Restaurant focuses on California cuisine to compliment beers, wines and cocktails

Published in the November 25 – December 8, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life

By Marty Cheek

Photo by Marty Cheek From left to right, Frank Gratale, manager; Lucy Garcia, server; and Nash Rook, executive chef, in the bar at the new downtown eatery M.R. Slims.

Photo by Marty Cheek
From left to right, Frank Gratale, manager; Lucy Garcia, server; and Nash Rook, executive chef, in the bar at the new downtown eatery M.R. Slims.

Maurizio Cutrignelli is a downtown Morgan Hill restaurateur who likes to shake things up a bit every now and then by reinventing his restaurant site at 17340 Monterey Road. A twinkle forms in his eye as he confesses he loves keeping his customers guessing as to what he’ll dream up next in his world of creative fine dining. No doubt his new M.R. Slims, with its unusual name, has definitely become the talk of the town.

Located in the same building that housed Cutrignelli’s former Good Fork and also Fusion restaurants, the idea for M.R. Slims came about when the native Italian’s friend Frank Gratale suggested Morgan Hill connoisseurs were ready for a gastrobar, a trend that started in Europe and in recent years has grown in cosmopolitan America.

“Gastrobars are very popular in England. They serve food and have the bar, but mainly, over there the food is never the focus,” he said. “It’s pub food like fried onions and fried fish and chips and stuff like that. So the concept works pretty good if they have nice whiskey, bourbon and craft beers. Some food is served in pubs in England and Ireland but they are not really focused on the gastronomy side as much. So when the gastrobar was brought to the United States, they kind of added the concept of American cooking, the influence from many different cuisines.”

Cutrignelli laughs when asked why his new restaurant was christened M.R. Slims. Originally, it was Mr. Slims, but then as the gastrobar concept developed, he and Gratale discovered that name was already taken — as the brand of a Mitsubishi air-conditioner. So the two decided to put initials behind the first two letters and tell people the “M” stands for “Maurizio” and the “R” is for “Rachel,” Gratale’s wife.

M.R. Slims focuses on creating California cuisine concocted by executive chef Nash Rook to compliment the beers, wines and cocktails served to customers. The lunch menu is geared for diners who want a variety of fresh salads, soups and sandwiches, as well as entrées that will get them going back to work feeling satisfied. The shrimp nicoise ($13) consists of spiced poached tiger prawns, green bean, heirloom tomato, petite Yukon potatoes, pancetta with a farm-fresh poached egg. The bird and waffles ($15) is a Belgian style waffle served with crispy fried chicken thigh, garlic confit, green bean accented with chive butter and siracha maple syrup.

The dinner menu is designed to bring friends together for late afternoon or evening fun over drinks. “Bar-stool Bites” nibbles are tempting such as the duck confit tamales ($10), made with maple leaf duck leg, duck fat masa, duck and veal demi, and mild salsa verde, or the immensely popular short rib quesadillas ($9) consisting of slow-braised short rib, queso Oaxaca served with salsa verde and cilantro cream.

M.R. Slims will also be serving family-friendly Sunday brunch with items ranging from Wonka Waffles to eggs Benedict.

Happy hours are weekdays from 4 to 6 p.m. And the bar serves “$6 Football Flights” for four 4-ounce tastings of any beer it carries on tap during the Monday night football game.

The fun, less formal pub atmosphere created at M.R. Slims by Cutrignelli and Gratale, who serves as manager, has brought in a number of younger-aged patrons to try out the gastrobar cuisine with drinks, Cutrignelli said.

“We also have the same customers as the Good Fork but what we’ve noticed is that people in their 20s and 30s are coming more often,” he said. “We get a lot of young people and different people in the community.”

M.R. Slims

Location: 17340 Monterey St.
Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday
Contact: (408) 779-3200 or visit www.mrslimsgastrobar.com