Eats & Beats: Johnny's Italian Steakhouse
The first preview of food fare for the upcoming Live at the Vineyards is from Johnny’s Italian Steakhouse and Chef Mario Godoy. (We know Chef Mario from his days at the Dazzle location on Curtis Street, and he was at Parisi on Tennyson for a spell.)
Chef is making the most of his visits to Italy, where he studied how the food is sourced and prepared in northern Italy. Located inside the Hilton Garden Inn at 144th and Lincoln in Thornton, they serve moderately priced Italian fare. While Chef Mario was telling stories, Carlos, Abi, and Steve sampled what he’ll be serving on August 16:
- Scallop with Brussels sprouts and bacon vinaigrette (wow!)
- Filet Mignon puttanesca tartare with garlic crostini's (delectable!)
- Parmesan gelato crostini with olive oil, balsamic, and Colorado peaches (technically not a dessert, with a savory cream, but a satisfying finish!)
Johnny's Italian Steakhouse, 14275 Lincoln St., Thornton, CO 80023, 303.255.2525
Excerpt from the interview:
STEVE: Talk about setting the mood. Uncle Junior.
CARLOS: Yeah. Yeah, that's Dominic Chianse.
STEVE: Okay.
CARLOS: Who can sing, as you can tell. And he's the featured vocalist on a fantastic recording from Gary Smulyan called “Bella Napoli,” and we're playing that for a reason.
STEVE: I'm in the mood for some Italian cuisine now. None other than Chef Mario Godoy joins us from Johnny's Italian Steakhouse in Thornton. Welcome to downtown. Welcome back to downtown.
MARIO: Bienvenido.
STEVE: We haven't seen you in a while.
MARIO: It’s been a while.
STEVE: We met Mario Godoy when he was a chef at Dazzle when they moved downtown.
MARIO: Correct.
STEVE: It’s good to see you turn up at Johnny's Italian. But your background allows you to go all over the world with this cuisine. Not just Guadalajaran, right?
MARIO: Correct. I'm originally from Mexico, but I've been very fortunate to travel to Italy, mostly northern part of Italy, to do some cooking and drinking and more drinking and more cooking.
STEVE: It's a tough life, chef.
MARIO: Yeah. So, I learned quite a bit over there.
ABI: People talk about how different the way that you interact with food in Italy. What were some of the takeaways from being there and being immersed in the food scene?
MARIO: It's the background and the production of things. Like, I saw the way they make the prosciutto, how they make the Grana Padano, the balsamic, the wineries. It’s the history. Like, a very good example is the parmesan, how the family stays and it kind of passes on to the next generation. And it was amazing.
STEVE: It's so generational. It is. It's a family thing. It's passed on.
MARIO: Yes. Yeah. It's just…It's memorable. Very memorable, you know? When a piece of cheese floats in salt water, the Grana Padana, they literally put them in a pool of salt water, and it just baffles just to see the steps of each production…Same with the prosciutto. The guys who cleaned the prosciutto legs? They’re so fast. It's, like, seconds. You take the bone out of the leg.
STEVE: The production is part of Johnny's Italian Steakhouse vibe. Is it kind of dinner and a show? I guess they say so much about food is about the presentation.
MARIO: To me, it’s more — it’s all about the flavor. You can have a beautiful plate, but if it's not balanced, it just is not memorable. Memorable is when your every bite, you keep tasting and you keep tasting. And when you're done with it, it’s like, “Man, that was so good.”
STEVE: We have some beautiful plates in front of us, which we're going to get to in a minute.
CARLOS: That's right.
STEVE: Mario Godoy, chef and general manager of Johnny's Italian Steakhouse, which is, I guess, in a few places around the Midwest and also in Colorado.
MARIO: Correct, there's about 11 locations. Mostly Iowa and Wyoming — and Wisconsin, I'm sorry. There's four properties: Texas, Kansas, Colorado and Illinois. But most of them are in Iowa and Wisconsin.
STEVE: Yeah. Good to have you here in the metro area. We've got to have good ethnic food all over the city. It's a big city. We’re a foodie town. That means Thornton deserves a good Italian steakhouse.
CARLOS: So, Thornton is off 144th?
STEVE: Yeah, 144th and Lincoln, right.
MARIO: That's right. Yeah. Just right off the exit. You can’t miss it, and it's actually inside the Hilton Hotel.
STEVE: Okay.
