HELLO STRANGER, IT SEEMS SO GOOD TO SEE YOU BACK AGAIN, OSTERIA MOZZA'S GREATEST NIGHT AS THE CORNER ROARS BACK

By Jimmy Dolan, Mozza Tribune Staff Writer

Hello Stranger, it seems so  good to see you back again. How long has it been?  Ooh, seems like a mighty long time.  

Those are the opening lyrics of one of the most enduring songs ever, Barbara Lewis’ 1963 monument to emotions, “Hello Stranger”.  And last night in Los Angeles, the tide of emotions broke deep as Osteria Mozza roared back to life with what was - not arguably, it just was - the greatest night ever on the Corner.

It was great because it had been so bad and the great redemption on Saturday made the triumphant return to being open and full of life all the sweeter.  As Knuckles Washington from Imperial Jordan Gardens in Watts says “The best thing about getting knocked down is getting up and having a magnificent redemption. 

The “knockdown” was not one, but several. The shuttering of a city, of a nation, really. Then, after two weeks of a food giveaway program, the entire Mozza Corner locked because of the greatest blow of all,  Nancy testing positive for Covid. Then Nancy going into San Quarantine with her trouble-searching boyfriend Michael Krikorian as they waited and prepared for Covid’s worst, which, thanks Zeus and ginger-infused hot water, never came. Then the powerful protests of the inhumane homicide of George Floyd swept through our city’s streets, and in its ugly wake, the trashing of our lovely neighbor MelroseMac and a dust up on the Corner itself by cockroach bitch ass punks.

So tension was thick before Osteria Mozza opened Saturday night. There was none of the usual banter, no wise cracks among the wait staff. It was all business.  The staff was lean.  But, they were elite. Five of them had been previously awarded the prestigious Employee of the Month. The Corner’s Director of Operations, Kate Greenberg, was the evening’s host. There were no somms, but Joe Bastianich, a wine guy from New York City, filled in. Even the kitchen crew, head by executive chef Liz Hong, was somber. The only thing her chef de cuisine Nicolas Rodriguez said at all to this reporter was “I finished ‘The Wire’ last night.”

The first hour of service was borderline awkward, it was that quiet. It took awhile to get used to not seeing people at the bars. But, as the night wore on, and the comfort level grew, the trepidation of being out in a public dining room dissipated and the place began to feel like, well, like Osteria Mozza.

Hello stranger, it seems so  good to see you back again.

Eddie and Coco were back at table 31. Sid and Joni were out in the patio. Nancy, with the joint’s most striking mask, strolled the room, stopping to greet old friends, to congratulate a college graduate, to enchant a young chef.

For the vast majority of diners, it was their first meal out in months. And the staff felt honored they had chosen Osteria to be their initial foray into a sit down restaurant. Walk by a table and you could feel the relief people had of being out and feeling good. The wine flowed and the conversations did, too.  So much so that people stayed longer at their tables than usual. So  much so that by 8:00 there were 30 people outside on the corner of Highland and Melrose waiting for their table. Thankfully, at Nancy’s urging and Joe the Somm’s pouring,  they all had a drink in their hand and were excited to be where they were.

If one table stood out it was 72, the hidden corner table nearest Highland and southside bar, where two Los Angeles fire fighters held court with their ladies.  They were having a ball. They were the reason people go into the restaurant busines, to have customers like that. . One of them LAFD battalion chief Richard Fields had even briefly went to the same high school as Nancy, Birmingham.

But, our host asked Krikorian if he could get them out of that table so some of the sidewalk crowd could take it. They had reveled for three and half hours, but they had the vibe of people who would get it. So Krikorian explained and they were delighted to give up their table and join Nancy and Michael at the bar for a couple more.  Alain Birnbaum, the Mozza GM, said today they were the coolest table of all time.  Patrick “Paddy” Daniel, the bartender, agreed.

So in the end, we saw some old friends and met some new ones that we will be able to one day say ‘Hello stranger, seems so good to see you back again.”

