Cucciolo Terrazza
Article and photos by Crash S. Gregg
Our restaurant profile this month took place at the popular Cucciolo Terrazza, owned and managed by Jimmy Kim, with Chef Alex Ricci at the kitchen’s helm. Joining the local restaurant scene in October 2021 on the east campus of midtown’s North Hills, Cucciolo has become one of the newest trendy spots to dine in the Triangle, featuring an ever-changing and diverse menu of southern Italian home-cooked cuisine with modern interpretations. Alex and Jimmy’s goal for Cucciolo was to offer a semi-formal fine dining experience without being pretentious. They have succeeded in their goal beyond expectations, and the restaurant has a hip NY/LA feel with a less formal atmosphere than expected, serving the best Italian comfort food they can create.
At 3800 square feet, Cucciolo has an open floorplan seating 150, with a long bar top in the center that seats 18 and two private dining rooms, the Wine Cellar (seating 10) and the Main Event Room (seating 22). On the menu, guests will find more southern Italian style dishes ¬– pasta vs. rice and olive oil vs. butter compared to the northern Italian style, and more seafood dishes that one would find in Sicil ian and Amalfi Coast cuisine.
Originally from Korea, Jimmy spent nine years of his childhood in Switzerland, then moved to Durham for his undergrad degree
at Duke (computer science/French studies). He moved away for a few years, then returned in 2010 for graduate school. When Jimmy finished school, he decided to stay in Durham this time, wanting to start a business there. He was always interested in restaurants, so first, he opened a Korean restaurant and food truck.
In 2015, his cousin Julian opened Cucciolo Osteria in Seoul, Korea, which became one of the top-rated Italian restaurants in the city. Jimmy mentioned jokingly to his cousin that he would like to open a Cucciolo location in Durham. His cousin
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thought it was a great idea, so Jimmy trained in Korea before opening Durham in 2018, working in both the kitchen and front of the house.
A few years later, Jimmy came across the available restaurant space in North Hills and thought it would be perfect for their second NC location, Cucciolo Terrazza. Jimmy still helps in the kitchen from time to time, as he did in Durham, where he worked every day. While the Durham menu is the same as the restaurant in Korea, Jimmy decided to let Alex craft his own at the North Hills location. The only two dishes from the Durham menu that carry over are the Butter Chicken and the Spicy Vodka Tomato Cream Rigatoni. The other constants on the North Hills menu are Alex’s Wild Boar Agnolotti and the Polpette meatballs. Everything else changes with the seasons, so they can utilize the freshest local ingredients and create a menu that fits the weather and temperature palate here in Raleigh.
Hailing from Sicilian roots in Chicago, Alex grew up in the hospitality industry. His mother was executive chef/owner of two restaurants, and his father owned three bars.
He learned very early on proper cooking techniques and how to find and combine the best ingredients for the most flavorful dishes. His family’s Sicilian roots shaped his cooking style throughout his culinary career, even when working at non-Italian res taurants. He grew up eating a lot of wild game, rabbit, boar, and venison, rather than commercially farmed animals. Many of the dishes found on the menu at Cucciolo are reflective of Alex’s childhood memories of family meals.
The first original recipe he remembers cooking as a professional chef was a ciop pino (seafood stew) at Ocean 60 in Florida. At age 17, he was applying for a chef posi tion there, so they gave him a fish and a slew of ingredients and told him to make the special of the day, which would serve as a test for the position. His dish landed the job. He lived in Florida for almost 14 years before relocating to Asheville, North Caro lina, to serve as executive chef at Golden Fleece under the tutelage of one of the Tri angle’s most prolific restaurateurs, Giorgios Bakatsias. From there, he ran the kitchen at Eschelon Hospitalities’ Mura in North Hills and then a cross-country move to the esteemed Elia in Las Vegas. Luckily for local foodies, he returned to Raleigh for the executive chef opportunity at Cucciolo.
Alex and Jimmy don’t let the high quality of their dishes define the atmosphere at Cucciolo as a white tablecloth restaurant, instead purposely opting for an upscale yet purposefully casual dining experience. They’ve managed to attract a unique mix of businesspeople, North Hills shoppers, nearby neighbors, destination diners, and a large following of regulars. Much of their produce comes from local Blue Sky Farms and the NC Farmers Market, and Alex uses as much local NC seafood as possible. Some items – like the octopus – are flown in from distant locales known for providing the most flavorful options. When they first opened, he attempted to use more local farm-raised meats, but it quickly became a supply issue because of the quantity they go through each week. Alex still tries to buy as much local as possible when he can. All
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Summer Ravioli
Braised Octopus Luciana Style
Cotoletta
Wild Boar Agnolotti
their pasta is made in-house, as are the brodos, sauces, bread, and even some dry-aged meats. By all definitions, Alex has managed to develop a proper scratch kitchen. It takes more time and labor, but the ability to create precise flavors for his dishes makes all the difference.
