Dining Out: Pulcinella Mozzarella Bar

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On August 2nd I received an email from Thrillist that the North End was getting a new dining spot, Pulcinella Mozzarella Bar. As far as I'm concerned, other than my favorite, Bacco, all the North End restaurants are the same, but a mozzarella bar? This is totally new.

As a vegetarian, cheese is a pretty important part of my diet and mozzarella is one of the best. After receiving the grand opening email, I immediately forwarded it to two friends who share my same passion for the creamy, Italian cheese.

We decided to meet at Pulcinella on a Friday night after work. What better way to usher in the weekend than with plates covered in mozzarella cheese?

Pulcinella is across the street from Antico Forno. The red brick building is dressed with sleek, black awnings over each of the windows.

From across the street you can see the tall, elegant, white orchids decorating each window sill.

When you walk through the doorway, the first thing you see is a giant framed photograph of a Caprese salad. This is my kind of place!

Pulcinella has brightly colored, orb shaped light fixtures that feel like they came from a hybrid of Studio 54 and Candyland.

The four seater bar also has dramatic light fixtures, though those are solid white.

Against the back wall of the restaurant is a tomato red bookshelf that is used for storing wine glasses, napkins and olive oil.

We were seated at a table right in the front window with views out the front and the side of the restaurant.

I loved that we could see the chalkboard menu for the restaurant next door hanging right outside their front door.

Once we settled in, our waitress came over to introduce herself and hand us menus. The cover of the menu reads, "What about Pulcinella? It is the mask that represents Naples: happy, no worries and a passion for good eating. Always read to show whatever face is necessary to bring friend and foe together around tables full of wine and good food. Always ready to distract us from the trials of daily life." Amen to that!

The table had chic salt and pepper shakers and a petite plant for garnish.

As the saying goes, "When in Rome," so we ordered a bottle of red. The wine list at Pulcinella is mostly bottles, there are only a handful of wines that come by the glass.

Throughout the meal our waitress kept reappearing to refill our wine glasses - a very nice touch.

While looking over the menu we noshed on crusty bread and olive oil topped with basil and red pepper flakes.

The Pulcinella menu is simply amazing. The first page offers you the ability to order a tasting plate, like an antipasto. You choose a type of mozzarella, then you choose meats or vegetables as accompaniments. We heavily considered that to start, but wound up being seduced by the appetizers.

Our first dish was eggplant involtini. Pieces of mozzarella cheese are wrapped in thin slices of grilled eggplant and served swimming in a sea of house made tomato sauce. The sauce was a bit oily, but the eggplant and cheese combination was superb.

We also ordered the zucchini flowers stuffed with mozzarella. I order zucchini flowers any time I see them. In fact, I just found a recipe last week that I'm going to try and make myself!

The zucchini flowers tasted like they were fried in tempura. They were light and flaky on the outside, but creamy on the inside.

The flowers were served over a bed of panzanella salad, which was just as amazing as the flowers. I love panzanella and in this case, the panzanella could have stood on its own and been an incredible dish.

For dinner, one of the girls ordered the paccheri which is mozzarella stuffed meatballs. The meatballs came over a bed of wide noodle pasta. She explained, "The meatballs were super amazing. I could have had two more, easily. Sadly, the pasta wasn't great. It was too dry because there wasn't enough sauce."

Next to me, a friend was eating the gnocchi with shrimp. She shared that, "The gnocchi itself was light and puffy. The pistachio pesto was a new twist on the usual sauce and the slivers of fresh garlic in there were awesome. I could have done without the shrimp, the dish didn't even need it."

I ordered the spinach ravioli which came topped with freshly grated cheese. The ravioli pouches were packed to the brim with spinach and ricotta. The tomato mascarpone sauce was rich and had me nearly licking the bowl. The sprinkle of smoked mozzarella added a delicious flavor that really put the dish over the top.

You would think at this point we'd tap out, but no, we're dining out champions. We asked to see the dessert menu and after a quick perusal, we decided on the chocolate mocha budino.

Confession: none of us knew what a budino was. After careful and dedicated research, I am happy to report that budino is like chocolate mousse, but slightly thicker and served in a creme brulee dish. The mocha flavor was fantastic and we cleared that bowl right out.

The night we visited Pulcinella the Boston Globe was sitting a table away. Their photographer was ordering his way through the whole menu, snapping photos and interviewing diners about their experience. It was really fun to be there while that was happening.

We had a great waitress, a star table and plate after plate of out of this world food. If you're looking for a new spot in the North End, bump Pulcinella to the very top of your list.