One of the servers last night was Elyssa Phillips who this reporter enjoy messing with. But she said something that I thought was beautiful. Elyssa said “Last year we were awarded a Michelin star. Tonight we showed the world what that really means.”

Damn, if I’m ending a story with a quote from Elyssa, I guess the world really has changed. Hopefully, in a positive way,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSa0EH0LiGk That’s a link to Barbara Lewis singing a live version Hello Stranger. Who wrote Hello Stranger? Barbara Lewis did.

TOM HANKS AND RITA WILSON LAND THE GREATEST ROLES OF THEIR CAREERS

The best news I heard this wayward week was that Tom Hanks and his Rita Wilson have the Corona virus. Talk about some comforting information in troubled times. And I sincerely mean that.

Wednesday night, I got the following text. “Tom Hanks, wife have virus”. If it had been sent from many people I know, I would have dismissed it as stupid. But, this text was from Saji Mathai, a very respected former Los Angeles Times copy editor whose life is devoted to accuracy.

I was numbed by the news. Tom Hanks and Rita have Corona? My neck radar tingled in the bad way when danger looms.  It was the Rock Hudson moment, the  Magic Johnson moment for the virus.  If Tom Hanks could get it, then no one is safe.  Gloom descend hard.

But, then, less than 30 minutes later, a strange feeling came to me. A feeling that made me kinda ashamed, even borderline cowardly, like that soldier cowering in the stairwell after the German slowly pushes the knife into the chest of the American in “Saving Private Ryan”.  Well, maybe not that bad. Still, the feeling was this; I was glad Tom Hanks got the virus. If anyone - and I’m talking anyone on Earth - should get it, Tom Hanks is the ideal person.

Certainly not because I wish him and Rita harm, but the opposite. It was because I like him so much, I respect him so much and, most importantly in these times, I trust him completely. The guy exudes a nearly long gone quality of pure honesty, of being a good person. I’m not saying he’s the only one with those qualities. Hell,  I even occasionally have them, but I am saying no one is better suited to play the role to lead us out of this uncertainty. To battle the uncharted seas, the mystery invasion.

In the small Tuscan village of Panzano in Chianti, my friend Kim Wicks, whose husband is the most famous butcher in Italy, Dario Cecchini – and who are quarantined there – was borderline thrilled to hear the news about Hanks. “In one fell swoop he has become the ambassador to de-stigmatized the whole thing. We can all watch him unveil the mystery. Because it is the unknown that freaks us all out and now, through Tom and Rita, we will go from uncertainty to some certainty. What a godsend.”

Tom and Rita will be our war correspondents sending dispatches from the front line. Finally there’ll be tweets that the world will await. Tweets that will matter to the world.

This morning I saw a tweet and photo from Tom  – with Rita looking fine as ever – and it finished with a spin on the classic line from “A League of Their Own”; “Remember, despite all the current events, there is no crying in baseball.”

There’s no crying, but there’s a whole lotta rooting. And I’m thinking, in all of history of the entire world  never has ever been more people rooting for two people to beat anything as much as they will be for Tom and Rita. There’s usually two sides to a fight. Either you want Ali or you want Frazier. Either you want Brazil or you want Argentina. Usually, as in war, there’s a bad guy, but the thing is, that bad guy thinks you’re the bad guy.

No one thinks Tom Hanks is the bad guy. The health minister in Iran, the sharecropper in Alabama, the yak farmer in Tibet, the dock worker in the Ivory Coast, the brain surgeon in Kyoto, the nurse in Bogota, the line cook from Oaxaca at Pizzeria Mozza, the point guard for the Golden State Warriors, the immigrant from Albania who works in Copenhagen, the Mercedes Formula One driver from England, everyone - other than, of course, some people who want the end of the world - are rooting for Tom and Rita.

