Via Emilia: An Italian Love Letter Written in Mystic

Buffalo mozzarella filled cappelletti w/roasted sun gold tomatoes and basil

Love letters aren’t always inked on parchment, sometimes they’re cooked in a kitchen and served to hungry customers.

That’s the case at Mystic’s Via Emilia where co-owners Shaun Golan and Jakub Andros are dishing out Italian comfort food that’s uncomplicated and pays respect to Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region since it opened in 2020.

On the brink of celebrating six years at the very end of Coastal Connecticut, how Via Emilia came to be, what they’re cooking and why they’re cooking it, and the tale behind their popular espresso martini is a story that should be told.

Golan, who grew up on Long Island, was in the industry since he was a teenager. His first gig? Working the microwave station at a local Friendly’s. From there, he did it all; waiting tables, tending bar, assistant fill in manager, and eventually, an education at the French Culinary Institute.

Imported buffalo mozzarella w/roasted sweet + hot peppers, basil, Sicilian oregano, olive oil

Bologna - bourbon, Amaro Montenegro, mezcal rinsed rocks glass

Meatballs, ricotta, parm, slow cooked ragu

“I tried college, but realized I wasn’t really loving it, and I wanted to do something else, so I ended up going to culinary school,” Golan says. “While doing that, I moved from front of house to expediting, then I started cooking. I lived in Manhattan for 13 years and I was in kitchens the entire time before I moved to New London in 2011 to be the head chef at Ballo at Mohegan Sun. It took me some time to adjust. I didn’t know anyone here. I ended up liking it and stayed in the area for 8-9 years.”

But you don’t just land a big job at a shiny new Italian restaurant at a busy casino just because you fill out an application. Golan’s resume before he came to Connecticut was an impressive one, having cooked at the two Michelin starred Bouley, for David Chang at Momufuku Ssam Bar, and the stint that sparked his interest in Italian cuisine, Marea, when it had both its stars.

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It was through a friendship from the casino days that Golan was able to branch off and do something of his own, not once, but three times with three different restaurants in Mystic.

“Jakub ran the Jordan’s group of restaurants at Mohegan as the director of operations and him and I were friendly,” Golan explains. “We were both looking at buying the same restaurant. Neither one of us knew the other was interested in buying it. One night, we had dinner at Oyster Club and he said, ‘I’m looking at buying this place, Ancient Mariner.’ I said, ‘That’s funny, because I’m looking at it.’ By the end of dinner, we figured it out. He didn’t know anyone who could run the kitchen properly and I was in the same boat not knowing who could do front of house and backend financing. It worked out nicely. We were gonna make it an Italian restaurant, but we had no money left! We thought there was something here worth saving. It’s chowder, lobster rolls, fresh oysters, prime rib, Guinness, and it’s lots of people’s local spot. It’s classic New England. We thought we’d run it that way for summer to make a few dollars, then turn it Italian in the wintertime. We kept it, showed it love, and then this space across the street became available.”

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And they jumped on it, choosing not to hire designers or general contractors, wanting it to have a lived-in feel, all 60 seats of it, where they’d pay Italian ingredients and Italian cooking the utmost respect.

“Via Emilia is a personal project and a soulful Italian restaurant where I try to stay true to or at least closely inspired by recipes from Italy before they were adjusted to fit American ingredients and American palates,” Golan says. “It was built in the idea of where I would want to eat if I had a neighborhood Italian restaurant and from my ideas of what I’ve seen on numerous trips to Italy and what I think is the right way to do things. Ballo was 300 seats and I had to serve 1,200 on a Saturday night. I wanted this to be lower volume with a personal touch, to cook more slowly. All the wood you see is reclaimed, the shelves are from the original framing of the building. Jakub and I nail gunned the wine boxes ourselves. We wanted it to look like things were assembled over time and we didn’t mind if things were random or didn’t match. I wanted it to have soul and character.”

Spinach + herb rigatoni, braised pork shoulder, Tuscan kale

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Paccheri, spicy lamb ragu, mint, pecorino, whipped ricotta

Some of that soul is the centerpiece of Via Emilia’s menu, fresh, handmade pasta that’s shaped in a small closet sized space behind a curtain and down a few steps from the restaurant’s upstairs dining room. While their offerings do switch up seasonally, one, the cappelletti, filled with Campagna imported buffalo mozzarella, tossed in a simple red sauce with roasted sun gold tomatoes and basil, has been a staple since day one. According to Golan, that dish embodies the recipes and food that Via Emilia likes to do.

