Another St. Paul restaurant staging a comeback in October

There’s been a crazy moon-shaped hole in the heart of downtown St. Paul since Pazzaluna closed. The Italian restaurant from Morrissey Hospitality will make a brief return for two extended weekends in October, and the pastas, antipasti and more favorites will all be front and center.

“The world feels heavy right now,” said Melissa Morrissey, who grew up in the family business and now serves as a director. “We’re excited to bring some spark and joy to downtown.”

Available Oct. 10-12 and again Oct. 17-19, the restaurant will serve a $55 four-course prix fixe menu from 4 to 11 p.m. Reservations are available online through a Toast event page at bit.ly/3BjvBbt.

The event is part of the celebration of Morrissey Hospitality’s 30th anniversary. “Pazzaluna is a big part of that legacy,” said Morrissey. “I remember the opening night. I got to order dessert before dinner. It was a big deal to me and my brothers.”

Pazzaluna first opened in 1998 in a giant space in downtown St. Paul with a vibrant menu and colorful murals depicting Italian countryside life. Pazzaluna is Italian for crazy moon, which was “a fitting name for an intensely romantic restaurant,” Jeremy Iggers, a former Star Tribune restaurant critic, wrote in his November 1998 review.

Consistently popular for both casual happy hours with wine and pizza as well as special occasions and lively late nights, it was also a must-stop for dignitaries and celebrities passing through town. When the movie “A Prairie Home Companion” filmed nearby, members of the principal cast, which included Meryl Streep and Lindsay Lohan, were known to frequent the eatery.

Pazzaluna was a mainstay until the pandemic hit. With no assurances on when the restaurant would, or if it would ever, reopen, and its other properties struggling, Morrissey Hospitality made the difficult decision to let the restaurant fade into memory.

But one thing about St. Paul: The city’s memory, especially where restaurants are concerned, is long. While other restaurants from the company have occupied the address, none have clicked with the city’s continually changing landscape.

Dishes planned for the evening include the pappardelle Bolognese, chicken with saffron risotto served in a Parmesan shell, and porcini-crusted veal medallions with mushrooms on garlic-butter linguine with roasted tomato butter sauce.

Some of the favorite cocktails, like that seared peach old fashioned, are also making a comeback.

Maybe even most impressive is that some of the staff who worked at the restaurant will return for the pop-ups. A benefit of the large, unionized company, which also operates the St. Paul Hotel and the St. Paul Grill, is that over the years many Pazzaluna employees have moved to positions within the organization.

“It’s been so positive,” said Morrissey. “I was the one in 2021 who had to call every employee when we were closing. Now, it’s been so positive. When I called them, whether they were retired or working somewhere else in the company, it was so great to make that call. Servers, dishwashers, the chef is coming over from Canterbury — they’re excited to do this one more time.”

In that 26-year-old review, Iggers also wrote, “With its intimate lighting, dark woods, tall cement columns and high ceilings, it creates an aura of sophistication that makes it feel a million miles from St. Paul.” The room has changed — it’s lighter and has big windows — but maybe the nostalgia works for bringing it back because it’s exactly in the heart of St. Paul.

360 St. Peter St., St. Paul, morrisseyhospitality.com