Three years and four months ago, the day after Trump was elected,  I wrote an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times  urging people who said they were moving to Canada if he won to stay and fight. I wrote the piece because I stumbled onto watching “Saving Private Ryan” the day after the election and realized we, as a nation, had been through so much worse than having some buffoon in the White House.  We had been through World War II and Capt. Miller ( Hanks ) was gonna save Private Ryan, come hell or high. In the movie, Capt. Miller does save Ryan, but dies on a bridge.

In this real life movie, the sequel to Saving Private Ryan, the role of Tom Hanks was born to play, the greatest role of his and Rita’s life, the ending will be different.

Just as Tom Hanks ends his tweets, let me say  “hanks”. Hanks a lot.

NANCY SILVERTON GIVES RARE "4 NODS" TO GILBERTO CETINA'S MEXICAN SEAFOOD COUNTER "HOLBOX"

When Ruth Reichl tells you to go to a restaurant, go. Just go. She told this reporter Sunday afternoon to go to Holbox and before the sun had set, I was there with Nancy Silverton at a 10-seat counter in the colorful Mercado La Paloma, across the Harbor Freeway from the Coliseum.

Within three minutes, chef Gilberto Cetina, Jr, (Chichen Itza) who named this seafood gem after a car-free island off the north coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, was placing a vibrant green dish (pictured, right) before us. Nancy took a bite of this “aquachile” - Baja Half Moon scallops, lime-serrano-cilantro marinade, and avocado - and started nodding her head in silence. One nod, two.., three and then, slowly – as I watched in wonder – the rare Fourth Nod.  In the 17 years I have been eating with her, Nancy has given the 4 Nods to less than 40 dishes.

When we find out Holbox has been here, at 37th and Grand Ave., for three years, Nancy turns to me and asks “Why the hell haven’t you taken me here before? You gotta wait for Ruth to give the go ahead?’

Fortunately. three tacos show up; octopus, shrimp and yellowtail. They’re excellent. Then a grilled lobster. We eat in silence with some “damn”s and “whoa’s” tossed in.

It’s was such a delight, such a nice surprise. Thank you, Gilberto. Thank you, chef Fatima Juarez.  Thank you, host Maria.

And, oh yeah, thank you, Ruth.

NANCY SILVERTON'S GUIDE TO DINING IN ROME→

I don’t “vacation” in Rome, but I usually go there three or four times a year for a day or two on my way to and from my biannual getaways to Umbria where I have a small house that is my oasis.

Since I’ve been doing this for 20 years, I do have my Rome favorites and am occasionally asked for them. Therefore, I have decided to finally write my Rome Restaurant Guide.  Here it is, so if you ask me about my Rome picks, I’ll just refer you to this article.  

Since I usually land at Leonardo da Vinci airport in the early evening,. my first meal in Rome is dinner and it’s always at Roscioli near the Campo di Fiori. The formal name is Ristorante Salumeria Roscioli, which their website describes as “a multi-function delicatessen, an unconventional restaurant, and a varied wine bar, where the cuisine is based on high quality materials selected over the years by the Roscioli brothers and an attentive and ready staff.”

That’s all true. What they don’t tell you is it is my favorite restaurant in Rome.

You walk in and on your left is a deli case filled with the finest food products from all over Italy. The dining room is in the back, but in-between is where you’ll find me, at one of the eight or so seats at the counter. I’m not a huge pasta eater, but I’ll take several forkfuls of Michael’s order, usually fettuccine carbonara, made with the renowned eggs of Paolo Parisi. Parisi’s egg farm is near Pisa in Tuscany and part of the richness of these eggs is reward from the chicken’s steady diet of goat’s milk.

I’ll usually start with anchovies with French butter and move on to a pork dish or some fish. More on that later.

**

For lunch the next day I can be found, also near the Camp di Fiori, at Ristorante Salumeria Roscioli, sometimes referred to as Roscioli Salumeria con Cucina, but in my world simply called Roscioli . Depending on how many people are dining with me, I might eat at one of the tables in the small, back dining room. If it’s just Michael and me, we are at the counter.  This is my favorite place to have lunch in Rome. The bartender and the charming owner Alessandro are getting to know us and will send some salumi our way. The last time they gave us cured sliced pork leg I haven’t had before called Cullaccia della Bussetto, a kinda cross between prosciutto and culatello. Just get it if it’s available.

