Last week, Stephanie and I were invited to Mozzarella Fellas to taste their fare. 

The location is spacey with a comfortable atmosphere. There’s a to-go bar up front where you can watch all the magic happen and then the rest of the dining room has some cool embellishments like sparkly cubes in mason jars dangling from the ceiling. It was nice. The servers were all friendly.

We were told that we were getting a large sampling of their food to give us an idea of what MF was all about.

The first things that came out were the “Fellas Mozzarella” and “Cauliflower Bites.” The Fellas Mozzarella is basically their house-made deep-fried house mozzarella. It was pressed and compact and crunchy, but the cheese inside was gooey. Great seasoning and taste. It was served with their house-made marinara sauce.

Fellas Mozzarella

The Cauliflower Bites came to us (and are on the menu as such) in both buffalo and bbq flavors. I was kind of skeptical when a friend of mine told me about them but, wow. They way they do them, which I assume is grinding them up and pressing them and then frying them and tossing them in sauce, makes these babies taste just like boneless chicken wings or bites. It was amazing how much they really were chicken-like. But, Stephanie was happy that I was eating plants and I was happy that they didn’t taste like cauliflower. You may get a hint of cauliflower here and there and that’s fine. I don’t mind cauliflower, it’s just not my favorite. If I could do this at home, I’d eat much more of them.

Buffalo Cauliflower Bites

Next came the “Fellas Margherita.” This is one of their specialty pizzas with a house-made crust, house-made mozzarella, house-made marinara, garlic, pickled red onions, sweet basil, heirloom tomatoes and a tangy balsamic glaze. The crust was done quite well. It wasn’t overly chewy or tough that you nearly lost teeth pulling apart and it wasn’t burnt. There’s something to be said for wood-fired pizza but I believe this was done in an electric oven. I’m not saying I like one or the other better, I think I like them equally. But, sometimes they can be overdone. The heirloom tomatoes were acidic and more of that house-made mozz. The pickled onions were slightly tart and paired well with this pizza. We have started eating a lot of Caprese salads and this was like that but on pizza crust (which is basically what a Margherita pizza is).

Fellas Margherita

We then got two pappardelle dishes. One was “Pappardelle Carbonara” and the other was my favorite dish of the evening, “Pappardelle Bolognese.” Both are made with house-made pappardelle noodles. The Carbonara is made with smoked prosciutto, egg, black pepper, green onions and parmesan cheese. I loved the creamy egg mixture and salty prosciutto matchup. Black pepper made it earthy while the green onions gave a little bite and all of that’s a great thing. But, the star was the Bolognese. It’s made with an “eight-hour house-made meat sauce,” house-made marinara, basil and Parmesan cheese. The eight-hour meat sauce, I believe is made from veal, beef and pork. It was meaty (I know, duh), acidic with the tomato-y marinara and the earthy basil.

Pappardelle Bolognese

Finally, we were served a “Pie – O – My” dessert pizza. It’s made with the house-made pizza dough, Nutella, strawberries, bananas and coated with a sweet powdered sugar. Yum!

After it settled down a bit, owner Brian Ricciardi was able to come out to speak with us. He’s a young guy and has a passion for what he’s doing. One thing that MF is making a name for themselves doing is having a lot of gluten-free options as well as vegetarian-friendly options and he says that’s a lot of his business. He’s proud of that and that he can offer it to his diners. I have plenty of friends who are either gluten-intolerant, sensitive to gluten or have a full out-and-out gluten allergy. You can get sandwiches on gluten-free bread and small individual pizzas with gluten-free dough.

MF’s sandwich selections include a Philly, grilled chicken, chicken parm, a “Brando” (salami, ham, pepperoni, prosciutto, house mozz, pickled onions, tomato, pesto aioli), a meatball parm, prosciutto, a jackfruit filly (mushrooms, bell peppers, sautéed onions, mozz, lettuce, tomato, pickles, ranch), jackfruit bbq (arugula, pickled onions, fried shallots, ranch) and a vegan chicken parm, which must just mean the chicken because it has mozzarella and parm on it and I don’t think those fall under the moniker of vegan.

Pie-O-My

They have several salads, including the standards and a strawberry arugula salad. I like the sound of that. Sweet juicy strawberries and peppery, crunchy arugula? Yes!

They have make-your-own pizzas and a long list of specialty pizzas. Some of those include the “Camel City” (mozz, marinara, bell peppers, mushrooms, red onions, pepperoni, sausage), “Popeye” (mozz, ricotta, spinach, garlic, olive oil), “S-P-O” (mozz, marinara, sausage, roasted peppers, onions, basil, parm) and a “Nashville Hot Chikin” (mozz, cheddar, pickles, tomatoes, marinara, ranch drizzle). There are plenty more on the menu and remember you can get that on gluten-free dough.

You know one of the things I’m going to look at is the beer and wine selection. He had New Sarum’s 142 Blonde Ale and I really dig that beer. Stephanie had a red wine and I didn’t write that one down. We both liked it, though.

Brian has a great thing going here and he’s a cool guy. We did talk a little about my “official sponsor” DiLisios and it turns out he worked with Maria Di Lisio’s brother at another pizza joint. He spoke highly of them. So, I didn’t feel too guilty that I went to another Italian restaurant. And, really, they do different things so it wasn’t the same anyway.

You can find Mozzarella Fellas at 336 Summit Square Blvd in Winston-Salem (that’s the Sam’s Club parking lot off of University Parkway) or on their website. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. And, if you or your friends are gluten-free and are missing your Italian food… this is the place for you. Tell them that I sent you!