The road to a brick-and-mortar for “Mozzarella” Mike Deininger was paved with pop-ups, pedagogy and catering gigs.
And in late August, he plans to open Mozza, a new Italian paninoteca, with his wife and business partner, Tiffany Deininger, in St. Petersburg.
A paninoteca is essentially an Italian sandwich shop, Deininger said by phone Friday.
“It’ll be reminiscent of those places you stumble upon in Italy, but we really want to hone in on the sandwich and wine program,” he said.
Mozza will debut with sandwiches like an arrosto, with house-made roast beef chilled and sliced thin, fennel pollen, mozzarella and a pan jus; a house-baked porchetta with mozzarella and Calabrian broccoli rabe that’s served hot with a pork jus; and pop-up favorites like the mortadella sandwich with stracciatella and pistachio spread.
Deininger plans to use Franca’s sourdough focaccia bread and is in talks with owner Michael Thill to permanently supply the restaurant. Franca’s is the lauded mobile wood-fired pizza concept where Thill creates naturally fermented and leavened dough for his Neapolitan-Roman pies.
“I feel like their sourdough focaccia is the best bread I’ve had, pretty much in my life,” Deininger said.
Mozza will also carry specialty Italian goods like Marco Colzani’s bread, papaccella peppers and Piedmont tea.
The wine program will range from bubbles to French selections to Italian pairings.
“Mozzarella” Mike debuted at the now-shuttered CellarMasters just shy of a year ago with a pop-up. With “big stretch energy,” according to an Instagram post, Deininger offered hand-pulled mozzarella in dishes like a caprese salad and house-made stracciatella with compressed cantaloupe and salame rosa from Bologna, Italy.
Simultaneously, Deininger launched mozzarella classes, where the cheese-curious could learn the craft of making hand-stretched mozzarella.
Deininger has also collaborated with and worked for Thill at Franca’s doing catering gigs and pop-ups at spots like Golden Isles Brewing Company in St. Petersburg.
Golden Isles and CellarMasters acted as a creative hub to launch the brand, he said.
Deininger has worked atStew’s House of Bagels for the past year as an operations manager. He started as a baker, arriving at 3 a.m.
Stew’s is a breakfast sandwich-driven shop and gave Deininger the confidence to move forward with him and his wife’s vision of an Italian paninoteca, he said.
“My house-made cheeses should translate great onto these sandwiches; the feedback’s been great with the catering,” he said. “I’ve been running a sandwich shop now for a year, so let’s try to find the right location, somewhere that we love, and let’s make it happen.”
Mozza will join The Violet Stone and 86 Wine Bar, where “Mozzarella Mike” has also done pop-ups, in the Crescent and Magnolia Heights neighborhoods.
“We’re super fortunate that we got friends right around there, like right down the block, we’re in really good company,” he said. “It’s really making this area super exciting.”
2319 Dr. MLK Jr. North, St. Petersburg. @mozzastpete
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