Chef Gio Mauro’s new Sunday Family Feast is a reminder to slow down, inspired by a recent return to Italy.
Monzù Italian Oven + Bar has long delivered some of the most interesting (and best) pizzas and pastas in Las Vegas, thanks to Chef Giovani Mauro’s passion for delivering authentic recreations of his favorite meals in Italy. His most recent trip to that nation (where he was raised and has extensively traveled) has inspired something else – one of the best dining deals in town, designed to help people unplug and relax.
For $29, Las Vegas diners can settle in at Monzù Italian Oven + Bar every Sunday evening for unlimited portions of some of his favorite dishes. But the chef insists it’s not about overindulging. It’s actually meant to help people relax.
The new Sunday Family Feast launches Aug. 9, offering five pastas and at least three or four of his Roman style pizzas, along with dessert, tea and soft drinks. Children 12 and under eat for half price. And Italian music will be performed from 5 to 8:30 p.m.
Time Stops
The idea came to Mauro during a recent nine-day trip to Busseto, Italy, where he once studied opera. Traveling with his sons, he spent two Sundays in the small northern Italian town and found himself rediscovering something that had largely disappeared from his own life.
“Sundays still happen in Italy,” Mauro told the Food and Loathing podcast. “People stop. They get together with friends. They get together with family and just, time stops.”
The experience brought back memories of the Sundays he grew up with — days centered around food, family and friends, before busy schedules made those gatherings increasingly difficult.
“I spent two Sundays there, and I said, ‘Oh my gosh, I remember this. We used to actually do this all the time, and then what happened?’” Mauro recalls. “We’re just crazy busy, 365 a year, just going.”
If You Don’t Have Time, Chef Gio Wants To Help
Mauro knows that recreating the tradition at home isn’t always practical. So he decided to have Monzù do the cooking.
“I’ve also realized that we’re so busy that it’s hard for people to sit on Sundays and cook,” he says. “I don’t want it to be like this promotional gimmicky thing. I really want it for the community.”
In fact, Mauro says anyone who does have the time to prepare a Sunday meal should stay home and do exactly that.
“If you have time to cook, cook at home. Seriously, invite them to your house,” he says. “Go spend time at home with your friends and family, 100%. But if you don’t have time and you need someone to facilitate that, I want to do it.”
Family-Style Service
That philosophy extends to the way the meal will be served. Rather than putting out a traditional buffet, Mauro plans a tableside format inspired by Lidia Bastianich’s Becco in New York City. Servers will circulate with large pans of pasta, spooning as much as guests want onto their plates. Pizzas will also be part of the free-flowing meal.
“The idea, again, is so that it feels very communal,” Chef Gio explains. “It feels like almost like a buffet coming to your table, as opposed to you getting up and standing in line.”
He hopes the format gets people talking to one another about what they’re eating — asking who has tried which pasta, passing food around and lingering over the meal — while guitar and accordion provide a soundtrack that Mauro says will create atmosphere without overpowering conversation.
“I want people to know each other,” he says. “And just kind of have this very free flow and festive Sunday Italian thing.”
In addition to great pastas, the deal allows people to sample a style of pizza rarely found in Las Vegas. Monzù serves Roman-style pizza alla pala, made from naturally leavened dough that undergoes a five-day fermentation. Mauro treats the dough, he says, not merely as a vehicle for toppings but as an integral part of the dish.
For the Sunday Family Feast, however, all of those culinary details ultimately serve a simpler goal: giving people a place to stop for a few hours, eat together and reclaim a little of the Sunday tradition Mauro was reminded of in Italy.
The $29 Sunday Family Feast launches Aug. 9 at Monzù Italian Oven + Bar. Children 12 and under are half price. The meal includes all-you-can-eat pizza and pasta, dessert and tea or soda, with Italian music from 5 to 8:30 p.m.
You can hear more of Chef Gio Mauro on the August 7 episode of the Food and Loathing podcast, recorded on location at Monzu.
