Salumi Night at Mozza's Scuola di Pizza

Apart from that tomahawk chop, prices at the salumi bar are fairly low, and it's easy for a few people to fill up on salami and antipasti for around $100. In fact, the most expensive experience you can have at the Scuola di Pizza was also the least enjoyable: the $150 pizza-making class on Wednesday nights. You get the feeling that the cost has more to do with making the evening work financially for Mozza than with what the class is actually worth: A number of my classmates expressed disappointment that there was no hands-on aspect. I'd only recommend the class to Mozza or pizza fanatics.

On the other hand, the communal dinners are delightful, and a relative bargain at $75 per person. The whole-hog dinner in particular has gained a following, and for good reason. One animal provides the protein for all five courses, apart from the cured meats, which come from a previous dinner's hog. Terrines and cured meats are followed by four more courses — on the night I went, they included a rich, almost creamy cheese soufflé served with pork ragu made from the leg meat; a platter of shoulder meat full of crispy crunchy bits and served with a vinegary frisee-and-chicory salad; and milk-roasted loin so tender and sweet it barely needed its accompaniment of caramelized ricotta and sage. For dessert, glorious, giant bowls of gelato hit the table, comical in their towering glory. Pig-shaped cookies, made in part with lard from the pig, added to the childish glee of the final course. One dinner guest, a bespectacled man in a Hawaiian shirt, joyously converted two pig cookies and a generous scoop of pistachio gelato into a piggy ice cream sandwich.

PHOTO BY ANNE FISHBEIN

Salumi bar at Mozza

Location Info

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Scuola Di Pizza

6610 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90038

Category: Restaurant > Italian

Region: West Hollywood

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More About

• Scuola Di
• Chad Colby
• Nancy Silverton
• Meat
• Italian Food and Cooking

Barring private events, the whole-hog dinners are an every-Saturday occurrence. During October, Friday nights are dedicated to beef dinners. But it's the Thursday night salumi bar I'll be back for again and again. It's the cheapest, most relaxed, most enjoyable way to eat at any of Mozza's operations, and thanks to Colby's dogged pursuit of knowledge, flavor and licensing, it's also some of the most delicious food that Mozza, and Los Angeles, has to offer.

MOZZA'S SCUOLA DI PIZZA | 6610 Melrose Ave. | (323) 297-1133 | mozza2go.com | Thursday salumi bar: 6-10 p.m.; Friday beef dinners in October: 7 p.m.; Saturday hog dinners: 7 p.m. All events contingent on private-event schedule; check website for details. All dinners except salumi night require reservation with credit card number | Wine served | $10 valet parking on Highland Avenue

See more pictures from Anne Fishbein of Mozza's Scuola di Pizza.