I’ll as be digging into the pasta Michael will order, likely a rigatoni with French butter and three kinds of delicious Parmesan cheeses on the menu it is listed at Burro E Parmigiano “Francescana”, a homage to Massimo Bottura.

It’s a terrific was to start off a day in Rome. After, we begin our walking, usually rather aimlessly, but often leading us to the Spanish Steps and maybe to Marni, my favorite clothing store.  Then it more strolling and talking about going to see Caravaggio’s “Calling of Saint Matthew” - which we did see once – but we probably won’t go, just talk about going. We’ll go back tour hotel and relax for a while before dinner.

Last time in Rome - and I think future times -  we stared at this Damaso Hotel, which is located at Piazza della Cancelleria, 62, 00186 Roma RM, Italy    The rooms are nice, nothing fancy, mind you. but the staff is helpful, the price is good at about 100-120 Euro a night and the location is superb. It’s right near the Camp di Fiori.

So, from the Damaso, it about a four minute walk to my number one restaurant in all of Rome. It’s formerly called Ristorante Salumeria Roscioli, but we just call it, like most everyone else Roscioli. - pronounced Row – She Oh – Lee   Address is below. They also have a bakery and i think another cafe, but this is the one I’m talking about.

There is a dining room in the rear of the establishment. And one downstairs, but I like to eat at the counter. The food here is what I want. Simple and delicious. There’s even a superb hamburger. The pastas are superb, the selection of mozzarella is, too.

Usually after two days in Rome I am either driving up to Umbria or flying back to Los Angeles.

If I have a later flight home, or am cool with getting to Umbria in the early evening, I’ll have lunch at my favorite restaurant in Rome. It’s called Roscioli. I’ll tell you about it sometime, but I’m rushing off to lunch there.

Nancy’s Guide to Dining in Rome

ROSCIOLI SALUMERIA CON CUCINA  

www.roscioli.com 

Open Monday to Saturday 12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., 7 p.m. to Midnight  Closed Sunday

Via dei Giubbonari 21, 00186 Roma

Phone: +39 06 687 5287

WASHINGTON POST POLITICAL INVESTIGATIONS EDITOR MATEA GOLD HAD A COOLER JOB TITLE AT THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

Among the books I never thought I’d be reading during my recent two-week winter trip to Italy would have been the so-called Mueller Report, the exhaustive 448-page hunt for collusion and other shit with Russia by then-candidate Donald  Trump in the 2016 election  If I was locked up in the SHU at Pelican Bay and it was the only book in the cell, I’d probably read it.  

But, here I am, seven days into a getaway with my girlfriend Nancy in a 14th century hilltop town in Umbria overlooking Lake Trasimeno where Hannibal Barca wiped out 15,000 Roman soldiers in 217 B.C., and where I go to escape America and, having wrapped Michael Connelly’s latest on the airplane ride here and rushed through Lee Child’s Blue Moon in a personal best six days, I looked at what else I brought, cased the ripe bookcases here and, lo and behold,  decided to give the Washington Post’s illustrated version a shot.

Before I get to the book, let me explain, at some length, why I was even considering reading the Post’s 234 page paperback version. The reason  boils down to two words. One of them is Gold and the other is Matea.

Matea Gold, my friend of about 25 years (damn, Matea, quarter centuries fly by) had sent me the Mueller Report to me from her base at the Washington Post  where she is the National Political Enterprise and Investigations Editor. These times? That’s a cool job.

I met Matea when she had another cool job. Maybe even cooler.

This was back in the mid-1990s at the Los Angeles Times when Matea was the East L. A, Bureau Chief and I, who shared a two-top pod with her, was the Watts Bureau Chief.  We were both stringers back then and anointed ourselves those tough titles, though several staffers at the paper including our editors Bob Baker and Ed Boyer and some reporters often went along for the ride and called us that.  