At Cucciolo, guests will find an ever-changing menu of seafood, vegetarian, red meat, wild game, and gluten-free options. Their extensive and often-updated wine list offers excellent menu pairing opportunities and is managed by their sommelier Andrew Robinson, also the general manager for the Durham location. Alex is proud of his team at Cucciolo and relies on them heavily each day. Chef De Cuisine Colby Calahan and Bar Manager Chris Getman round out the management staff and help Alex keep the restaurant in proper order.
Now on to the best part of our profiles, the food! The menu is divided into five sec tions, Shareables, Pizzette, Antipasta, Primi, and Secondi. Our first dish of the night
was one of the best we had the pleasure of enjoying. The Summer Ravioli ($24) comes with spinach, mascarpone cheese, parmesan, sweet peas, green grapes, fresh thyme, white wine butter, and toasted hazelnuts. The poached green grapes, green peas, and housemade mascarpone provided a slight sweetness which paired well with the spin ach and lemon zest. I enjoyed the crunch and flavor of the hazelnuts, the brightness from the fresh thyme and parm, and the richness of the white wine butter. I’m looking forward to seeing if Alex repurposes this delicious dish for the colder months.
Next up was one of the few menu items that stay on year ‘round, the Wild Boar Agnolotti ($26). The dark green spinach pasta came with wild boar, stracchino cheese, porcini crumble, saba, fennel pollen, crispy shallots, dried sage leaves, and a house made prosciutto brodo which is reduced, then mounted with butter and Aleppo pepper. Saba – also known as sapa, vin cotto, or mosto cotto, is an Italian syrup made from slowly reducing grape must (juice), resulting in a rich, sweet flavor of raisins >>>
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Ahi Tuna Crudo
Whole Roasted Snapper Piccata
and plums. It looks a lot like balsamic and has a similar taste. This rich but surprisingly light dish was co-created by Alex’s friend Chef Kevin Ruiz from Bendito, also located in Raleigh. The two bounce back and forth between respective restaurants on their off days and work on dish ideas together while helping in the kitchen. The boar meat and the sauce are the stars of this dish and are 100% worth eating every time you visit Cuc ciolo. It’s incredibly delicious with no wild game flavor. It’s similar to pork, but boar meat is much leaner, so there’s very little fat to deal with.
The Ahi Tuna Crudo (MP, $21) arrived after the boar and was a nice shift in flavor. The NC Bluefin tuna was served with a chilled cucumber and mint brodo, oyster ton nato (think an aioli made from oyster puree instead of with egg yolks), blood orange, fennel (stalks instead of stems for a less dominant fennel flavor, with additional essence
added from fennel pollen), strawberry, basil, chervil (French parsley), and Aleppo pepper. The brodo took the front seat in flavors after the tender tuna, but the yellow oyster tonnato shined through effortlessly. The herbs complimented the lightness of the tuna, and there was a tiny bit of a nice finishing heat from the pepper.
Staying in the seafood group, the NC coast red snapper was next. This beautiful fish was the perfect centerpiece in the very straightforward but wonderfully delicious Whole Roasted Snapper Piccata (MP, $58). The cipollini onion, cremini mushrooms, and roasted lemon potatoes atop a lemon caper butter sauce balanced out this dish well. This is one of the most popular dishes at Cucciolo – with good reason – so don’t hesitate to order when it shows up on the menu.
With inspiration from St. Lucia on the Amalfi coast, the Braised Octopus Luciana Style (MP, $34) is flown in from Spain and was cooked perfectly from thick to thin end of the tentacles. Matt and his team tried cooking it 20+ different ways and homed in on this spicy, citrusy one for Cucciolo. The octo is battered in semolina (butter poached for super crispy skin), served with a light and airy fennel espuma (fennel cooked down, mounted with cream, put into an ISI gun, and piped out like whipped cream), and cooked with a Calabrian chili romesco sauce of garlic, white wine, fresh bay leaves, basil oil, and a little lemon juice. The chilis and chili oil make for a slightly spicy/sweet flavor combination that suits the dish well. This was one of my favorite dishes from our visit, although it was difficult to choose with so many superb options.
