla Trapanese, a nod to the Sicilian side of Rizzo’s family that delivers a paella pan of seafood treasure and pearl-shaped couscous that’s a master class in harmonizing myriad flavors — fennel, golden raisins, pine nuts, and shellfish broth — and cooking every morsel to perfection, from the littlenecks and lobster tail to head-on prawns and calamari that were more tender than any I’ve eaten in a while. I asked Rizzo for his calamari secret.
“You cut them thin and cook ‘em quick-quick… or, you cook them a loooong time,” he said.
The wait for Rizzo’s return was longer than I’d like. But the final result, now rounding into form after nearly a year, is worth it.