{"id":84767,"date":"2025-01-28T14:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T22:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=84767"},"modified":"2025-01-28T14:47:43","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T22:47:43","slug":"mangiafoglie-a-new-plant-based-italian-restaurant-arrives-on-retro-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/food\/mangiafoglie-a-new-plant-based-italian-restaurant-arrives-on-retro-row","title":{"rendered":"MangiaFoglie, a new plant-based Italian restaurant, arrives on Retro Row"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Paul Reese would like to apologize to anyone who saw him walking around the streets of Long Beach scarfing down handfuls of shredded mozzarella cheese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was researching to develop his own vegan cheese recipe, which he will now use in pizzas and pasta served in his first brick-and-mortar restaurant, MangiaFoglie, located at the end of Long Beach\u2019s Retro Row.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took over a dozen iterations, but the result bubbles, melts and \u201chas a nice kind of funk\u201d to it, Reese said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reese\u2019s cheese is made from tofu rather than nuts, which is more commonly used in vegan cheese variations. He has been serving it on 10 varieties of pizza for a pop-up he started in 2020 known as Long Beach Vegan Pizza<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With MangiaFoglie, he is rebranding and expanding the plant-based menu to include pasta, salads and appetizers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Paul Reese, co-owner, in the kitchen by the pizza oven of his new vegan Italian restaurant, MangiaFoglie, in Long Beach on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The restaurant is currently open every day for coffee \u2014 served with oat milk or almond milk of course \u2014 but will expand to a full menu on Feb. 8, Reese said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The initial menu will feature six appetizers, three salads, 10 pizzas and 10 pasta dishes, Reese said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daniel Vesely, MangiaFoglie co-owner, said he and Reese want to attract all types of diners, not just those avoiding animal products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVegans will find it,\u201d Vesely said. \u201cMore importantly, we are going to be catering to the general public because our pizza is not \u2018vegan pizza.\u2019 It\u2019s a plant-based pizza that is amazing and can compete with any other pizza.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Vesely first tried Reese\u2019s pizza, he said he was shocked to find out it was vegan. Reese told Vesely he already had a location in mind for the restaurant and the partnership developed shortly after that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The space\u2019s previous tenant, Scholb Premium Ales, didn’t use \u2014 and ended up covering up \u2014 a pizza oven that had been imported from Italy. Reese estimated the oven cost about $40,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really excited to get some miles on that oven,\u201d Reese said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Link<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Over a dozen years working in fine dining have prepared him to run his own restaurant, Reese said, giving him an eye for detail and teaching him to anticipate customers’ needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, one of the restaurant\u2019s bathrooms contains a mouthwash dispenser for anyone needing to freshen up after eating a garlic-heavy dish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cutlery options include a spaghetti fork with grooves to make twirling up noodles easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His restaurant\u2019s name, MangiaFoglie, is Italian for \u201cleaf eater.\u201d Reese said the term dates back to the 17th century and was used to refer to people in Naples who ate a \u201cheavily plant-based diet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reese can pinpoint the moment he decided to swear off animal products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 17 years old, he was driving a red 1999 Ford Mustang on the 60 Freeway heading from Diamond Bar to L.A. for an anti-war protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stuck in traffic, he had his windows down when something \u201cputrid\u201d wafted in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat smell hit my nostrils,\u201d Reese said. \u201cIt burned my nose hairs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few minutes later, he passed a broken-down 18-wheeler that was carrying a load of dead pigs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After that moment, Reese has been eating vegan for nearly three decades, but he\u2019s made exceptions from time to time \u2014 like when he was a waiter at a fine dining restaurant and wanted to give honest recommendations on the dishes being served.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or the aforementioned cheese-eating walks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MangiaFoglie, 2306 E. Fourth St., is open every day from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul Reese and Daniel Vesely say MangiaFoglie’s pizzas, made with a specially developed vegan mozzarella, can hold their own against anyone’s pies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23521,"featured_media":84766,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[153,44],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[32323],"class_list":["post-84767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","tag-food","tag-vegan","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84767"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84774,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84767\/revisions\/84774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84767"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=84767"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=84767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}