Gusto Mio opens in Walnut Creek
Italian pop songs immediately establish the mood at Gusto Mio, a new focacceria in downtown Walnut Creek. The emotionalism of the music is briefly transportive. With each slice of pizza or sandwich, a customer can dream of being elsewhere—in a remote Italian village, perhaps, where one's biggest concern is the flavor of baked goods and not the imminent decline of civil liberties.
The footprint of Gusto Mio's kitchen is as large as the storefront itself. There are two corner tables and a long bar with several stools placed underneath it that face the picture window, toward the busy street. The restaurant is minimally designed with white walls. It resides within the comfortable confines of a to-go, delivery and fast-casual concept. Food provides most of the color there. Glass panes at the front counter entice customers with displays of pizza slabs, swollen with molten cheese that oozes down the sides.
The menu currently offers over a dozen different sandwiches and at least seven pizza choices. Antonio Merolla co-founded Gusto Mio with his uncle Angelo Sannino. Doppio Zero is Sannino's primary restaurant group, an Italian pizzeria with five locations around the Bay Area. Although both restaurant concepts are owned by the same family, the round Napoletana pizzas served at Doppio Zero are entirely different from Gusto Mio's thick, rectangular slices.
Merolla runs Gusto Mio's day-to-day operations in addition to helping customers with their orders. When I met him in the middle of a busy weekend, he was slicing pizza, making sandwiches, ringing folks up at the register and checking on batches of dough cooking in the oven. He's also responsible for making the sweet containers of tiramisu. After our meeting, Merolla later wrote to me, "I make the desserts in-house, using recipes that bring a touch of Italy to every bite."
He also said that some of the recipes are his grandmother's, if adapted and adjusted for the volume and demands of a hungry public. I'm not sure if the slice of gorgonzola ($7.50) exactly conjured up Italy, but it certainly conjured up a lot of cheese with heaps of fresh mozzarella and gorgonzola. Thinly sliced mushrooms appeared on top like empty lifeboats floating on a pale sea of cheese. To my chagrin, a bright-red, appealing slab of pepperoni, slathered in tomato sauce, came out of the oven after I'd already eaten.
On its own or as a side at many restaurants at which I've dined, focaccia is often dry, stale or as worn out as a discarded cardboard box. It's generally not the first bread that comes to mind for snacking. Nabolom, not an Italian restaurant, was the first bakery in the East Bay that changed my mind about this particular flatbread. The toppings the bakers choose there always complement the dough. But the cooked dough is both chewy and crunchy, rich with notes of olive oil.
Gusto Mio's dough also rises to the occasion. Merolla and his team make two versions of it. The focaccia for the sandwiches is taller and fluffier. The recipe, Merolla wrote, "is inspired by traditional flavors from Napoli and is actually a family recipe that has been passed down through generations."
Bread can make or break a successful sandwich. I ordered the estiva, or summer, sandwich ($15), made with salame toscano, cream of artichoke, arugula and truffle cream. The bread was a light and airy vehicle that neatly carried and married all of the ingredients together. While I ate, Merolla brought a freshly baked loaf of bread from the oven. As he held it upright in his arms, the focaccia glistened with golden highlights.
Going forward, Merolla plans to expand Gusto Mio's menu with salads, lasagne, eggplant parmigiana and other desserts. "Soon, I would also like to start making Italian breakfasts," he wrote, which would include pastries. The restaurant also has a cappuccino maker. After finishing his espresso, one customer approached Merolla with a smile before complimenting him for making a delicious cup of coffee.
