Behind the Recipe: Carmelo’s with Chef Mitch Arens

In October, Carmelo’s will have been open at its location on Madison Avenue in Covington for a year, but plans for the restaurant have been percolating for years. 

Carmelo’s co-owner and head chef, Mitch Arens, worked with his fellow owner, Billy Grise, at Nada in Cincinnati 18 years ago. “We kind of always talked about doing our own thing, and finally made it happen,” Arens told LINK. 

While Grise is more of the business guy, we’re here to talk about the recipes, and Arens has the scoop.

“With our menu overall, we kind of really leaned into the comfort nostalgia of things,” said Arens. Carmelo’s menu features hallmarks of Italian red sauce classics like the classic spaghetti and meatballs, eggplant parmesan, Caesar salad and calamari.

When we asked Arens what his favorite overall dish is that they serve, he said he gets asked the question a lot and, “it’s like picking a favorite kid, it kind of depends on what day it is.”

But, he said that they are an “immigrant, Italian red sauce, Italian spot, and I don’t feel like you can have one of those without having a great eggplant parmesan.”

Behind the eggplant parm

The first time Arens ever had eggplant was when he was around 8 or 9 years old, and his parents took him to F&N Steakhouse in Dayton. F&N closed in 2004 after operating for 75 years, and it was famous for its eggplant fries. 

“So you would go in and get a big side of these eggplant fries, and they had the red sauce in the middle that you would dip it in,” said Arens. “And that was the first time I ever had eggplant, and I can still remember tasting it for the first time. It was something different, unique that I had never had before.”

When he started doing research and development for Carmelo’s eggplant parmesan, he said, “We wanted to do something different than the typical round circles.” 

Arens brought this up to his mom, who did some research and was able to find an old place mat from F&N Steakhouse, which just so happened to have their recipe for eggplant fries printed on the bottom. 

“They breaded them with a little bit of cracker crumbs, and that sweetness kind of balances the bitterness of the eggplant,” said Arens. “So we tested a couple of versions with that, and just loved the way that it turned out.”

“I just think it’s really fun to have those kinds of taste memories, to bring you back to something as a child, or to have that comfort.”

So, how do they actually make it? 

Their recipe, Arens said, was developed to counteract the amount of water and bitterness that eggplants typically hold. 

First, they peel the whole eggplant, cut it into wedges, which are lightly seasoned with salt, “and that pulls out some of the moisture and kind of intensifies the eggplant flavor, and it also cools a little bit of that bitterness out.”

The wedges are breaded and fried and served with a housemade red sauce, fresh pulled mozzarella and some crushed herbs and parmesan.

That’s Arens’ favorite, but what’s Carmelo’s most popular dish? 

Behind the oxtail ragu 

“Our oxtail ragu is our number one selling dish day after day,” said Arens. “I don’t check it as much every day now, but in the beginning, you’re really paying attention to what we’re selling, what people were liking, and day after day, it was almost double or triple other dishes sometimes.”

Arens said they always like to support other local businesses as much as possible. They source their oxtail and shanks from Berry Beef, a sustainable Kentucky Black Angus beef program inspired by Wendell Berry, a Kentucky author and environmentalist. 

The ragu is another childhood memory for Arens. 

“My mom used to make a lot of pot roast growing up, and we would eat the leftover pot roast with buttered noodles, and that’s kind of it, having that braised pot roast meat over noodles,” said Arens. “It’s just such a great flavor combination, so comforting. It kind of sticks to your bones, and we have a little bit of red wine and some fresh oregano, which elevates it a little bit.” 

Arens said it’s a big crowd pleaser, partly because it’s unique and also because the staff loves it and often recommends it. 

“You can’t go wrong with some simple braised meat, good cheese and homemade pasta.”

Behind the menu 

“The menu changed right before we opened,” said Arens. “We had a whole menu that we tested and planned and ended up knocking off about six or eight dishes, literally the week before we opened, to start a little smaller and make sure that we were focusing on what we were doing and doing it right. 

Since then, Arens said they have been slowly reintroducing some of those original dishes, gradually expanding the menu. Since they haven’t been open for a full year, they haven’t officially experienced every season, but they do focus on fresh, seasonal dishes and plan to freshen the menu up two or three times a year. 

“We want to keep it fun and interesting for the people that do come often, so they have new things to try,” said Arens. 

With cooking seasonally and sourcing locally, Arens said you have to be able to adapt and pivot. 

Having lived in Louisiana for eight years, he said that the Midwest differs because its “growing seasons are very well defined,” versus in warmer weather environments where produce grows for longer periods. 

The chef’s table

We asked Arens if he were to come in and sit down as a customer, how would he order? This is what he told us: 

He would start with “fresh mozzarella. I think that dish, especially at a table, getting that big cheese pull and that fresh bread that we grill to order, it’s just such a fun, wild dish.” 

Then, he would get an order of the meatballs. “I tell everybody they have to try them. Being a chef and working in a kitchen, you taste and try food so often that some things you don’t want to try anymore, and you get sick of things, but I think I could eat a meatball every day for the rest of my life. I love our meatballs.”

For something green, he would order the Caesar salad. 

And for a main, he’d get the spicy shrimp pasta, “it’s kinda an ode to Louisiana. I lived down there, and I did a spicy shrimp ragu on one of the menus when I was a chef down there. So this is kind of our version of it here. I love that dish.” 

Cocktail corner 

We can’t finish our trip to Carmelo’s without discussing drinks. They offer a robust wine list with sparkling, rosé, orange, white and red grapes by the bottle and single pour. They also offer non-alcoholic cocktails, beers, coffee, tea and of course, a list of over forty bourbons. 

But we wanted to know which cocktail Arens goes for. And he told us, without a doubt, it’s the Appalachian Sour. 

“My business partner is really into Italian bitters, liqueurs, amaros, Campari and Aperol, all these different things, and that was something that took a little time for me to adjust to.”

While he was never much of a fan of these unique ingredients, Arens said he distinctly remembered during research and development for their cocktail menu that he was blown away by the Appalachian Sour.

He was surprised to learn that the drink had Fernet, an Italian amaro, which is an ingredient Arens said he “always pushed away,” but he found the drink to be “super well balanced.” 

Where can you try Carmelo’s?

Carmelo’s is located at 434 Madison Ave., Covington. Find more information at eatatcarmelos.com.