During our trip to Steamboat Springs, there was an Italian restaurant that we had seen when we were there in the past. Mazzola's Italian Diner looked intriguing to us as it was located on the lower level of a building on Lincoln Ave., the main street through downtown Steamboat Springs. We studied the menu that was posted outside Mazzola's front door one day, and as we're always up for good old school Italian food, we decided to give Mazzola's a try one evening.
In the 1960's, Roy and Mary Ann Mazzola ran a restaurant in Denver, but loved going out to Steamboat Springs for their getaways. In 1970, an opportunity to buy a restaurant in Steamboat Springs presented itself and they opened Mazzola's Italian Diner in a stand-alone building on what was then the outskirts of Steamboat. The Mazzola's had five kids and all of them worked in the restaurant at one time or another.
In 1977, the Mazzola's sold their Italian restaurant to Curt and Mary Weiss, a local couple who had moved to Steamboat Springs three years earlier for Curt's job as a property manager. Roy and Mary Ann Mazzola moved to Meeker, CO in 1978 to open Mama Mazzola's, a popular pizza place there.
The Weiss' ran Mazzola's for a little over seven years before selling to Cooper and Tracy Barnett in March of 1985. Cooper Barnett had previous restaurant experience as he was the manager of the now-gone Sidestep restaurant in Steamboat for 17 years.
The Barnett's ran Mazzola's for the next 19 years which included a move to their downtown Steamboat Springs location during that time. By 2003, however, Cooper Barnett was getting burned out working in a restaurant, and Tracy and he started to look for new ownership.
In the summer of 2004, they found someone in Rex Brice, a trained chef who also had a restaurant consulting business in addition to being the co-owner of a local coffee house. Brice had always wanted to own a full-service eatery, but he knew that the key to being a restaurant owner was to own a number of them. After buying Mazzola's in 2004, he started Rex's American Grill & Bar located in the Holiday Inn on the southside of town. From there, Brice opened restaurants such as Big House Burgers and Bottle Cap Bar in 2008, Lil' House Country Biscuits & Coffee in 2009, the Laundry Kitchen in 2012, Salt & Lime in 2015 and he bought the Creekside Cafe in 2018.
Pictured at right, Rex Brice. Photo courtesy Steamboat Pilot.
We were able to find parking just a few doors down from Mazzola's on Lincoln Ave. (see map) The restaurant is basically situated in part of the basement of The Bristol, a boutique hotel that dates back over 70 years. The front entrance to Mazzola's gives the impression that it's just a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant - and in a way it is. But the front door at Mazzola's takes you to a set of stairs on the left which lead to the basement restaurant.
Mazzola's is in a long narrow space with an L-shaped dining area. Dark mahogany walls are the main accent in the restaurant. Banquette seats with tables were toward the back of the restaurant. And in the back of the restaurant was a small area with tables and a couple booths. The lighting was subdued in the place which made the atmosphere laid-back and cozy.
We were greeted by a young man who sat us in a booth directly across from the small bar at the front of the restaurant. He handed us a couple of menus and asked if we wanted anything to drink. They had an IPA from the local Storm Peak brewery on tap and I got one of those. My wife started out with a Tito's and cranberry juice.
Pizza, pasta dishes and a handful of Italian entrees were the main part of the menu. They had about a dozen pasta choices on the menu and four or five Italian specialties to choose from. They had a lasagna made with Colorado-raised bison on the menu, a traditional fettuccine alfredo caught the eye of both my wife and me, and vodka shrimp with penne pasta noodles and pancetta in a tomato cream sauce sounded interesting. They had a butternut ravioli that would have been more appealing to me if it had been meat-filled ravioli.
Starting off dinner, we were served a basket of toasted bread with garlic butter in a pesto oil mixture with roasted garlic and kalamata olives. The dinner salads consisted of a lemon-garlic dressing that is made in house. The dressing had a nice zippy taste to it.
For our main dinner that evening, my wife went with the chicken piccata. It featured a chicken breast pan-seared in a lemon-butter-caper sauce and served on a bed of fettuccine, then topped with fresh arugula, sliced cherry tomatoes and green olives. My wife got a glass of pinot grigio to go along with her meal.
I was torn between the baked meat lovers (sausage, pepperoni, Canadian bacon) penne pasta with bolognese sauce and topped with mozzarella cheese, or the chicken parmesan. I ended up going with the chicken parm that evening. It featured a breaded chicken breast baked with mozzarella cheese, then served on a bed of spaghetti noodles with a tangy marinara sauce. The chicken parm was topped with fresh chopped basil. I got a glass of the Hahn cabernet to go along with the meal.
While I think I would have liked the baked meat lovers penne pasta a bit more, the chicken parmesan at Mazzola's was pretty good. The chicken was a bit more dry that I would have liked, but the marinara helped with the overall taste of the meal. But the portion was large and it was very filling. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't the best chicken parm I've ever had.
My wife also thought her chicken piccata was a bit over-cooked. She really wanted to get a side of fettuccine alfredo, but that would have been $9 bucks and she thought that was a bit too much for her to just try three or four bites. But she did enjoy the arugula greens along with the lemon-butter-caper sauce that was used to cook the chicken in. She thought her meal was fine, but nothing special.
We'd have to say that Mazzola's was a fair to good Italian restaurant. While we thought our meals were good, it wasn't much better than average compared to other Italian restaurants we've been to. The service was prompt and friendly, the atmosphere was cozy and warm, and the selection of wine and craft beers was adequate. Mazzola's has been around for 50 years so they must be doing something right. It would be worth a try if you're looking for family-style Italian food in Steamboat Springs.
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