M'tucci's in Iowa
/Why would a restaurant company based out of Albuquerque, New Mexico, fly two chefs more than 1,000 miles for a weekend visit to Mount Ayr, Iowa -- population 2,056? Simply put, a dedication to great pizza. But this story is much deeper than a pie crust. As M’tucci’s company President and Chef John Haas explains it, “In small town America, one restaurant can change an entire community. We saw an opportunity to positively impact people’s lives and create jobs, and that’s what we’re all about.”
The connection to Mount Ayr is Sackett Farms, an independent family-run operation where M’tucci’s restaurants began sourcing their pork during the heart of the pandemic. The relationship between owner Tom Sackett and Chef Haas was off to a great start, and during a phone call in the spring of 2021, Sackett mentioned that he and the community were planning to launch a pizzeria sometime during the coming autumn.
“I instantly knew what he had the potential to do, because I grew up in a small town in Iowa, too,” Haas recalls. “Where I grew up, in Gilbert, there were only two restaurants: Casey’s and The Sizzler, where you actually brought your own cuts of meat from home and cooked them on premises. Those were our only options.”
As the family of M’tucci’s restaurants approached their eighth anniversary serving authentic, inspired Italian cuisine, Haas knew a few essentials about crafting handmade, serious pizza. “I desperately wanted to go, but I had a conflict, so I sent two of our best people to help Tom build the operation.”
The Homecoming
In late July, chef/partners Cory Gray and Shawn Cronin made the pilgrimage to Mount Ayr, driving 135 miles north from Kansas City and settling into a two-bedroom apartment next to the 100-acre Sackett Farms. They honestly had no idea what to expect. “The first people we met were Kevin and Jayla, a married couple, who were putting the place together,” says Gray. “They had a little experience running a restaurant, but that was 20 years ago. The idea was to open a takeout business -- no dining in -- with a menu featuring pizza, pasta, salads and appetizers. “One of the investors requested egg rolls,” he says, smiling.
The name of the place? Rayr Market.
Rayr Market had investors, a Board and a Committee of locals to get behind it. Initially, Kevin expected to open the place five days a week, closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays, “Because nothing happens on Wednesdays, and Tuesdays there’s high school sports. The rest of the week there’s NFL football, college sports, reasons to order takeout,” Cronin explains. Kevin was going to handle the kitchen, with Jayla running the front of the house.
“I knew right away what they were proposing was impossible, and I told them so,” says Gray. “First of all, the menu was way too ambitious. If Kevin was thinking he was going to be the sole guy cooking everything he was crazy. I’d give him three weeks to a month before he threw in the towel.” The chefs suggested pairing down the menu to one thing, pizza, and offering four to choose from.
“Then they told us they were planning to order pre-made ingredients from a distributor: sauce, dough, toppings, everything,” Cronin says. “We walked them through what that would cost, as opposed to making the dough themselves and sourcing ingredients locally. The difference was night and day. Sure, it’s a lot of work, but the profits are solid and the product is so much better.” Kevin and Jayla were convinced.
Kneading a Bond
With just two days to spend together, the entirety of the first day focussed on the dough. The chefs modified what they served at M’tucci’s, cutting costs on a few ingredients, and showed the couple how to stretch and pull the balls into thin discs capable of cradling the toppings. The kitchen featured two conveyor belt ovens, where the raw product went in one end and cooked came out of the other side. Initially, Kevin was baking the pies for about 11 minutes at 500 degrees. Cronin and Gray suggested upping the temperature to 575 and cutting the time in half. “In the end, we identified the perfect cooking time: five minutes, five seconds,” Cronin says. (Coincidentally, 505 is Albuquerque’s area code.)
While they stretched and baked, they managed to use nearly 100 balls of dough, strategizing how they might source the ingredients locally. They were in the heart of the heartland, after all. In no time, they’d identified small farms and agricultural options that could keep dollars circulating in Iowa, create jobs, and ultimately, perhaps, create an internship program with Mount Ayr high school, home of the Raiders and Raiderettes.
Feeding for Feedback
By Sunday, the foursome had created a pizza that looked terrific, featuring a thin crust that held firm when it was sliced, with a dark char on the edges. Cronin and Gray had also taught the couple about portioning, to create a system using the same amount of each topping on every pie, to create consistency, and to save on food costs. It was time to get some feedback.
First, they began running the pizzas hot out the door, popping into main street businesses, offering slices to strangers on the street and to locals hanging out at the town park. “Most people said they loved it, immediately. A lot of people said they’d never tried anything like it. They assumed it came from a stone oven,” says Gray. “And as far as criticism goes, what we mainly heard was it could use more sauce and cheese, so we took their advice.” They added an ounce of each, baked more and served more.
