Taste the warmth of Sicily at Utah's hottest new Italian restaurant

Estimated read time: 6-7 minutes

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• 'Mina, a new Italian restaurant in Salt Lake City, is inspired by co-owner Gino Messeri's hometown of Taormina.
• The restaurant has only been open a month, but it already has more than 100 five-star reviews on Google.
• Co-owner Adam Rosh hopes customers feel like they're getting a warm hug every time they walk into 'Mina.

SALT LAKE CITY — When customers come into new Salt Lake City restaurant 'Mina, co-owner Adam Rosh hopes they feel like they're getting a warm hug. And that's exactly how it feels going into 'Mina.

The restaurant is inspired by the hometown of the other co-owner, Giro Messeri — Taormina, a town in Sicily, Italy.

"I think when you think about people who know Sicilians, you're going to get a hug," Rosh said. "You know, just think about it. It's like, what does it feel like to get a hug? You feel welcomed. You feel happy. You feel accepted."

The spirit of Taormina thrives in the culture of 'Mina, a restaurant that serves up fare all inspired by the region of Sicily.

"We said, 'How could we make a restaurant where everybody comes in, fills up and finds genuine human connection?'" Messeri said.

Guests are taking notice. The restaurant has only been open a month, but it already has more than 100 5-star reviews on Google.

"It's all really about that human connection," Rosh added. "It's about celebrating life."

Opening a restaurant together

Rosh and Messeri met through mutual friends and bonded on a shared love of food and drinks. Eventually, they started talking more seriously about opening a restaurant together. Rosh said he liked the way Messeri carried himself and thinks of himself as a good identifier of talent.

"The most important part of this was the way he interacted with people," Rosh said. "It was so natural, it was so caring, so giving. I recognize that you take that, with his history of food and wine and beverage, that makes for a good foundation for a restaurant. And it's played out very well."

Moving to Utah

Messeri moved from Italy to Utah at age 19 to learn more about the hospitality business. He planned on staying two to three years max, but then Utah grew on him, and now he's been here for years.

"I just, I love it here," Messeri said. "I love the winter, and summer is even better."

In 2021, Rosh moved from Michigan to Utah because his daughter is a ski racer. His background is in emergency medicine — he was an emergency medicine physician for 20 years.

"The real connection that I appreciate is the privilege of helping people," Rosh said. "And in medicine, that was something that I took very seriously and was why I got into medicine. It's that privilege of helping people in their most, you know, their worst moments. And in the restaurant, people are here, they're here to celebrate good times and sometimes they're here to just get away from bad times as well."

The restaurant celebrates Italian culture, and Messeri said he has been impressed with how quickly the staff adapted to and followed that vision of honoring his culture.

"It was outstanding to see how they want to learn about the culture and they want to learn about the dishes and the history behind things," Messeri said.

Setting the space

When guests first walk in, they're greeted by a mural of the town that the chef, Leonardo Li Mura, comes from in Catania, Sicily.

Rosh and Messeri gutted and renovated the entire space to include sprinklers, soundproofing and an airflow system that would make guests feel more comfortable. Now the space is warm and inviting, with colors that are pleasing to the eye — a big shift from the original aesthetic, which featured a lot of concrete.

"Pretty much every guest who comes in leaves here commenting on how nice the space was and how pleasant it was," Rosh said.

While getting the place up and running took a little over a year, Rosh said it's all worth it now that they've opened.

"Being able to serve the people of Salt Lake and Utah, that's the reason why we went through all that pain and suffering to get this place open, because it's pain and suffering to do that, and it's extremely costly, but it's all worth it in the end when we get to see people walking out with smiles on their face and just making their night," Rosh said.

About the menu

The menu focuses on Sicilian cuisine, and while it includes many pasta dishes, almost the entire menu can be made gluten-free.

"We have designed our dishes so that all but two can be prepared gluten-free for guests with celiac. We think that level of care and attention reflects a deeper part of who we are: a commitment to human connection, empathy, and doing whatever we can to create a warm and welcoming experience," Rosh said.

Another aspect of 'Mina that stands out is the mixology program. It includes three different cocktails that are completely alcohol-free and are unique in flavor and taste.

"We really wanted to create an experience that was like, wow, I'm having a cocktail that just doesn't have alcohol, and I can't tell," Messeri said. "And so really that was one of the goals, and all three of them are outstanding and so totally different."

Another special experience guests can have at 'Mina is ordering from the cannoli cart, where the ricotta is stuffed into the cannoli right in front of guests.

"We've really made it a challenge for ourselves to take all the elements of the experience and try and do it in a special way," Rosh said.

What I ordered

When I visited 'Mina, I was greeted by a warm reception from the second I walked in until the moment I left. The atmosphere is calming, pleasant and comfortable for a night out.

Here's what I ordered:

• Pane di Casa: We had to try some Pane di Casa, a sourdough focaccia served with blood orange butter. The bread was the perfect balance of oiliness with that airy signature texture known in focaccia bread. The blood orange butter added a sweet and refreshing experience to the taste.
• Pesce Spada: This dish is one that is unique to Sicilian culture and 'Mina, and it was one of my favorite pasta dishes I've tried to date. It's a rigatoni pasta with swordfish, a rich, slow-simmered sugo sauce, mint, golden eggplant, almond crunch and crispy nonpareils, which provide a nice, crisp bite. The dish is unique and flavorful, and one that I predict will become a signature at 'Mina. "It's been awesome to see the guests try it, because they've never tried it before, and go, 'Wow, this is so good,'" Messeri said about the Pesce Spada.
• Setteveli: The Setteveli cake is a chocolate genoise sponge with pistachio mousse, hazelnut mousse and crunchy praline. It's delicious, and I highly recommend trying it if you go. It's perfectly rich without being too rich and the crunch of the pralines offers up the perfectly balanced bite.
• Gelato: Lastly, I had to try the gelato they make completely in-house. I tried out a scoop of the hazelnut and pistachio and was not disappointed. It's creamy and tasty.

Overall, the experience at 'Mina was comfortable and pleasant, accompanied by great hospitality from the servers, owners and even the chef himself, who came and said hello during our dining time.

"Whatever is happening in your life right now, we're here to understand that and do whatever we can to support you and to make your two hours here at 'Mina fabulous in your day," Rosh said. "If nothing else in your day went well, we're going to make sure that those two hours are perfect."

Storefront information

• Address: 439 E. 900 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84111
• Hours: Sunday-Thursday, 4:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Friday-Saturday, 4:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.
• Price: $$-$$$

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Sarah Gambles