Dining
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Mozelle's version of comfort food a cut above in creativity
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Published: November 13, 2008
To me, the narrow slice of a building on the corner of Fourth Street and Brookstown Avenue has always looked like a waste of a fine location and a potentially adorable storefront.
Since Camel City Cafe moved down Fourth Street in 2005, that building has been empty more often than not. Once upon a time, it was the Toddle House, a Winston-Salem landmark. For about two heartbeats last year, Scooters Deli was in residence, serving such half-hearted food that it made me wonder why the owners hadn't just opened a car wash instead.
I hoped someone would open a really good sandwich shop, the kind of meticulous place that took pains to make its own mayonnaise and potato chips. Or maybe a Neapolitan-style pizzeria, with thin crusts, charred and chewy? Winston-Salem's first true tapas bar? When you're a restaurant reviewer and a food geek, such are your fantasies.
Dreams don't always come true, but improvements come along.
Patrick and Jennifer Manner opened Mozelle's in September. They painted the building a vivid lime green and set out shiny silver tables and chairs capped with sunny yellow umbrellas. Inside, Jennifer Manner's grandmother, Mozelle Smith, gazes out from a black and white photo propped up on a shelf, watching over lunchtime crowds seated at tables covered in yellow-green oilcloth.
First-time restaurant owners of this self-proclaimed Southern bistro, the Manners developed a menu that wanders all over, from Cuban pork chops and black beans to chicken and dumplings. It's a tight menu, though -- some sandwiches and salads, a soup or two, and a blue-plate special list that rotates throughout the week.
At dinner, the menu shifts to seafood, pasta, ribs, a pork chop with poblano pineapple chutney and a rib-eye served in a cast iron skillet -- broken-in standards tweaked here and there, but not wildly re-invented. Mozelle's is a place to be comforted, not knocked over with clever combinations. Candles flicker on the tables, and even the outside patio stays cozy on a chilly fall night with heaters, candy-colored paper lanterns and thick plastic tenting.
The cuteness might make you think the Manners' efforts have gone into looks and not eats. You'd be wrong. Patrick Manner does much of the cooking himself (with help from three sous chefs), and all things considered, he's doing a good job.
Grilled cheese is grilled cheese, right? No -- here it's pimento cheese with bacon. Comforting, gooey and crunchy, the salt of the bacon and the tang of the cheddar ooze between good sturdy white bread. It was overshadowed only by a cup of spicy, lush tomato bisque. Salads are so-so, but the tomato pie is heaven, a homey slice of buttery pastry, tomato and cheese. Corn and lima bean succotash comes on the side.
Isn't everyone who lives south of the Mason-Dixon line weary of shrimp and grits? Delicious, but it's easy to get jaded. They're so abused with all that cheese and cream. But here, oh, Lordy, this will restore your faith in the dish. The shrimp are tender, the grits laced with Asiago cheese, and the sauce is brothy more than creamy, and flecked with thin bits of country ham. I didn't have a spoon, but I wanted one to finish the last drops.
Pan-seared duck was crispy outside, rare inside. Though a shade dry, it came with a jumble of cranberries, orzo with sweet corn, mushrooms and a smear of goat cheese, and roasted parsnips, squash and carrots, autumn on a plate.
Mozelle's could be more ambitious with its appetizers. The selection's a bit thin. A good choice is duck spring rolls. The nouveau South shows up inside flaky pastry -- shredded duck, shiitake mushrooms, collard greens, cabbage and bacon, three solid sauces (Thai chile, barbecue and ginger sesame) on the side.
Many of Mozelle's dishes have the depth and soul of the best kind of comfort food, but not everything is consistent. A kitchen that produces such fine shrimp and grits and kicky tomato bisque should be able to knock out meatballs and spaghetti blindfolded, and yet the meatballs were dry and lacking oomph, the sauce watery and fettuccine a stand-in for spaghetti. Though I respected the French dip sandwich's crusty roll, the jus was salty, and the innermost folds of beef were cool. And artichoke and spinach dip with blue cheese promised to be bubbling hot -- a dish of bubbling oil, is more like it, eking little flavor from the cheese.
Dessert choices are few, but here's my order of preference, having had all of them -- a creamy dark chocolate pudding pie (in the style of one of the Toddle House's pies), flourless chocolate cake, bread pudding, banana pudding thick with fruit and vanilla wafers. They're served with homemade whipped cream, and they're nostalgic and simple ends.
On one evening, I watched Patrick Manner move between the kitchen and the tables, checking in with friends and chatting up new customers. If they seem a little hectic, his wait staff are similarly conscientious, switching burned-out votives for lit ones and picking up dropped napkins. Small gestures, but they show care.
This might be a backhanded compliment instead of a complaint: Mozelle's lunch portions are lean. The sandwiches are smallish, and pieces of the tomato pie, about half the size of the generous glamour shot of a slice on the restaurant's Web site. You won't leave peckish, but don't expect to share much of your food.
On the other hand, how many restaurants compensate for humdrum food with huge portions?
Mozelle's will likely leave you wanting more.
Mozelle's
Location: 878 W. Fourth St.
Phone: 703-5400
Web site: www.mozelles.com
Hours: Lunch: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday; dinner: 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
Reservations: Taken for dinner, and for lunch, taken for parties of six or more.
Type of cuisine: Southern-American/comfort food.
Alcohol: A handful of bottled beers, and a short but affordable wine list, with some interesting and value-conscious picks available by the bottle and the glass, such as gruner veltliner, a cava and an Italian chardonnay. No bottle is more than $26.
Smoking: Non-smoking inside and out.
Health-department rating: 92.5 percent.
Price range: Lunch: Salads, sandwiches and soup: $4-$9. Entrees: $10. Dinner: Appetizers: $5-$11. Entrees: $14-$24. Desserts: $7.
Credit cards: Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express.
Atmosphere: Twenty-first century nostalgic, cozy and small with yellow-green oilcloths, wide yellow umbrellas over silver outdoor tables, Chinese paper lanterns and clean white walls.
The wait: I've seen Mozelle's busy, but never so crowded that I had to wait for a table.
Service: A conscientious if sometimes harried staff. Once, a waiter brought us more coffee by bringing another cup instead of refilling the one I already had. Yet small acts, such as replacing votive candles that burn out, speak volumes.
Be sure to try: Grilled pimento cheese with bacon; tomato bisque; tomato pie; spring rolls stuffed with shredded duck, cabbage, shiitake mushrooms and collard greens; shrimp and grits; chocolate pie.
Stay away from: Blue-cheese, spinach and artichoke dip; spaghetti and meatballs.
Vegetarian friendly? At lunch, (there's a portobello mushroom "cheese
steak," among others) but less so at dinner.
Will I go back? Yes.
The ratings:
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