Michelangelo of Riverhead launches charcoal black pizza and pasta for Black Friday
At Michelangelo of Riverhead, Black Friday specials include black-crusted pizza topped with ricotta, mozzarella and a pesto drizzle. Credit: Gabby Sizemore
Black Friday seems particularly dark this year, but here comes Michelangelo of Riverhead to make it … darker. The year-old pizzeria-restaurant is launching three menu specials which, if they dim your day, will also tickle your fancy.
For the pizza, Chef Paul Zoufaly tints his crust with activated charcoal (perfectly safe at this level) and tops it with ricotta, fresh mozzarella, plum tomatoes, pesto drizzle and fresh basil. The personal pie is $14. For the pasta, he turned to a traditional darkener, squid ink, to color the homemade pappardelle which gets tossed with shrimp, portobello mushrooms, tomatoes and truffle butter ($29). For dessert, the charcoal-tinted fried-dough knots ($7) look pretty much like lumps of coal that have been dusted with cinnamon sugar. They are served with cherry-apple dipping sauce.
All three specials will be offered during dinner starting on Friday, Nov. 27 and extending through the end of the year.
Michelangelo of Riverhead, which opened in October, shares partial ownership with locations in Mattituck, Southold and Eastport. The eatery takes over the Midcentury-modern structure that was originally a Chase Bank. In 2011, Dennis McDermott lovingly transformed it into The Riverhead Project, which closed in 2014 and was succeeded, for a year, by Sonoma Grill.
Michelangelo of Riverhead is at 300 E. Main St., Riverhead, 631-248-3300, michelangeloofriverhead.com
