Villa Sant’Andrea, a Belmond Hotel, located in Taormina Mare, inaugurates a unique dining experience by the sea, pieds dans l’eau with the opening of Brizza, the new pop-up restaurant on the Bay of Mazzarò.
Belmond’s Villa Sant’Andrea
Imagine the scent of the sea breeze, the fiery hues of the setting sun, freshly caught local seafood, and the bright flavors of the island of Sicily – all enjoyed in the summeriest of locations where the waves playfully lap near the tables.
Brizza, a Sicilian term for ‘breeze,’ was created at this Belmond hotel with the intention of inviting guests to spend moments of barefoot sharing in the crystal clear waters of the bay, savoring the freshest foods straight from the Sicilian sea. The intimate atmosphere, only five tables exclusively for two, in a reserved area of Mazzarò’s private beach, is combined with an informal service and a mise en place with essential lines, where the absolute protagonist is the sea.
A Love of Sicily
This new dining experience is the perfect setting to highlight the uniqueness of this enchanting locale, crowning it with a project that knows how to combine a deep knowledge of seafood, a respect for the island’s traditions and evolutions, and the experience of tasting it all at a table set right in the front row of nature’s beautiful spectacle, cradled by the waves, with a gaze toward the sun dipping on the horizon.
With the expertise of one who knows the depths on many levels, without forgetting to peer between the sand and the rocks, Agostino D’Angelo, Executive Chef of Belmond’s Villa Sant’Andrea, has created Brizza’s à la carte menu drawing from his proud passion for his island’s most genuine treasures and drawing inspiration from the strong elements of the jaw dropping nature that surrounds it.
From sea urchins to Mazara shrimp, from clams gathered from the inlet lakes of Ganzirri to fresh blue fish, and from shellfish to a surprising use of local seaweed, there follows a triumph of the freshest ingredients to be shared “in purity” or treated with an elegant touch that tastes of Sicilian sun, wind and salt.
Taormina’s Dining by the Sea
And again in the clear statement on the menu with a purity of philosophy and taste, the menu notes: “Pesce Crudo e Pasta al Dente,” literally raw fish and pasta al dente – two promises that reach their pinnacle with the plates like the bronze-drawn linguine served with urchin pulp and whipped with seawater, or the Mazara del Vallo prawns, served raw with the bright notes of Sicilian lemon on a bed of spaghetti from the Alcantara Gorges.
The Grigliata Origini, on the other hand, offers a special selection of fish “matured” using maturation, a technique that has been innovated today in its preparation tools but which recalls the long tradition of drying the day’s catch, a technique once very typical in the Sicilian city of Trapani where Chef D’Angelo hails from.
Even in the desserts, or rather “Dolcezze Salmastre,” the research that makes Brizza a true laboratory of marine cuisine continues. Here the sweet offerings recall savory scents with choices such as the Lemon Sea Stones and the coffee with salted caramel with a sprinkling of Trapanese salt – flavors of the sea that persists and becomes the concluding note of an already memorable evening.
Brizza’s wine cellar is “also an immersion in itself – pandering to the atmosphere, with a special search for Italian labels refined near the sea and cocktails that evoke its salinity and scents, using its purified water as the basis for original recipes.
Evocative marine atmospheres
The layout of the restaurant is in harmony with a natural setting that takes center stage. Graceful and essential details, such as the lighting created by a local carpenter using so-called “nasse,” still used for boat fishing in the Trapani area that here create intimate islands of light along the bay. Just as the handcrafted glass plates chosen to frame the courses, with their shades of white and blue, are traces of a sea that reaches the table.