Roadtrip: Augustine’s Salumeria Dazzles with Seasonal, Modern Italian in Mamaroneck

Savory cacio e pepe zeppole

If you listen to Marc Taxiera talk about his style at his newly opened Mamaroneck restaurant, Augustine’s Salumeria, he speaks about it passionately.

“It’s born in Italian cooking, but I’m using ingredients from the market, things that turn us on,” he says. “My food was always about taking ingredients that we can get and showcasing them in the best way. Most Italian tends to be heavy on the sauce, fried calamari, chicken parm, but we’re taking the seasons and playing with it, doing it a little differently.”

That doesn’t mean you won’t see some classics like Friday’s popular lasagna special or Sunday’s Sunday sauce spaghetti, complete with a bowl of meatballs, sausage, fork tender chunks of short rib, and fall-off-the-bone baby backs.

But for the most part, Augustine’s menu is Taxiera’s own interpretation of Italian cooking alongside refined versions of his mother and grandmother’s recipes.

Before settling on the former Rosa's La Scarbitta space, Taxiera mentioned that he and Brianne looked in South Norwalk in the location on the corner of South Main and Washington that was once home to Local Kitchen.

No doubt, Taxiera, who grew up in Ossining working at Bagel On Hudson in Croton, picked up a thing or two during his restaurant journey post bagel making. It included stints at Lidia Bastianich’s Felidia, Beppe Trattoria, and as the executive chef at The Russian Tea Room. But it was at Beppe where Taxiera met his wife, Brianne Myers, who has a strong industry resume herself. She was the general manager of Loring Place, BLT Steak, and most recently of Eataly’s Flatiron flagship. While the pair still reside in Manhattan, they’re hoping to soon make the move to Westchester or Fairfield County to be closer to the restaurant that’s the namesake of Taxiera’s grandfather, a World War II veteran.

At Augustine’s, you’ll encounter few red sauce family tributes, plus everything from imported cured meats for charcuterie and a stellar Italian combo that blows away most delis, to homemade pastas and seasonal veggie, meat, and seafood preparations.

Classic Sunday sauce available on…Sundays. A bowl of meatballs, homemade spicy sausage, short ribs, and baby backs comes with it, as does a salad.

Mussels with salami, fennel, and a tomato broth fit for dipping that bread in.

According to Taxiera, what Augustine’s menu and ultimately his cooking is centered around is the ingredients. High quality. Fresh. Local. Seasonal.

“We get to the Union Square Greenmarket as much as we can; 2-3 times per week,” Taxiera says. “We have a relationship with a lot of farmers there. Even our ricotta is from Upstate New York. Everything is as close to home as we can get it.”

Fresh made lumache (with pancetta and crispy sage) tossed in butternut squash “sauce” with shrimp so tender you’d swear each was a noodle.

Pizza fritta, spicy sausage ragu. Better than what you’d get at a carnival.

And then there’s Augustine’s beef program made possible through a connection to Ritchie Land & Livestock in Enid, Oklahoma that specializes in Longhorn cattle. Each cow isn’t only well fed, they’re treated humanely throughout their lives.

“The farmer is a friend of Brianne’s,” Taxiera explains. “They’re passionate about what they do, and we really geeked out on it. We’re the only place that gets their beef commercially. We’ve noticed the cows are bigger as the program moves on. The meat is so red, a deep red, with so much flavor. It’s beautiful. It tends to sell out quickly (on the menu there’s a daily market beef and seasonal sides entrée). We usually start with the ribeye and strip, then we progress to offering the flank, hangar, then filets.”

The Longhorn beef does appear as more than just a steak. Roasts are slow roasted show up in one of three iterations of Italian beef sandwich including Chicago style with giardiniera. It even gets ground up, grilled, and topped with bacon, cheddar, and house brined pickles for a burger. And of course it’d be in a bowl of pasta, stewed, over a Mafalda pasta with a red wine tomato sauce and a dollop of whipped goat’s milk ricotta.

Taxiera’s not afraid to impress, nor does he shy away from decadence. This off menu bread pudding with bacon, maple syrup, hazelnuts, and foie gras proves that point. “I had some foie in today, so why not?” he says.

Truffle fries. None of that fake truffle oil here.

Somehow the carnage grows, as the fresh cut fries are fried in beef tallow as to use as much of the animal as possible. And get an order of fries for the table, you should. Salt & pepper, herb (with garlic), and smothered (with a funky parmigiano fonduta and crispy pancetta) are your choices. If you’re an Augustine’s regular or a special guest, Taxiera has no problem shaving fresh white or black truffle over top of your fries. I do have an inkling that he’d truffle-ize more than just your fries if you ask nicely.

Not counting truffles, Taxiera is out to impress. Savory, cheesy, peppery cacio e pepe zeppole with briny caviar is a stunning two bites to begin a meal. Chef also never shies away from experimentation. On my visit he tried out a picturesque pan seared octopus and underneath it a marriage of red onion, cured olives, pine nuts, nasturtium, and raisin and chili vinaigrette.

Delis…eat your heart out. Mixed salumi and mildly smoky dolce provolone, plus EVOO, pickled onions, and pickled mustard seeds add up to an unforgettable Italian combo. The bread is made locally at Port Chester’s The Kneaded Bread.

But for all the fancy, Taxiera balances it out. Pizza fritta, the fried dough normally served at church events and local carnivals, should hit the menu soon, only with a chunkier sauce made with house-made spicy sausage and tomatoes cooked down for depth of flavor. “I remember my grandmother making pizza fritta at church festivals,” he says. “Some she did with powdered sugar, some with sauce. I want to start doing that for brunch soon.”

Much like all Augustine’s whole menu, the drink program follows the seasonal, local approach. Apart from Italian vino, there’s some orange wine from the Hudson Valley, lots of beer so local that some the breweries are barely a stone’s throw away (Run & Hide, Decadent Ales, Wolf & Warrior, Sing Sing Kill, and further out, Equilibrium), and cocktails switch up, too.

The bar, however, is Myers’ “baby.” And one thing she’s very into are different amari, some that she infuses herself like a nocello (green walnut) and fragola, a strawberry liqueur using berries from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm in Rhode Island.

Up front: Cold Todd - pepper infused bourbon, ginger, honey

“We have the popular ones like Montenegro and Averna, but now we have some Faccia Brutto that’s made in Brooklyn and others you may not be familiar with,” she says. “We’re using the green one (Centerbe, a European style herbal liqueur) in a cocktail even. Try it, and if you’ve found something new that you love, that’s fantastic. And if you don’t like it, now you know.”

So, at the end of the day, what is Augustine’s Salumeria? I asked Taxiera to explain it and which term best describes his style of Italian food.

Not a typical cannoli. This one’s filled with sweetened, whipped goat cheese. And it’s wrapped in a crunchy pizzelle.

“Creative Italian? Ehhh, kind of. I like the term modern Italian or free range Italian,” he says. “Italian food is my passion. It’s what I was born to do. And I like to do as much in-house as I can. The only pasta we don’t make is the spaghetti for the Sunday sauce. For that I prefer dry pasta anyway. I would even do the charcuterie myself, but we just don’t have the space. I wish we did.”

Come springtime, Taxiera is planning on launching a chef’s tasting at the salumi bar that’ll resemble an omakase experience. Of course, that’ll be seasonal and fresh like the rest of what he does at Augustine’s.

“I’m stoked for that,” Taxiera says.

So are we, chef.

213 Halstead Avenue; Mamaroneck
914.315.6541; augustinesny.com