Micceli's Italian Restaurant
8230 S. Holly St.
Centennial, CO 80122
PH. 303-770-2233
Grade - A

Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, is as American as it gets. A young man came down from Boston named Ben Franklin and made the city his home. When our country took the step of breaking off from England, they did it at Philadelphia's City Hall. 11 years later they wrote the Constitution in the same City Hall. At first, the big ethnic group was German and these roots are in Philly today. However, most of us know about Philadelphia cuisine because of a later wave of migration from Italy.

One of these migrant Italians, named Pat Olivieri, started selling chopped up steak from his hotdog stand in downtown Philly. The customers liked it and he sold more and more of these steak sandwiches. After a while the customers wanted Pat to add cheese. He put some Cheese Whiz on it to satisfy them and that's how the Philly Cheese Steak was born. On the streets, out of a hotdog stand. A lot of the great American food comes out of "fast food" of the times and Philadelphia has given us a lot of great American Food.

The Weiss family came to Colorado from Philly. Some time back they started Santoro's Brick Oven Pizzeria, but they became known for their (what else?) Philly Cheese Steak. One of the family members, Adam Weiss, and his wife Michelle decided to go a little bigger and they started a new restaurant in Centennial called Micceli's Italian Restaurant. They named if for another great eatery in south Jersey, across the river from Philadelphia. Micceli's has the finger foods you expect from its Philadelphia heritage, namely Pizza and Philly Cheese Steaks, and both of these are about as authentic as you can get. You can take a guy like Adam Weiss out of Philly, but you can't take the Philly out of Adam Weiss.

Channel 7 Sportscaster Steve Gottsegen made the recommendation to us to try out Micceli's and he absolutely guaranteed that Micceli's Pizza was the best in town. I have to admit that, after eating there, he's right. Micceli's kitchen is located in the back of the restaurant but it is behind glass and you can see everything they do. They even have a bar and barstool setup so you can sit and watch. The pizzas are made from scratch and they knead and then toss the dough into the air as they flatten it out just like in the movies. This ain't Pizza Hut.

The Weiss' have been in the restaurant biz in Denver for a number of years and so when they opened Micceli's they talked Gino Carella, a great chef from Pagliacci's, to come over and serve as the Executive Chef. His culinary skills have transformed Micceli's into a full blown great eatery. While we were there, Gino made us a superb entree called Pasta Puttanesca,followed up with a great Tiramisu that Micelli's makes on site. The restaurant is at the corner of County Line Road and Holly in the King Soopers shopping center. Kind of like being on the East Coast but without the overcast skies and humidity. It's a great American place with great American food. To see a streaming video of Miccelis click here.