Mozz in Newport

Fresh Cheeses and Other Flavors of Italy in the City by the Sea

As an early morning light pierces his shop’s glass facade, Luca Mignogna slides open the service window facing Newport’s tony Bellevue Avenue, allowing the wafting aroma of earthy coffee mingling with the warm scent of just-out-of-the-oven bread and pastries to escape through the pass.

“Buongiorno!” he calls out to a gentleman in a warm coat and cap, who returns the morning salutation.

It’s another typical morning at Mozz, the shop Mignogna opened with his wife, Christina, this past June. Tucked into Bellevue Gardens Shopping Center opposite the historic 1881 Newport Casino block, the address is one with gravitas; a feather in the cap of the cheesemaker who was born and raised half a world away from here in Campobasso, a province in the Molise region of southern Italy.

“We fit very well on Bellevue Avenue because Bellevue Avenue is also [about] a lot of American traditions. There are wonderful histories of who put together this country,” he says while pointing eastward over his shoulder, where the grand Gilded Age “summer cottages” of the country’s titans of industry dot the streetscape. “When we found this location,” we said, “‘We need to deserve to be here.’”

Mignogna explains that he and Christina sought to re-create the experience of Italian food culture in this space, a former longtime home of Newport Creamery. Together, they transformed the place where tens of thousands of Awful Awfuls were served into a simple but spacious cheese shop and eatery. Now, one can languish with the morning newspaper or magazine while sipping a cappuccino and savoring a croissant; enjoy a lunchtime respite with a just-made mozzarella, sliced tomato and basil sandwich; or, before day’s end, savor a pinsa, freshly made pizza with a crispy crust made from soy, rice and wheat flour.

Over the past half year, they’ve positioned Mozz as the place where one gets more than fresh food, imported goods and exquisite cheeses made by fellow cheesemongers who share their passion. They’ve built an experience, right down to the warm smells that hit when you walk through the door.

“It’s what I remember about my home country— getting in the place and …” Mignogna inhales deeply “… they say ‘Oh my God! What am I going to eat?’ We’ve been in the restaurant industry and the cheese business for a long time … I’ve been making cheese since I was a little kid, since I was forced to ‘volunteer’ with my grandfather.”

Surrounded by Sannio and Matese mountains, Mignogna’s childhood stomping grounds have been synonymous with cheesemaking, for centuries. Just as they do today, dairy herds, sheep and goats there roam the mountainside pastures, grazing on grass and native vegetation, producing milk infused with the region’s unique terroir. Scamorza, pecorino, stracciatella, mozzarella and caciocavallo are among quintessential traditional Molisani cheeses.

Mignogna first learned cheesemaking informally, never expecting to make it his life’s work, especially after moving to the U.S. nearly 20 years ago. Whether due to curiosity or intrinsic calling, Mignogna was eventually lured back to the process and began trying his hand at making raw-milk cheeses. When he got more serious about the craft, he studied at the University of Vermont’s Institute for Artisan Cheese, a program for cheesemongers that examines the science and technique of cheesemaking.

While the coursework engaged his technical capabilities, Mignogna returned home to Molise to apprentice with a master cheesemaker at a caseificio, a dairy where cheese is made. There, he perfected the art of making mozzarella, a “pasta-filata” style of cheese, meaning one that includes hand stretching cheese curds into long, malleable strands.

Mozzarella, which in his country is made to be savored immediately after or on the same day it’s made—ideally when the soft cheese mound is still warm—became Mignogna’s passion. Time after time, he’d make cheese curds from whole milk, continually stirring the curds then repeatedly gently squeezing and kneading the whey out with his muscular hands. While it’s still warm, Mignogna rhythmically lifts and stretches the cheese, outstretching his arms like an orchestra conductor, careful not to overwork the cheese, until achieving a stringy, pliable and eventually smooth texture. As the cheese cools, it’s cut and shaped into separate, round balls of soft, luscious mozzarella.

Mignogna’s first foray into sharing his passion was in Massachusetts, where he started selling at a farmers market before opening his brick-and-mortar, Wolf Meadow Farm in Amesbury, with Christina. Here the two became not just cheese-hawkers and suppliers, but cheese educators, igniting a community of cheese lovers. After five years, they were unable to renew their lease, and the couple explored new locations for their venture. Newport rose to the top. Though they recognize there’s a seasonality to the City by the Sea, the couple, who now call Newport home, has experienced the deep sense of community there since opening.

Many customers experience their first taste of true, authentically made mozzarella here, which is nothing like the shrink-wrapped mozzarella found on supermarket shelves.

The cheesemaker, who makes up to 50 pounds of mozzarella a day, has also won shoppers over with his extraordinary burrata, stracciatella and scamorza cheeses, and plans to add primo sale (farmer’s cheese) and caciocavallo soon. With a dedicated space for cheesemaking workshops, Mignogna anticipates the opportunity to share his craft and teach others how to make fresh cheese from scratch.

Along the wall, shoppers can peruse a carefully curated selection of well-researched food items, all of which are Italian, local or made by producers with whom the couple have a relationship. To say the Mignognas have worked tirelessly since Mozz’s inception would be a gross understatement, but Luca says it’s been a symbiotic experience. “Most of the job, I would say, is being done by our customers; that they give us trust by coming back, they try multiple things, I say that with a lot of respect and appreciation,” he says. “People are paying attention to what we’re doing, and people care what they’re eating, and the reason why we did Mozz is because we also care about what we eat.”

Mozz Formaggi e Pane
181 Bellevue Ave., Newport
401.324.7065; MozzNewport.com
Check website for seasonal hours.