from “le détroit” · the strait
Anthony Lombardo's second Midtown restaurant turns Selden Street into a two-block Italian stretch, with anchovies front and center.
Anthony Lombardo now runs two restaurants on the same Midtown block. Medusa Cucina Siciliana opened in mid-January at 644 Selden, roughly a block west of SheWolf Pastificio & Bar, the Rome-inspired spot he opened in 2018 and that Hour Detroit named its 2020 Restaurant of the Year. Lombardo is a two-time James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef in the Great Lakes region.
Where SheWolf looks to Rome, Medusa looks to Sicily. The restaurant's own description calls the island "a fertile, fiery island located smack in the middle of the Mediterranean" and frames the menu around the many cultures that have ruled it. The name comes from the gorgon at the center of the Sicilian flag.
The space at 644 Selden has been a hard room to fill, having cycled through several short-lived concepts before this. Patrick Thompson Design handled the interior, which reads light and airy: white walls, blue accents, exposed brick and ductwork painted to match, and a wraparound bar with roughly two dozen seats at its center.
Scott Overall, Lombardo's former chef de cuisine at SheWolf, runs the kitchen as executive chef. The two have built the menu around Sicilian staples, and they are openly trying to rehabilitate one ingredient in particular. "We're going to make anchovies mainstream again," Lombardo told Metro Times.
The food leans on what Lombardo has described as a simple Sicilian pantry of olive oil, capers, olives, tomatoes, and anchovies. The opening menu runs from street food, including panelle, the fried chickpea fritters, through a fennel-and-orange salad, seafood, several pastas, and larger plates. Two dishes draw the most attention from early reviewers: bucatini con le sarde, the Sicilian classic with sardines, fennel, and pine nuts, and agnello alla agglassato, a lamb shank glazed in caramelized onion and Marsala over olive-oil-whipped potatoes. A whole grilled branzino is finished tableside with salmoriglio and lemon. Dessert arrives by cart, with empty cannoli shells filled to order at the table.
The drinks lean Mediterranean as well, with a wine list spanning the region and citrus-forward, amaro-driven cocktails in the $15 to $22 range. The room sits across a shared courtyard from Roar Brewing and Barcade, which puts a Sicilian fine-dining restaurant, a brewery, an arcade bar, and SheWolf all within a short walk of each other. With Medusa open, Selden Street has become one of the most concentrated dining blocks in the city.
Medusa Cucina Siciliana, 644 Selden St., Detroit. Reservations via Tock.
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