An often Sunday special, a hand rolled, then baked-to-order lasagna bolognese, is another of Via Emilia’s tributes to the Emilia-Romagna region, and a dish Golan saw at several of its trattorias that he’s visited on his Italian adventures.

Pollo alla Modenese - crispy chicken cutlet baked with prosciutto di parma, parm, and balsamic

Via Emilia’s desserts are kept simple and they have around four or five on a given night. All are made in-house and that’s saying something given their tight quarters kitchen.

“We can only get three people cooking in there,” Golan says. “There’s no room to fit anyone or anything else in there. We do tiramisu at all three restaurants, but here we do flourless chocolate cake, cannoli, and affogato—the gelato like ice cream is made by Mystic Drawbridge.”

Due amari, per favore!

“The food there resonates with me quite a lot,” he says. “It’s a rich cuisine that’s ingredient and technique driven. There’s no margin for error. We don’t buy dry pasta. It’s all made here, even if it’s stuff you usually see dry. One woman, Tina, has been making our pasta almost the entire time. As we get ideas for new pasta or a special, I can teach her or she already know how to do it. It’s an important part of our menu and the most popular. It’s nice when we can serve it as a middle course. Salumi and formaggi is my perfect way to start—we get really good product from Italy that’s sliced to order and we present it really simply. Salumi, pasta, then protein is my perfect way to enjoy a meal, but people sometimes come in and order 2-4 pastas and a protein and spilt everything. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel, but rather take what’s already been done, be faithful to it, do it with integrity, and do it well.”

Besides pasta, you’ll encounter meatballs, a blend of beef and pork with ground up trimmings of the leftover prosciutto legs for a salty bite of umami, as well as spicy calamari fra diavolo, red wine braised octopus, a frequently changing locally caught fish entrée, and a crispy, fork tender cutlet, baked with prosciutto and plenty of parm on top, and drizzled with a sweet, tangy balsamic reduction.

But if you happen to follow Via Emilia on the socials, you might notice that they post their espresso martini very frequently. Even amongst a solid craft cocktail program, Italian wine, and lots of amari, their pulled to order, unique to them espresso martini is something they’re in love with and locals will agree.

“We didn’t have one on the menu and we never wanted to serve it, but people kept ordering it so, we’d sell 30-40 on a Saturday night even though it’s not on the menu,” Golan shares. “If we’re gonna do it, we have to do our version; no vanilla vodka, Kahlua, or Bailey’s. I was in Mexico at a hotel the year we opened and there was a wedding of like 500 people there. My wife and I were at the bar and the wedding party is drinking this foamy espresso type of drink out of a rocks glass. I asked the bartender what it was. It’s a carajillo. I tried one and liked it and got that idea in my head of what can we do to make it our own, make it Italian, and make it part of Via Emilia? We started working with Veritable Distillery to make an espresso liqueur to get it up and running (they do limoncello for us, too). It’s four ingredients: unaged white rum base, raw cane sugar, espresso, and bittersweet cocoa. It took a while to get it down. Every shot of espresso is pulled to order. Someone runs upstairs, makes it, brings it downstairs. We tried it every which way to do it ahead of time, to chill it, but you don’t get the same foam or the same flavors. That crema gives it that mouthfeel. It’s the number one most popular thing at our bar, maybe in our restaurant. When it gets busy, one guy is going up and down, up and down all day long. It’s kind of our thing now, so we’ll take it. The rest of the cocktail menu changes a few times a year. Tom and our bar staff are in charge of the development of that and I’ll help narrow down and refine it, but the martini does not go away.”

Golan did mention that their special espresso martini goes everywhere he goes, including at their third Mystic spot, Trattoria Amalfi, and should they find another vacant space nearby, it’ll travel there, too.

And yeah, there’s already an idea for a fourth concept that Golan is clamoring for. He’d like to do crispy Roman style pizza and pizza friendly apps alongside a great wine list and cocktails and something else their restaurants are known for, hospitality.

“We’re interested in making sure you have a great time,” he says. “Maybe you learn something about what you’re eating or drinking and leave with the feeling that you’re being taken care of.”

24 W Main Street, Mystic
860.415.4840, viaemiliamystic.com