Mama Mia! Mama Lucia's..

By:Allison Kwan
I’m going to shamelessly admit that I’m a food snob when it comes to Italian. I love Italian food. I love powerful espresso shots, creamy gelato that drips off its cone, and hearty helpings of pasta. I love how buffalo mozzarella melts in your mouth and how everything is covered in cheese.

All this food love stems from spending a summer in Italy, filling my belly full of authentic Italian food cooked up by authentic Italian mamas and papas. Since then, Italian food has never been the same. But even before my ventures in Italy when I needed to appease my Italian cravings, chain restaurants like Olive Garden or Carrabba’s would never do. Small, locally owned places with quant Italian names always seemed like the more “authentic” choice to satisfy my hunger.

And so to fill my most recent Italian cravings over the weekend, I decided to revisit a family owned restaurant called Mama Lucia’s down in Newnan, Georgia.

Opened in 2005, Mama Lucia’s is run by the Guillaume family. Father, Leonard, and son, Leo, run the kitchen as executive chefs with Leonard’s wife, Barbara, as wine connoisseur. Mama Lucia’s was inspired from mama Guillaume’s traditional Italian recipes. I had been there once, about three years ago and remember it being oh-so-delicious and always wanting to return.

But either my memory served me wrong, the cooking had gone downhill, or my Italian acquainted palate has become too hard to please. And while I admit I have much higher expectations now, I am positive even my pre-Italian, ordinary taste buds would have found Mama Lucia’s remarkably horrible and depressingly disappointing.

Starting off with an Italian classic, Mozzarella Caprese, I was surprised at how one could take something so simple and make it so bad. While the mozzarella was smooth and glistening white when it came out, it looked better than it tasted; in fact, it didn’t have much taste. The only time it did have any flavor was when hints of basil graced its presence or if it was topped with too much salt. The tomatoes didn’t add anything pleasant either; they weren’t sweet but watery and bland. And while the appetizer looked cute on the plate, the entire first course was very unexciting. The only thing keeping me hopeful was my glass of Chianti, which was full-bodied without being too overpowering and carrying a hint of fruitiness—just how I love my reds.

Second course came—an order of Eggplant Parmigiana over marinara sauce and bowtie pasta—and it didn’t get any better. After a first bite of cold pasta and a second bite of steaming hot eggplant, I got angry. I started to question why I was wasting my time, money, and unnecessary calories on food like this? I ended up burning my mouth with that first bite of eggplant, not only ruining my hopes for something better but also my tongue. This caused the red wine I found previous comfort in to become displeasing; it wasn't tasty with a numb tongue. Plus, the eggplant on my plate was so heavily breaded I could barely find the actual eggplant. After shredding and digging through the breaded-ness, burnt cheese, and marinara, I finally gave up. My plate looked like a food massacre had just taken place. A mound of Eggplant Parmigiana guts laid beaten over cold bow-tie pasta and red sauce that was so dull, it made Ragu more preferable.

One of Mama Lucia's renowned Lasagna dishes  

Defeated and perplexed at how wrong this meal was, I decided to give Mama Lucia’s one more chance in the desert course. Mama Lucia’s Tiramisu (another Italian classic) consisted of ladyfingers soaked in espresso and marsala wine and layered with mascarpone cheese. And how wrong I was to keep hoping for better. Too much mascarpone and not enough actual ladyfinger layering. There was no consistency to the cake because of all the mascarpone. And while the menu described the ladyfingers as “soaked,” mine present on the plate were just plain soggy. While I find most tiramisus to be heavily flavored with coffee, I didn’t have to worry about that here since there was no coffee flavor at all. It was just a heaping slab of mascarpone cheese that wasn’t appetizing with watery cookies slapped in the middle. And as I sit here, now I wonder what those ladyfingers were really being soaked in because it surely wasn’t espresso or wine.

Mama Lucia's trademark dessert dish-- looks good, but just plain soggy. 

After a night of lifeless food, an array of frustrating moods, and a check that was unfitting for this meal, I left the restaurant feeling robbed. Robbed of a week’s paycheck, a healthy tongue, and a lovely dinner. I should have been suspicious when my date and I walked in and found the place less than 25% filled on a Saturday. As a result, the meal had me praying for the day I could eat great Italian food again and vowing to never return to Mama Lucia’s.

Contact:
236 Newnan Crossing Bypass
Newnan, GA 30265
770-253-2501
http://www.mama-lucias.net/Home.html