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Great food
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SATURDAY
JANUARY 30, 2016
1C
An Italian
TRADIZIONE
BARBIERE’S UNIQUE ITALIAN CUISINE CONTINUES AT ISHPEMING’S MAMA MIA’S
By JUSTIN MARIETTI
Journal Staff Writer
ISHPEMING —Back in the
1960s, the Barbiere family had
a vision to bring unique Italian
food to the Upper Peninsula. Today, there are locations in Marquette and Negaunee that carry
on this tradition —and Ishpeming
has its own version of the Barbiere legacy at Mama Mia’ s
Restaurant.
Julie Barbiere, co-owner of
Mama Mia’ s, said that her father-in-law, August “Tino” Barbiere, purchased the building on
Pearl Street in Ishpeming in
1966 and it initially served as a
take-out only establishment that
offered cudighis and pizzas. Like
the bar in Negaunee, which was
also owned by August, the business was originally called
“Tino’ s.”
In March 1981, the business
was converted into a full-service
restaurant, and took the name
Mama Mia’ s.
“As far as the Barbiere concept of how we serve our food,
that started in Milwaukee —
where Tino worked —and there
were five or six restaurants in
the 1950s all over Milwaukee,” she said. “They were all
called Mama Mia’ s, so that’ s
where the name came from,
and we really liked that name.”
Barbiere said some of the most
popular items at Mama Mia’ s
are the steak and lasagna, and its
signature garlic bread, which
was created by Tino Barbiere.
“He never really was a baker,
but he just came up with this
recipe and it was successful right
from the beginning,” she said.
“The texture, the technique that
he used —he just developed it,
along with other recipes too.”
Over the course of 35 years,
the restaurant has added fish,
seafood, and a number of sauces
to its menu.
“We wanted to appeal to more
people and tastes,” Barbiere
said. “Not everyone is fond of
Italian food —so we decided to
add other things, like salmon and
cod, and they are very popular.
We also changed from just having red sauces, which is typical
of the southern Italian cuisine,
where the Barbiere family came
from. They came from Calabria
—and that’ s what they use.
Northern Italian cuisine, they
had more money and could use
better ingredients. That’ s just the
way it was; different regions had
different styles. Over the years,
we’ ve decided to just expand on
that, and use white sauce, our Alfredo creamy sauce, and a garlic
parmesan butter sauce, just to
add more variety.”
Barbiere said Mama Mia’ s
staff focuses on cleanliness,
friendliness and great service.
“Being family owned makes a
big difference,” she said. “We
want to offer a nice place to
have a dinner without family
too far. And If people don’ t
want to come out, we offer everything on our menu to go. Full
dinners, steaks, seafood, whatever they want. It’ s just part of
our business that is popular.”
Mama Mia’ s is open Sunday
through Thursday from 4-10
p.m., and Friday and Saturday
from 4-11 p.m. For more information or a full menu, visit its
website at www.mamamiasishpeming.com.
Justin Marietti can be reached
at 906-228-2500, ext. 245. His
email address is jmarietti@miningjournal.net.
Pictured at top is a
plate of Mama Mia’s
lasagna with the
restaurant’s signature garlic bread.
Co-owner Julie Barbiere said these are
two of the restaurant’s most popular
items. Above, the
outside of the
restaurant is seen at
its location on Pearl
St. in Ishpeming. At
left, a table is set up
in preparation for a
dinner party on
Wednesday.
(Journal photos by
Justin Marietti)