The Italian Sausage Radiatore ($25) is Alex’s family recipe for homemade Italian sausage. The unique radiatore pasta is accompanied by fresh seasonal porcini mush rooms (imported from Italy), sundried tomato, cippolini onion, lacinato kale, a rich house brodo with perfect viscosity (made from Parm rinds) and topped with lots of Pecorino romano cheese. This dish is another one with a rich, full-bodied flavor, but without heaviness. Cucciolo is the only place in the Triangle where you’ll find this style of pasta other than on Chef Saif Rahman’s menu at Vidrio.
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Polpette
For the meat lovers out there, the Cotoletta (MP, $65) is a don’t-miss. The juicy, grilled bone-in veal chop came surrounded by cognac-braised turnips, wilted lacinato kale, king trumpet mushrooms, and dried sage leaves. This beast cuts like butter and had a great smoky and deep flavor from the veal and vegetables.
If there’s one dish that exemplifies simple Italian comfort food, it might be the Polpette ($16). Alex grew up eating this familiar meatball dish in his grandmother’s kitchen almost every weekend. Once you try it, you’ll understand why this dish is one of the few that remain constant on the menu. With Pomodoro, Reggiano, basil, and rosemary oil, the meatballs are a great way to start a big meal, or they can be a meal all to themselves, paired with another shareable or a pizzette.
One of their top sellers, the Neapolitan Pizza ($14), is as authentic of an Italian pizza as you’ll find anywhere in the Triangle. Made with a two-year-old cultivated sourdough, bufala mozzarella cheese imported from Campagna (and yes, made from Italian Mediterranean buffalo milk), Pomodoro, basil, and olive oil, this simple but delicious pie will disappear as soon as it appears, so watch out if you buy this for the whole table to try.
For dessert, we let Alex choose, and we happily ended up with the Black Forest Cake Topped with Amarena cherries steeped in citrus and marsala wine, whipped cream, and a chocolate ganache, all surrounded by decadent blackberry- and raspberry-filled housemade chocolate bonbons, the cake was as chocolatey and rich as you can imagine, without being overly sweet. There are usually three desserts on the Cucciolo menu, one of which is typically chocolate-based. You can’t go wrong with any choice.
Alex and Jimmy have created an authentic destination dining experience at Cuc ciolo, and their menu helps raise the bar on the culinary level in Raleigh and the >>>
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Neapolitan Pizzette
Triangle. If you’re a foodie, put this restaurant on your visit-soon list and come back often to try new dishes on Alex’s always-changing menu.
I strongly recommend making reservations on the weekends, as they stay full both nights. However, if it’s just you and another last-minute diner or two, you might get lucky and find a seat at the 18-person bar. Cucciolo is now open for brunch on both Saturday and Sunday and they’re adding lunch service soon, so check them out for a delicious daytime dining experience.
Cucciolo Terrazza
$$$$
4200 Six Forks Rd, Suite 100, Raleigh 919.747.7887
Mon-Thurs 5pm to 9pm
Fri & Sat 5pm to 10pm Sat and Sun 11am-3pm www.cuccioloraleigh.com www.instagram.com/cuccioloraleigh www.facebook.com/cuccioloraleigh
Parking: Cucciolo has a parking deck in their building (entrance on the far left) with other North Hills parking decks within walking distance, a nearby surface parking lot, and free valet on Friday and Saturday evenings.
Takeout/Catering: Takeout is available for pickup from the hostess stand. Special catering menu upon request.
Private events: The entire restaurant is available for private event buyouts. Noise level: Loud when busy
Watch the video interview with Alex on our Youtube channel. Visit www.youtube.com/DowntownerMagazine or scan the QR code.
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Black Forest Cake
Raleigh Film and Art Festival
Celebrating 10 Years of Giving Homegrown Talent the Red Carpet Treatment
Voices 2 Reel lineup. “[The event] is important because you get to create and use your imagination,” said Antonio. Voices 2 Reel is just one of many ways the festival tran scends film and brings the community together. Beyond first-run screenings, the weekend included live music, local vendors, visual art exhibitions, and spoken word performances as part of the 10th anniversary celebration.
Driven by Community
Will said that the spirit of the event has always been a grassroots commitment to supporting and celebrating local talent. “What sets us apart is how localized and acces sible we are,” said DS. “Whether you’re a filmmaker, artist, sponsor, or fan, there are many ways to get involved.”
And there’s none of the exclusive gatekeeping you might find in a big city market. Anyone with a film and a vision can apply year-round on the website for a chance to have their work featured next year.
Will credits the festival’s staying power to its vision ary founder, artist Christopher Terrell, who built the key relationships necessary for sustainable growth.
Beyond the Big Screen
Since its inception, the festival has expanded its pres ence to marquee venues like Dorothea Dix Park for their Arts on the Hill event series, Paragon Theaters for their opening night ceremonies, and a newly minted partner ship with Lotus Cinemas for exclusive showings.
