The Newly Renovated Café Mezzanotte Keeps Tradition Of Offering Great Dining Experiences

We eagerly headed to Café Mezzanotte, located at 760 Ritchie Highway in Severna Park, on a rainy Tuesday evening at dinnertime thinking it would be a light crowd on a quiet night — nope! The restaurant was packed, and that speaks to the incredible food and service.

Mezzanotte recently closed for six weeks to renovate, and its devotees, including us, anxiously awaited the reopening. If you haven’t checked out the changes, you won’t be disappointed. It’s the same Café Mezz, but brighter and chicer, and a bit more sophisticated.

Everything is lightened up with white paint, clear windows, large landscape pictures, and hanging plants. The partitioning walls are also taller, giving diners a more private feel while cutting the noise a tad. Also, it has expanded to provide more room and tables in the bar area.

The hostess welcomed us with a friendly smile and seated us quickly. Our waiter, John, was prompt, efficient, friendly and personable.

Café Mezzanotte has kept its fabulous bread basket with the oil and herbs dipping sauce. The streamlined menu keeps some favorites, including the delectable Chilean sea bass, and their fettuccine Mediterranean, (always one of my favorites), and added some great new items. I can’t wait to taste them all.

We began our meal with a large serving of crispy Brussels, with shaved prosciutto, honey sambuca cream, and shaved Grana Padano (an Italian cheese). The sprouts were fried crispy, slightly browned, without being greasy, and with the prosciutto and cheese, it was a savory, comforting dish for a rainy evening. My dining companion raved about them. I personally prefer just a mild sweet/tang touch with my crispy Brussels sprouts, but they were still great.

John suggested soup to follow, so we ordered the choice of the day — corn chowder — and that was a real treat with sweet kernels and walnuts in a full-flavored, smooth base.

For our main courses, I chose the Cape May scallops and my dining companion picked the pumpkin risotto. One thing about Café Mezzanotte — you always get excellent presentation, unique pairings and fun exploration of flavors.

My large scallops were served with grilled baby root vegetables, mushrooms, Granny Smith beurre blanc (an apple puree), crispy beets, and shaved Grana Padano. I often hesitate to order scallops because most restaurants tend to overcook them until they’re chewy or they’re mushy — neither tasty options, but Cafe Mezz sears them just right. The root vegetables also were, of course, perfectly grilled — soft but not mushy. The crispy beet chips were sliced thin, had a unique almost sweet taste, and lived up to their name. The whole meal worked well together, though there could have been more food on the plate.

The pumpkin risotto was creamy, rich and flavorful. The dish was a mix of risotto, Italian sausage, broccoli rabe, gorgonzola cheese, micro greens, and roasted pumpkin. All of the flavors blended delightfully, though I couldn’t taste the pumpkin. The melted gorgonzola, risotto and sausage provided a comfort food fix. The scallop Truca or garlic-roasted-mushrooms risottos would have been good choices too.

It’s always fun to look at the dessert menu! This one included cannoli, tiramisu, “three bears gelato,” profiterole, semifreddo candy bar, crème brulee, and our choice: cacao cheesecake.

You can’t beat this restaurant for presentation. This piece of cheesecake looked so pretty and sweet that the folks a few feet from us, celebrating a birthday, turned around to take a peek. This wasn't your average cream cheese, sugar and eggs cake. This one had Italian mascarpone cream cheese, Nutella hazelnut chocolate, salted pumpkin seeds, and black raspberry sauce. The mascarpone cream cheese has more milk fat, so it’s smooth, dense and rich. If you’re watching your figure, a few bites of this is satisfying. The chocolate on the bottom and black raspberry sauce gave it just the right kiss of sweetness. The dessert paired with coffee is a perfect ending.

For those who prefer an after-dinner dessert drink, the menu boasts espresso or pumpkin spice martinis, Italian liquors, cognacs and cordials. They’ve got an extensive wine list and a full bar.

The restaurant also has a Sunday brunch, with scrumptious-sounding choices like lemon ricotta pancakes and eggs in purgatory; a daily lunch menu that includes a portion of what’s on the dinner menu in addition to flatbreads, paninis, soups, salads and combos; and a lounge menu with appetizers, flatbreads and pasta bowls.

In addition to consistently great food, another benefit of eating at Café Mezzanotte is knowing that the food is produced locally, sustainably grown or raised with certified organic ingredients. The restaurant also supports The Food Project, an education and training center for youth in southwest Baltimore. More information is available at www.cafemezzanotte.com.

Overall, it was once again a wonderful experience, and I look forward to returning, though we would ask for a different table. Ours was tiny, against a partition and near an entrance to a seating area, so there was a lot of hustle and bustle around us.

The cost of the entire meal, including an appetizer, soup, two entrees, a shared dessert, and soft drinks, was about $80. This is a perfect date venue. If it’s nice, eat outside on the twinkle-lighted patio, which is beautiful and quiet, and if you get a full moon, well, it could be one of those magic fairytale nights.