Nick’s Big Italian Feast

Mangia permanently closed in 2021.

Mangia Nasvhille’s Italian Feasts are much more than a meal, they’re an experience.

As you get seated at Mangia for one of their Italian Feasts (which happen every Friday and Saturday), you’ll get a firm warning from your server, “Don’t fill up on bread! There are 10 courses coming, after all.” (Still, you must try the house-made roasted garlic and black carbon focaccia). Every Friday and Saturday night, over the progression of 10 courses, singing, dancing, and camaraderie ensue––all conducted by Owner and Chef, Nick Pellegrino.

One moment, you’re passing a dish to your neighbor and the next, everyone in the house is dancing and belting out, “Baby I need your loving, got to have all your loving!” Including Chef Nick Pellegrino, who throughout the night can be found shaking a cocktail shaker to the rhythm of the music, singing over the expo line, or dashing out of the kitchen to join in a dance number. Oh, and meanwhile, he’s cooking 10 courses for 100 people. With a long history in the music industry, Nick equates making it all look easy to his background in performing. “You know, not every audience is there to see you. When you open for bigger acts and you’re out there on stage, they just want you to get done. So, you have to figure out a way to connect with people.” And connect, he does. Nick started playing rock music as a kid, performing in clubs in New York when he was 14 years old. For years, the Staten Island native worked as a musician and singer. It was between tours that he agreed to teach guitar lessons to an old friend (who recently graduated from the Culinary Institute of America) in exchange for cooking lessons. Nick remembers, “We would get together in my apartment. We’d open a bottle of wine and I’d teach him, like, two Led Zeppelin songs and then he made me put the chef jacket on. [. . .] He was really militant about it. He was like, ‘If you’re going to learn this, you’re going to learn it the right way.’” Those lessons grew into a catering company that Nick ran for two years in New York before moving to Nashville in 1994 to continue his music career. However, by the end of 2010, he was burnt out.

New Years Eve 2011, kismet struck. Nick had prepared one of his holidays feasts for his family and friends when the idea struck him: “Hey, what if I just did this?” Literally two weeks later, he tried it––a set menu, no orders, singing, dancing, and basically all the makings of a big Italian wedding. Twenty friends attended the test run. Two weeks after that he sent an email to every single person he knew in the music business (which was a lot and they did their first pop-up. They sold out all 50 seats. Nick programmed the playlist before he developed the menu. Word spread quickly, and within three weeks they had sold out every Saturday for the next three months.