This sandwich influencer has gone brick and mortadella.
Danny Mondello, the Italian-American behind @Meals_by_cug has turned his social media brand — making chicken cutlet sandwiches and tossing pasta into the air from a frying pan for more than 2 million followers on TikTok and 1.5 million on Instagram — into Casa Cugine, a new sandwich shop, market and cafe in Williamsburg.
When he’s not slicing soppressata behind the line, Mondello, 28, personally greets customers from a lawn chair outside the Brooklyn storefront, his pinky finger, encircled with a gold ring, jutting out as he sips his signature Diet Coke.
“It’s a dream come true,” Mondello told The Post of opening the shop earlier this month on a neighborly Graham Avenue block.
“You see families, you see the old Nonnas walking down the street. Everybody knows each other,” he said as he nodded to passersby.
Fans of Cug — short for “cugine,” which is Italian for cousin — are traveling from as far as Texas and South Carolina to get a taste of viral sandwiches like the “Hey Toots” with turkey and spicy soppressata; and the “How Ya’ Doin,” with chicken cutlet and broccoli rabe.
“The menu is Italian-American delicacies — everything you want. Panninis, like what they do back in Italy — hot soppressata, provolone, olive oil and oregano. Real simple. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel. We just want something that’s good, and not over indulgent,” Mondello said, noting the shop will eventually serve heroes.
The Rossville, Staten Island, native worked as a line cook in college in New Paltz and made it big posting cooking videos during the pandemic.
“Since I’m 18, I have always worked in delis and sandwich shops growing up. It’s kind of where I got the name ‘Cug’ from. Some guy would come in and call everyone Cug,” he said.
The Casa Cugine space was previously home to Cafe Capri, a family-owned coffee shop that opened in 1974 and shuttered in 2015. Mondello kept the original molding from its previous owner, but has also made the shop very much his own.
A custom gold sign on the coffee counter reads “Reserved for Cug & Ya sista,” while a portrait of Frank Sinatra hangs above a still life of Cug’s pinky ring hand gripping a cigarette.
Rachel Kriesel, 23, from Clinton Hill, took her best friend, Sophia Ojeda, 23, visiting from Austin, Texas last Monday for a panini, in hopes of getting a selfie with Cug.
“I was following his social media and I saw a post about his restaurant and that it recently opened. We’ve both been fans of him for so long,”said Krisel, wearing a Casa del Cug T-shirt.
“We love his sister jokes. I’m also a Diet Coke fan. We were both really depressed and isolated during the pandemic and we would send each other his videos,” Ojeda said, of making the trip to get a zucchini eggplant sandwich.
Another visitor from afar, South Carolina clothing designer Michael, 35, started following Cug two years ago and was taken with his Staten Island accent.
“I’ve been here twice,” said Michael, who declined to give his last name. He raved about the rainbow cookies.
“He’s authentic, man. I’m not Italian, I’m Russian — I have no idea about how they should talk, the lingo, the slang. What really made me like his videos was when he would cook in his house, saying a bunch of Italian s—t. The chicken cutlet sandwich looked bomb.”
Mondello told The Post that he wanted to diversify his staying power by having a business of his own offline.
“There’s only so much social media you can do. There’s no long term play for it. It’s very hard,” he said. “When I’m 50 years old, what am I supposed to be doing? Still flipping pasta?”
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