MARIO: So, it’s inside the Hilton.
STEVE: Maybe too close to the exit for me. I can feel my car pulling over at 144th, starting to get over. Chef Mario Godoy, what did you prepare for us here?
MARIO: So, we got a couple of things. One is called parmesan gelato, which is just parmesan and cream cooked for a very long time to kind of reduce. So, it makes it very spreadable.
STEVE: That's the dessert. I'm getting on that.
MARIO: It's actually not a dessert. It's more like a savory. So, it has a salty, sweet. And with the Colorado peaches.
ABI: Yeah, Palisade.
STEVE: Okay. All right.
MARIO: So, these are not Colorado peaches yet. But it’s olive oil, balsamic, parmesan gelato, and some peaches. So, it has the sweet and savory. Then we have, of course, a steakhouse. So, what I'm doing is —
STEVE: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's just making me very happy right now. As you said, chef, the flavors are hitting me right now.
MARIO: Yeah.
STEVE: As I bite into this. Okay, go ahead. Keep going.
MARIO: The other one is steak tartar. But it's different than our normal steak tartar. This is a kind of take on Italian. It's a steak tartar puttanesca. So, capers, anchovies, olives, parsley, garlic.
STEVE: And this is here also on the bread? On the toasted…?
MARIO: So, I what I did, I put the spread of black olive tapenade. And then the steak tartar on top. So, we're having steak for breakfast and scallop.
ABI: There's nothing wrong with that.
MARIO: So you do that for breakfast.
CARLOS: I've already picked up on the scallop. You want to tell us about that?
MARIO: Yeah. The scallop is just a beautiful piece of scallop.
CARLOS: Very tender.
MARIO: Scallops, they're very tender. So they're lightly pan seared with brussels sprouts and a bacon vinaigrette. Very simple, but it's just flavors just balanced very well. The scallops are so sweet.
ABI: Yeah.
CARLOS: Very sweet. Excellent. So, this is the menu that you will be providing for us at Live at the Vineyards, Balistreri Vineyards, for our event?
MARIO: That's correct.
STEVE: What? Man.
CARLOS: The line is already starting.
STEVE: You haven't been to Balistreri Vineyards, so we're going to tell how to get there. But it's 20 or 30 passionate chefs like you doing their best small plates. And you get to see the other chefs, meet the other chefs that you don't already know. Some of them you already know.
MARIO: Once you live in this industry, you know a lot of people.
STEVE: And these plates will go fast I can tell you at Live at the Vineyards on August 16th at Balistreri Vineyards. Restaurants just like Johnny's Italian steakhouse are going to be presenting there. It's a presentation! A performance of flavors!
MARIO: That’s what it is.
ABI: Do you find you have more fun with the small plates versus the large plates? What comes into your mind when you're crafting those different kinds of meals?
MARIO: I like more, like, cooking things that take a long time. Like a Bolognese.
ABI: Oh, yes.
CARLOS: Oh, yeah, a good Bolognese.
MARIO: A good Bolognese? Oh, my God. It's just…the development. If you can make it good Bolognese, you actually kind of master the cooking process —
ABI: The craft, yeah.
MARIO: The craft. Our Bolognese is cooked for five hours, so it just it develops every single flavor. And that's what I was talking about. It’s like, even though it's Bolognese — it might not be the prettiest, but once you keep eating, eating until your plate is done…
STEVE: Boy, we are so fortunate in this community to have chefs like you who are passionate about the food, the presentation, the sourcing of the food, keeping it natural, keeping it fresh. I've learned so much from you guys. I’ve really raised my appreciation for really good food. So, thanks for what you do.
MARIO: Well, my pleasure. I mean, if you love what you do, then it's just natural and easy.
CARLOS: Yes. It comes through in the flavor. Mario Godoy from Johnny's Italian Steakhouse up at 144th and I-25.
MARIO: That’s correct.
CARLOS: The restaurant’s located in the Hilton. And if you don't get a chance to get up there anytime soon, keep in mind that Johnny's Italian Restaurant with Mario will be at Balistreri Vineyards on the 16th. One of many restaurants that will take care of your appetite.
STEVE: Yeah, August 16th. Details at kuvo.org and many items like this amazing spread will be listed as we get them in. And the crew is working hard to get the lineup here in front of you so you know what to expect on August 16th. Chef Godoy, muchas gracias.
MARIO: Placer.
CARLOS: Thank you for being here.
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