To us, these two beats, East L.A., along with Boyle Heights, and Watts, along with South Central, were the thriving, rough and lonely, too-often forgotten, essential hearts of our city. We cruised those streets in search of stories not found on the City News Service wire or from cop calls. For example, in 1997, I wrote a story about a rose garden in Watts, (“Blooming of a Dream”) https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-01-01-me-14548-story.html and Matea wrote about crime going down in Boyle Heights (“In Hollenbeck, Crime Statistics Aren’t Needed”) https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-06-03-me-65061-story.html.

Our pods were not powerfully located in the City Room. They were off to a distant side, like our beats, hidden even from view of City Editor Bill Boyarsky’s desk – which he once famously stood atop to rally the troops in face of cooperate motherfuckers trying to slime into the newsroom  – by a large pillar on which health and benefits flyers were posted and ignored by the staff. To bottom it off, we sat about six feet from the entrance to the bathrooms.

But, like our beats, we turned that undesirable location completely around.  It went from a barrio and a ghetto pod to a desirable location.

Hold on. I’ll get to that Mueller book.

One of our first moves to upgrade our banished pod was that pillar. We tore down the ignored flyers about useless things like health and benefits and replaced them with photographs from the staff that didn’t make the paper. We had a closer relationship with photography department than anyone at the paper. I spent more time in the photo lab, mainly flirting with the great conflict photojournalist Carolyn Cole, than any journalist in the newsroom, even Calvin Hom and he was the assignment editor. So we, well, mainly Matea, came up with that idea get the photographers to post their unpublished photos of assignments on our pillar. The Wall, we called it.

The first one exhibit on The Wall was five or six shots from a series staff photographer Kirk McCoy did on black cowboys. Once that was up and popular, it became something of an honor to be on our Wall. We got stuff from Carolyn, Genaro Molina, Gary Friedman, Larry Ho, Anacleto Rapping, Luis Sinco, Clarence Williams, Perry Riddle, Robert Gauthier.

The staffers’ stop to the bathroom soon included a layover at our photograph Wall and a conversation with Matea and me. One memorable time, Rick Meyer, aka “The Great One”, aka Richard E. Meyer, stopped by, looked at our photo Wall and then complemented me on a story about Hells Angel leader Sonny Barger, “Good story about the Angels, Mike. How does Barger do it?” https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-jul-07-mn-10485-story.html   I’ll never forget that. I didn’t even know he knew my name.

And the coup de grace of Matea and my pod was food. In particular, barbecue. I would go once a month to the two best rib joints in the city, Phillips’ BBQ in Leimert Park and Woody’s on Slauson and stash the cardboard box of beef or pork ribs - mixed sauce – in my top desk drawer. (Yeah, I had traded the classic journalists’ stash of a bourbon in the desk drawer for ribs.  But, don’t discount me. I’d return to the old school bottle soon enough.) People would come by, enticed by the waft, and inquire. I’d simply pull out my drawer and offer them a rib.  One time I was talking to legendary 89 Family Swan Bloods leader Big Evil who called collect from Men’s Central, when Bob Sipchen, who would go on to win a Pulitzer for writing about mentally ill homeless people in 2002,  walked up, pulled out my drawer, took a few chomps off a rib, closed the drawer and walked off. Never said a word. Another time or two, my editor Ed Boyer enjoyed the ribs He posted so recently on Facebook after pit master Woody Phillips died.

Anyway, Matea and I had made the best of it. She became a staff writer before I did and went on to Washington, I went to Fresno and then came home to Los Angeles. We kept in touch throughout the years. I went to her wedding in Sonoma and admired the rise of her career. I never been to the Post, but I’m sure she has a powerful desk, or even office, but no way could it be as cool as our pod.  Long live East L.A. and Watts.

Now this book. Get it. Read it. It’s fascinating, enlightening and even entertaining. It’s as fast a read as Connelly or Child. I say it again. The Mueller Report, at least the one illustrated and edited by Matea Gold, is entertaining.

