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Pork loin stuffed with rabbit sausage and wrapped with speck. Photos by Brian Addison.<\/em><\/p>\n Michael\u2019s on Naples has long been considered one of Long Beach\u2019s best restaurants. Nestled in one of the city\u2019s most beautiful and affluent areas, the restaurant\u2019s knack for providing continually contemporary, high-end Italian food has garnered the joint accolade after accolade (including the now-famous year that Zagat called it the best Italian restaurant and the second-best restaurant period in Southern California<\/a>). It goes past their seemingly simplistic presentation that isn\u2019t simple at all. It goes beyond their Meyer lemon-cured branzino<\/em> (European sea bass), delicately laid on top of a crostini. It surpasses way they add bits of hazelnut brittle and droplets of basil oil over their beet and apple salad. It goes much past how they stuff a pork loin with housemade rabbit sausage and then wrap the loin in smokey speck<\/em>.<\/p>\n After all, Executive Chef Dave Coleman (who also heads the Italian steak that is Chianina down the street) isn\u2019t even Italian.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are those people who still believe that only mustachio-sportin\u2019 men with their Nonna’s secret recipes are the only ones that could possibly make great Italian food,\u201d Coleman said. \u201cI am a poor Irish kid from Orange County if anyone cares to take note.\u201d<\/p>\n Early in his career, Coleman dabbled in a variety of cuisines after training at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco but eventually learned what many chefs never learn: technique trumps cuisine.<\/p>\n \u201cThe raw pasta, the doughs, the sauce, the butchery, the charcuterie\u2014it all come before the plate,\u201d Coleman said. \u201cWhen you sit and enjoy a simple handmade pasta with simple sausage or a botargo<\/em> and some amazing Barolo, you are content.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, everything at Michael\u2019s looks effortless, from that pasta to that Barolo\u2014a brilliant slice of manipulation if there ever was one. But just like Coleman in the kitchen, the front of house is the other side of the coin to a great restaurant. Surely, a food truck may provide you phenomenal food but the moment you turn around, the atmosphere is something the hood around you dictates. Even more, beyond the fa\u00e7ade of it all\u2014the china, the servers, the d\u00e9cor\u2014front management looks to purveyors to bring chefs (and therefore customers) the best food possible.<\/p>\n Squid-ink pasta with fresh sea urchin and garbonzo beans.<\/em><\/p>\n Enter Massimo Arrone, the general manager of Michael\u2019s on Naples. The man is no stranger to the world that revolves around running a restaurant: his family ran La Barca, a seafood-focused grubbery in Imperia, small town on the northwestern coast of Italy along the Riviera dei Fiori in Liguria. It was there he learned to develop relationships with the local fisherman to assure that his family\u2019s restaurant would secure the freshest catch. His duties expanded, as Arrone found himself working with farmers for produce, butchers for meat, vineyards for wine\u2026<\/p>\n Arrone entered the world of fine dining when, following high school, he scored an assistantship at the famed Grand Hotel in San Remo, learning about food, wine, and of course, ambiance. With a sponge-like grasp of knowledge, Arrone found himself learning English and working in famed joints like La Collina and New York\u2019s spectacular Pappardella.<\/p>\n Game changer indeed: Arrone single-handedly connected the restaurant with some of the nation\u2019s leading purveyors of high quality products. We\u2019re talking ducks from Liberty Farm. Seafood from Norpac Hawaii. Pigs, lambs, quails, and rabbits from Devil\u2019s Gulch Farm and Broken Arrow Ranch.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryday I worked on establishing a relationship with customers, to create followers where they ask for more everyday, to discover what they loved,\u201d Arrone said. \u201cWhen people ask me if I knew this restaurant was going to be as special as it is, well, my response is obviously yes because we are doing everything right\u2014from the purchasing and cooking style to the service without being pretentious.\u201d<\/p>\n In other words, it’s uniquely fine dining done Long Beach-style. And for that, we’re not just thankful but a bit indebted toward Michael’s on Naples: removed from the small allotment of typical fine-dining fare we had in the city beforehand, this restaurant has captured the imagination of its chef and manager to ignite the incoming wave of culinary greatness.<\/p>\n This, of course, wasn’t always the case, as Arrone distinctly remembers early patrons predicting the demise of the restaurant should they not serve endless breadstick-style, pseudo-Italian food.<\/p>\n \u201cMichael’s on Naples couldn’t be who we are without the support from all the local customers\u2014but for sure no one thought we were going to make it,” Arrone said. “I remember the beginnings being a roller coaster of sorts. We had to learn to believe in ourselves and to keep the identity we wanted, no matter what the bad feedback was. I remember a specific customer about six years ago telling me, directly to my face, that we would close in six months time if we didn’t put Chicken Marsala and Fettuccine Alfredo on our menu.\u201d<\/p>\n Thank the culinary gods it never became Olive Garden by the canals.<\/p>\n Michael’s on Naples is located at 5620 E 2nd St. For reservations, call 562-439-7080.<\/em><\/p>\n {FG_GEOMAP [33.7569387,-118.12477150000001] FG_GEOMAP}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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It\u2019s the people, offering what is genuinely an escape from the concrete urbanism that, though beautiful its own right, can also be stifling. And of course, it\u2019s the people\u2019s passion.<\/p>\n![\"MON](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/MON_04_4_4.jpg\")
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\u201cThat chance vacation to New York in 1996 was what changed my life forever,\u201d Arrone said. \u201cI met my future bride, made connections, learned English, secured my jobs [at La Collina, Vespa and Pappardella]\u2026 When I moved to Long Beach in 2007 and met Michael Dene [owner of Michael\u2019s on Naples], I knew our shared passion for fine wines, exceptional cuisine, and uncompromising quality in all aspects of fine dining experience was going to be a game changer.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"MON](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/MON_02222.jpg\")
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