The festival has also gained industry recognition, including a spot among Film Freeway’s top-100 best reviewed festivals in the world.
More than the acclaim, Will said the true reward is the impact that individuals, especially the youth, take away from the experience.
“For filmmakers and artists, I’ve seen it increase the esteem and belief in what they do,” said Will. “For the general public, it opens your mind to new perspectives and sparks the latent creativity that’s dormant within you.”
Breaking Down Barriers
Aniya Bourne echoes Will’s sentiments, citing the Tri angle’s abundance of peer support as key to the growth of her artistry. “Everyone here is genuinely interested in uplifting and supporting one another,” said Bourne. “There’s no negative competition. It motivates me to push myself.”
A case in point is her new collaboration project with DS Will entitled Kings, a poetry-driven stage play writ ten, directed, and performed by Will (alongside a cast of local poets) and filmed by Bourne in front of a live audience.
Unlike Anything You’ve Seen
Kings was among many tentpole titles that premiered at the festival. Other works included Raleigh, I Kinda Like You, a satirical rom-com told in improv skits; an animated allegorical short called Bolero Station; and a cultural documentary on Black Gospel music as the voice of social change called From the Soul.
Will encourages more people to get involved in next year’s festival and support the artists who make our com munity vibrant. “It’s an explosion of creativity that’s dif ferent from what you’re used to seeing,” said Will.
In Raleigh, we don’t have to be Hollywood material. Because we’re different. But for one weekend, we’ll got our name on the marquee.
For more info on the Raleigh Film and Arts Festival: www.raleighfilmandartfestival.com www.instagram.com/raleighfilmandartfestival DS Will: www.instagram.com/ifyouwontdswill
Antino Art is a copywriter for VisionPoint Market ing (www.visionpointmarketing.com) and a poet whose work has appeared in the Heron Clan and Triangle Poetry (https://trianglepoetry.com) among other places.
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TRIANGLE DOWNTOWNER MAGAZINE | THE TRIANGLE’S PREMIER MONTHLY | ISSUE 169 11 DOWNTOWNER MAGAZINE CROSSWORD PUZZLE Want to win a Downtowner T-shirt? Email us a photo of your completed puzzle to xword@welovedowntown.com. We’ll pick a random winner each month. Need a hint? For answer key, visit www.triangledowntowner.com/crossword for answer keys. No cheating! © 2022 Crossword Myles Mellor People ACROSS 1. Marble glass 6. Hide from view 12. Gofers 17. Situated below 19. Not easily burned or melted 22. East coast seafood dish 25. Initials on a rocket 26. Prickle 27. Listen in Spanish 28. Comic Letterman 29. Kindness 32. Lose grip on the road 34. Volkswagen model’s nickname 36. Actress Kemper of “The Office” 37. Stock-market stats 39. “It’s So Nice to Have ___ Around the House” 41. Sectioned 43. Some tabletops 46. Middle East governors 47. Likely 48. Potato dish 56. Letters on a Cardinal’s cap 57. More complex 58. Frequently, old way 59. Doff, as a derby 60. Sari, for example 61. Salon selection 63. Kind of silence 64. Wee 69. Part of a jazz combo 71. Wrongdoing 72. Asian country 76. Primitive calculators 79. Indicator of happiness 80. Dr.’s order 81. Rejected 83. Football positions 86. Mexican dishes 91. Cooking meas. 92. Rodeo sight 93. Prepared for golf? 94. Essentials 98. Russian river 99. Little garden guy 101. Divorce lawyer on “L.A. Law” 102. Ottoman governor 103. Fa followers 105. Go around 109. Steak sauce 110. Sigma’s follower 112. Synthetic thread 114. Formerly known as 115. French dish 123. Explaining 124. Trendy 125. Frozen rain 126. Detect 127. Knots Down 1. Per __ (yearly) 2. High fliers 3. Doing battle 4. Start of many a book title 5. Even, for short 6. Certain musical notes 7. Photographer CartierBresson 8. Totally cool! 9. Not needing a prescription (abbr.) 10. Website abbreviation 11. Raiding grp. 12. Nastase rival in the 70s 13. He presided over the O.J. Trial 14. Dilly-dally 15. Ultimate object 16. Musical Wonder 18. Additive color model, abbr. 20. Urban haze 21. Unhospitably cold 23. Luxurious 24. Mouthpiece attachment 30. One who takes orders 31. Submit 33. Accusers 34. Go from pub to pub 35. Dangerous 36. Hand over with confidence 38. Excessive desires for wealth 40. Russian
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