If it came out back in the day, Matea and I would’ve put it up on The Wall.

PASTRY'S SHIRI NAGAR WINS MOZZA EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR AWARD

Until today, if you Googled the words “Shiri Nagar” what came up was “Srinagar”. Say what, my Nagar?

Yeah, this Srinagar turns out to be the largest city and the summer capital of the Indian union of Jammu and Kasimir. But, when you Google her name later today, you’ll get the real Shiri Nagar, the winner of the first ever Mozza Employee of the Year Award, known as the “Nancy”,

Six days ago, when she was still an Indian city, Shiri said she wished whoever won was someone who had never been to - or couldn’t afford to go to - the Ojai Valley Inn, the grand prize for winning the Nancy. It was likely that attitude helped earn her the victory.

While everyone nominated was a valuable Mozza team member, most of them scored well in their own departments, according to exit polls. Nagar, however, was picked in every quadrant of the Corner, garnering votes from Pizzeria, Osteria, Chi Spacca, 2Go, the Office and Pastry.

Shiri Shoshana Nagar was born June 20, 1992 in Aleppo, Syria and attended the Hole In The Wall Elementary School where she excelled in bomb dodging. However, by the 6th grade she was hanging with the wrong crowd and her parents moved to Fallujah, Iraq on Nov, 2004. I think we all know now that wasn’t a wise move.

During a cease- fire there, the Nagar family rushed  to L.A.. Shiri then attended Van Nuys High where she learned to say “fuck you” in several languages. 

After a stint at Tavern in Brentwood, she joined Dahlia Narvaez’ elite Mozza Pastry Squad (MPS) on Feb. 4th, 2014 and quietly went about her business. She gained fame in the summer of 2016 when she created what many food writers  – including Ruth Reichl - hailed as the “most refreshing dish of the year”, the Cucumber Mint Lime Sorbetto, affectionately known as the “Cumcumber”.

Later that year, Shiri was named Employee of the Month. After winning the EOM, Nagar seemed to grow in confidence and began using the language skills she picked up at Van Nuys High.

As the Employee of the Year, Shiri wins two nights lodging at the Ojai Valley Inn, where Nancy hosts master culinary events annually. She also gets a WWF Style Championship Belt, a bottle of something, and a trip to Watts.where she will tour the Watts Towers, have a Hawkins House of Burgers dish called the “Leaning Tower of Watts and, hopefully, get home .

PASTRY'S SHIRI NAGAR WINS MOZZA EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR AWARD

Until today, if you Googled the words “Shiri Nagar” what came up was “Srinagar”. Say what, my Nagar?

Yeah, this Srinagar turns out to be the largest city and the summer capital of the Indian union of Jammu and Kasimir. But, when you Google her name later today, you’ll get the real Shiri Nagar, the winner of the first ever Mozza Employee of the Year Award, known as the “Nancy”,

Six days ago, when she was still an Indian city, Shiri said she wished whoever won was someone who had never been to - or couldn’t afford to go to - the Ojai Valley Inn, the grand prize for winning the Nancy. It was likely that attitude helped earn her the victory.

While everyone nominated was a valuable Mozza team member, most of them scored well in their own departments, according to exit polls. Nagar, however, was picked in every quadrant of the Corner, garnering votes from Pizzeria, Osteria, Chi Spacca, 2Go, the Office and Pastry.

Shiri Shoshana Nagar was born June 20, 1992 in Aleppo, Syria and attended the Hole In The Wall Elementary School where she excelled in bomb dodging. However, by the 6th grade she was hanging with the wrong crowd and her parents moved to Fallujah, Iraq on Nov, 2004. I think we all know now that wasn’t a wise move.

During a cease- fire there, the Nagar family rushed  to L.A.. Shiri then attended Van Nuys High where she learned to say “fuck you” in several languages. 