Finally, they loaded the board room with pizza and invited investors and committee members for a taste test. There were smiles all around the room. One uninvited guest, a guy named Harold, also popped in. He liked the pizza so much, he set to work cleaning the kitchen, to help them get the business off the ground. “Seriously, nobody understood where Harold came from, he wasn’t on the board, or anything, but when I saw him scrubbing the oven I was like, you can stay as long as you want,” Cronin says.
Heading Home
Mission accomplished, Cronin and Gray found a little time to enjoy country life. They took a small boat with a trolling motor out on the pond, and caught four fish -- three bass and a bullhead -- over the span of an hour. Later, they spent time on the farm. “Probably my favorite memory of the entire trip,” Cronin says, “was just sitting on the porch, having a beer with Tom.”
Rayr Market has identified August 23 as their intended opening day, coinciding with a preseason matchup between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the New Orleans Saints on Monday Night Football. Now that Chef John Haas has heard how everything came together, he’s planning a visit to Mount Ayr in the fall. He’s running a major company in a big city these days, but he feels connected to the plight of Rayr Market and small town America more than ever. “I believe that the pandemic has given rural towns a chance to grow and prosper, maybe the best opportunity they have had in the last 50 years,” he says, noting the flight of urban dwellers who headed for the hills.
Creating strong, meaningful and resilient jobs has always been at the foundation of the M’tucci’s restaurant model. Now Haas is proving he’s more than willing to do the same for the folks who feed America. “When you grow up in a small town, restaurants are all you have. You drop in and everyone you know is there. It’s the center of your community. We’ve always tried to create that at our restaurants, in the center of the city. It’s why I love Italians, they know that eating together connects people. So I feel like this is just an extension of what we’ve always been doing.”
By Howie Kaibal - M’tucci’s Minister of Culture
New menu items at M’tucci’s Italian
In addition to all of your favorites, some of the popular specials from the past few months have been added to the menu, including Pasta Dalla Forma (cooked table side and finished in a large wheel of imported Italian cheese), Beer Battered Stuffed Squash Blossoms, Sackett Farms Pork & Ricotta Ravioli and a 1/2 pound Chianina & Sackett Farms Burger for lunch. Several Cocktail Specials have been added to menu such as: Neverland Fog and and the Toki Highball.
Weekend Specials
M’tucci’s Italian
24 oz Hand Cut Porterhouse: Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Broccolini, Balsamic Reduction $38
Pan-Seared Swordfish - Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Artichoke, Sautéed Arugula, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce $29
Prosciutto Goat Cheese Ravioli: Roasted Butternut Squash, Local Chanterelle Mushrooms, Broccolini, Creamy Brodo $23
Braised Ham Risotto: Ham, Spring Onions and Creamy Wild Mushroom Risotto $21
Sunday Only
Half Rack of Smoked Baby Back Ribs, Salt Water Potatoes, House Made Cole Slaw and House BBQ Sauce for $18
Weekend Cocktail
The Jewel Thief: Bumbu Caribbean Rum, Prickly Pear Shrub, Fresh Lime & Pineapple Juice, Black Walnut bitters
M’tucci’s Moderno
Frutti di Mare: Pink Shrimp, Baby Scallops, Baby Clams, Mussels, Grape Tomatoes, Spicy Marinara with House Made Fettuccine $19
12 oz. Ribeye: Crispy Saltwater Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Salsa Verde $32
Pan-Seared California Halibut: Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Roasted Artichokes, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce, Prosciutto Powder $24
Weekend Cocktail
Litty Witty: Pink Lemonade Vodka, Cranberry Juice, Lemon Juice
M’tucci’s Twenty-Five
14 oz. NY Strip : Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Broccolini, Smoked Blackberry Bone Marrow Butter $29
Pan-Seared Asian Sea Bass: Seared Artichokes, Grilled Escarole, Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce $27
House Made Five Cheese Ravioli: Smoked Pancetta Ragu, Italian Olives, Roasted Tomato, Lemon & Thyme with Asiago Cheese Crisps $22
Live Music at M’tucci’s Moderno and M’tucci’s Twenty-Five
8/6
RJ Perez @ Moderno
8/12
Cali Shaw @25
Kirk matthews @Moderno
8/13
Lani Nash @ Moderno
8/19
Lani Nash @ 25
Melissa Rios @ Moderno
8/20
Kick Matthews @ Moderno
Thanks for reading. See you next Friday. Ciao!
