Strega in Milford Expands Menu w/ New Haven Location Coming Soon

Andrew Dominick October 30, 2023

Danilo Mongillo served in the Italian Armed Forces, then became a police officer before coming to the U.S. But he actually comes from a hospitality background. His parents owned a butcher shop, he studied tourism, and both of his brothers are executive chefs at prestigious restaurants—Giacomo at Pura Vida Beach Restaurant in Ibiza and Emanuele at Balzi Rossi’s Moscow location. “I came here with a dream to open a restaurant,” Mongillo says.

Danilo Mongillo may have opened his witchy named restaurant, Strega, back in 2016, but believe this, he’s just getting started.

In 2019, our own Kristin Wolfe covered Strega when it was still in Branford and when the Michelin starred Gambero Rosso—known for being an authority on Italian food—recognized Mongillo’s restaurant for its excellence in Italian authenticity.

Thinly sliced carpaccio, edible flowers, champignon mushrooms, truffles, and mushroom - sesame dressing

One of six focaccia choices and Strega’s own brand of house wine. The texture of Mongillo’s bread is from incorporating air into the dough, not gluten. “You can eat like three of these and feel nothing,” he says.

Now no longer in Branford, and relocated to Downtown Milford in 2021, and having opened Strega Market (creatively written up by contributor James Gribbon) a few doors down from Strega, Mongillo hasn’t only gotten a Connecticut Restaurant Association CRAzies nomination for Best Restaurant New Haven County, but he’s finally launched an expanded menu and there’s a second Strega coming by the end of 2023.

That’s a lot going on for Mongillo who told us it wasn’t easy doing Italian food when he emerged on the scene and that people’s perception of Italian food in the area was initially tough to overcome.

An okonomiyaki at an Italian joint, because why not?

“The thing with Strega, that I feel, is that being Italian, we have it tough,” he shares. “That means the stereotypical meatballs, pasta, red sauce. When I decided to open in Branford, I knew it was a big step. It was hard at first. And I opened with the same chef I have here in Milford now. People didn’t get it. It was really hard. Really hard. At that time, Kristin Wolfe wrote a nice article and Winter Caplanson was doing my pictures, then something changed. Someone that doesn’t know about food might just say, ‘Oh. This is just another Italian guy who wants to open a restaurant.’ After that (the article and the photography), they said, ‘OK. Let me see.’ Then, boom! It took off.”

When Mongillo first opened the doors to Strega in Milford two years ago, he found himself experiencing some déjà vu.

“Here in Milford it was the same thing,” he says. “I found people wanted meatballs, chicken parm, burrata, burrata, burrata.”

Eventually he’d change their minds.

One of those new dishes is a slow cooked, fall apart short rib atop lime infused potato puree and vegetable mousse.

After beginning with a small menu consisting of his light, perfectly spotted, charred puffy crust Neapolitan pizzas, a few appetizers, focaccia, charcuterie and cheeses, a few cocktails, and definitely no chicken parm or spaghetti and meatballs, he’d win Milford over, too.

In order to expand his menu, however, Mongillo had another big challenge to overcome…Strega has no hood.

Mongillo and executive chef Raffaele D’Addio

“I can tell you this…I have the most green restaurant in Connecticut,” he says. “No fire, no gas. I don’t have a hood, so it’s just electric.”

Wait…but can’t that be a problem for an Italian restaurant with a pizza oven that’s heated to 850 degrees?!

“Usually in Italy, they use white flour of semolina (which I really like) so the dough doesn’t stick,” he says. “I realized that using rice flour doesn’t smell in the oven. I have no margin for error with smoke since I have no hood. I have to be careful with the cheese if there’s a hole in a pizza. This makes me focus even more.”

“It’s not like a Napolitano oven, but the dough is the style,” Mongillo says. “I managed to get the same effect using electric. 00 flour, high quality from Italy, a lot of water. When we do dough, we incorporate a lot of air and only one gram of yeast per kilo of dough. Let it rest, gluten starts to grow, roll it. All room temp for 18 hours at least. At that point, that’s it. Some people with gluten intolerance have tried the focaccia and came back the next day asking for it again.”

And even though he’s gone from a brick oven in Branford to an electric PizzaMaster oven in Milford, he has been able to get the same Neapolitan pizza effect.

As for Strega’s expanded offerings? There’s no room for mistakes there either. It’s why you’ll find nothing that’s overly fried, pan seared to a blackening, or saturated in butter. Think seasonal. Think slow-cooked. Think raw. Think a combination of a few of these.

“A nice carpaccio can change with the seasons,” Mongillo says. “I don’t have to change out the carpaccio, but I can change other things in the dish.”

That carpaccio at press time involves New York strip sliced so thin you can see through it, champignon mushrooms, shaved truffle, and mushroom and sesame dressing.

Wait. Sesame?! At an Italian spot?!

Mongillo, who is big into sushi and Japanese food in general, isn’t afraid to toss a little of that into the mix at Strega, as evidenced in the “Cavolo,” a shredded cabbage slaw dressed with furikake and sesame oil dressing, and something not raw in a cabbage and egg savory pancake with mayo and bonito flakes that you know by its proper name, okonomiyaki.

Gnocchi cacio e pepe w/black pepper fondue

Gnocchi al pesto - basil, pine nuts, mozzarella, EVOO

Executing the few Japanese influenced dishes in the back—while Mongillo serves as Strega’s pizzaiolo—is chef Raffaele D’Addio, formerly of the previously mentioned Michelin starred Gambero Rosso. Don’t worry, though, if it’s Italian you seek, beyond the pizza and focaccia, are a few slow cooked meaty entrées, one a lamb shank, the other a short rib, plus salt cod over broccoli rabe and burrata fondue, and sausage and broccoli rabe lasagna. But if you want burrata, they have it, and they’ll gladly place a ball of it in the center of your pizza for you. And yes, there are meatballs.

But, pasta?

In Milford it’s potato gnocchi. Like a whole menu of it that goes six deep.

“Gnocchi is popular where I’m from (Puglianello, in Italy’s Benevento region),” Mongillo says. “When I was in the Italian Armed Forces and a police officer for the Minister of Agriculture, I traveled a lot. I saw a few places called a gnoccheria. I had one gnocchi on the menu before, so I figured, why just do one? I created a little gnoccheria here on the menu. People go crazy for it because they can have two or three different ones and share.”

And those looking for Mongillo to do pasta soon, you won’t have to wait too much longer. Once he opens Strega New Haven, that’s one of his promises.

“It’s small,” he says. “Like seven tables of four or something. But I have a hood, so I will expand into pasta.”

9 River Street; Milford
203.283.1849; stregamilford.com