After a stint at Tavern in Brentwood, she joined Dahlia Narvaez’ elite Mozza Pastry Squad (MPS) on Feb. 4th, 2014 and quietly went about her business. She gained fame in the summer of 2016 when she created what many food writers  – including Ruth Reichl - hailed as the “most refreshing dish of the year”, the Cucumber Mint Lime Sorbetto, affectionately known as the “Cumcumber”.

Later that year, Shiri was named Employee of the Month. After winning the EOM, Nagar seemed to grow in confidence and began using the language skills she picked up at Van Nuys High.

As the Employee of the Year, Shiri wins two nights lodging at the Ojai Valley Inn, where Nancy hosts master culinary events annually. She also gets a WWF Style Championship Belt, a bottle of something, and a trip to Watts.where she will tour the Watts Towers, have a Hawkins House of Burgers dish called the “Leaning Tower of Watts and, hopefully, get home .

Osteria Mozza Defeats Pizzeria Mozza In Game #2 of Chicken Time World Series

After their opening loss to Pizzeria at the Mozza Chicken Time World Series, most experts thought Thursday’s  game  #2 was a “must win”  for the younger Osteria team. So it came as somewhat of a surprise when Osteria manager Sal Jaramillo handed to kitchen over to a relative newcomer, Diego Guachiac, for the second game of the World Series.

But, Guachiac came through, delivering a masterful performance with a stunning – and surprising - Tostada de Tinga, known to most black, white and Asian peoples as “chicken on one of those hard tortilla.”

From the opening bite, Diego’s tostada – slivers of chicken, avocado, queso fresco, pinto beans, lettuce topped with salsa – impressed the tasters, many of them who had been to game one.

“I love this, “ said Nancy, (or was that Natasha?) as she wolfed down her second Diego tostada.

The Pizzeria, after their stunning Game #1 victory, came back with chicken thighs again, but this time without the bone that many observers felts was the deciding factor yesterday.

In the Osteria kitchen, manager Sal was fast to credit Diego saying, “Diego can deliver in an important game.”

 In the Pizzeria, yesterday’s winning pitcher Ruben Martinez had no comment.

Neither did Raul Ramirez-Valdiva who cooked  for Osteria in game one’s loss.. Raul pretended to be more interested in watching Halloween related videos than the game .

 Game Three is scheduled for tomorrow at 11 a.m. with Pizzeria batting first. Osteria will bat at 11:30 a.m. The game is sold out.

.

PIZZERIA MOZZA BEATS OSTERIA MOZZA AT STAFF MEAL "CHICKEN TIME" SHOWDOWN

BY Jimmy Dolan, MOZZA TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

As players prepared for Game Seven of the World Series in Houston, another championship was unfolding Wednesday on the Mozza Corner of Los Angeles as Ruben Martinez of Pizzeria went thigh-to-thigh with Raul Ramirez-Valdiva of the Osteria for the “Chicken Time Championship”  When it was over and the ballots counted, it was a stunning – and close - win for Ruben and the Pizzeria. 

Martinez took the victory with a quiet pride, choosing not to boast, as no doubt Pizzeria sous chef Ben Giron would have. “Thank you,” Martinez said with a smile to a reporter, and then gave credit to the guajillo peppers he used. And the roaring wood fire of the Pizzeria’s oven.

The voting, cast in secret, was extremely close, with Pizzeria edging out Osteria 13-12. Many tasters did not want to be quoted, but said off the record thought it was the “bone-in” of Pizzeria’s thighs that put it over the edge. A few weren’t bashful.

“The chicken was dark-skinned and tender inside,” said manager Alan “Rocky” Birnbaum, who made it clear he was talking about Ruben’s thighs, not those of Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o.

Some Mozza staffers thought PIzzeria had a not-so-secret ingredient - bones. “They were both outstanding, but I love the bone” said pastry kitchen supervisor Cecily Feng. Seeking to clarify that line, she added “Well, the bone does add flavor and tenderness.”

 Raul took the news with class and vowed to win next time. “Congratulations to Ruben,” Raul said. “I’ll get him next time.”

Ruben Martinez and his staff chicken thighs

Raul’s chicken for Osteria Mozza staff lunch