The cinnamon rolls with rosemary syrup. Photos by Brian Addison.
For anyone growing up in an Italian family, two things are essential for breakfast: sweets and frittatas. Sweets that offered Italian-palate regulars like rosemary and pistachio and anise. And frittatas—or what the Denny’s crowd would call scrambles—that featured Italian sausage and pesto and prosciutto.
The possibility of enjoying one’s sunrise a la Italia will no longer be a dream as Michael’s Pizzeria on the Promenade officially launches its all-Italian weekend brunch, complete with three-buck Proseccos and mimosas.
The downtown standard offers five assorted frittatas, each of which can be cooked with two organic eggs any way you’d like—including soft-cooked, which I highly suggest, particularly for the caprino e carciofi and anatra frittatas. Thrown into a cast iron skillet and then into their wood oven, each frittata comes out sizzling and with two slices of housemade brioche toast and housemade strawberry preserves.
For the sweeter side of Italian cuisine, go for the anatra frittata, served with chunks of duck and caramelized shallots. For the classic, load-me-up-with-salt flavor profile, the capricciosa is perfection: housemade mozzarella, artichokes, tomatoes, mushrooms, and prosciutto cotto (more bacon-like than the more common prosciutto di parma), and Ligurian olives. Vegetarian dishes preferred? The caprino e carciofi is a creamy, pesto-driven frittata that is paired with fingerling potatoes, baby artichokes, and mozzarella and chèvre.
The caprino e carciofi frittata.
Then there are the sugary delights, where the decadence of Michael’s brunch menu shines at full luminance.
The cinnamon rolls, baked (like the frittatas) in a cast iron skillet, are made-to-order little twirls of buttery goodness that hit new heights with hints of rosemary thanks to the rosemary syrup drizzled on top of the classic frosting. Crisp on the edge, soft on the inline, perfectly doughy in the dead center, I would suggest happily taking the judgmental eyes and ordering these first should you visit.
And the french toast. The brioche french toast. You are offered two preparations: one with housemade vanilla bean crème and strawberry preserves or another with Nutella. While I understand the gravity of purposefully ignoring Nutella on any menu—hazelnut and chocolate, like Perugina’s Baci or Ferrero Rocher, are an Italian combination as common as tomato and basil—I have to say that one should go for the strawberries ’n’ cream combo. The blend of the tart berries, velvety vanilla crème, and the eggy toast is pretty much proof that Italians do it better.
Perhaps one of the best parts is the fact that you nor your guests will be relegated to the brunch menu alone should you venture downtown. Michael’s entire menu is available, leaving those who wish to have breakfast to their own devices while those who (understandably) crave a pizza at 10:30AM can happily do so without trouble. This also includes their dessert menu, so the dreams of having gelato with your mimosa are not intangible (with my suggestion being their impeccable mint-and-chip gelato, made in-house). You can even have a torta di mandorle (almond cake, pictured above) alongside your americano, the former of which is quite possibly one of Long Beach’s best sweet offerings: the spongey cake is served warm atop a rosemary-pistachio drizzle that is impossible to not finish.
And with Aroma di Roma in the Shore offering Sunday brunch come late July, we believe that this is molto bello all the way.
Michael’s Pizzeria will offer brunch on Saturdays from 11:30AM to 2:30PM and Sundays from 10:30AM to 2:30PM. It is located at 210 E 3rd Street.
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