FAMILY AFFAIR
Two of the North End’s favorite restaurateurs come together to create a restaurant that’s all about their families’ heritage—and their own cultivated brotherhood.
Two of the North End’s favorite restaurateurs come together to create a restaurant that’s all about their families’ heritage—and their own cultivated brotherhood.
SIXTEEN YEARS AGO, WHEN NORTH END NATIVE NICK VARANO WAS ABOUT TO OPEN STREGA, his first restaurant in Boston’s famously Italian neighborhood, he called up Frank DePasquale. DePasquale was familiar with Nicky Varano, a local kid who attended St. Anthony’s School and took his communion at St. Leonard’s Church; more recently, Varano had helped run his parents’ East Boston Italian restaurant, Victor’s. DePasquale, in turn, was one of the North End’s most successful, and prolific, restaurateurs, a local legend. “Trattoria il Panino is still probably my favorite restaurant in the North End,” says Varano of DePasquale’s inaugural restaurant, which opened in 1986. “I knew that if I got some advice and mentoring from him, I’d have a better shot at being successful in the neighborhood.”
The North End is Boston’s oldest residential neighborhood and a place where culture, tradition, and time have seemingly stood still since as far back as the 1860s, when the first immigrants from Genoa moved in. The bonds here run deep. Over the years, DePasquale had been a mentor to many, always happy to review a menu or offer an opinion over a glass of Chianti. But as soon as he met with Varano that day, he knew there would
be something more to the relationship. And, well, a little greasing of the palms, so to speak, didn’t hurt. “On the particular day I went to Strega,” recalls DePasquale, sitting now in Gelateria, his North End coffee and gelato spot, “Nick had a gift waiting for me. A belt. Now, I don’t expect anything when I give something. But he was so kind to do that, and from that moment on there just was a bond, there was a friendship, there was a fratelli, a brotherhood.”
Since then, the two have become almost inseparable. They start each morning together with an espresso at Gelateria, or another of their respective establishments— there are 15 in total, 11 of which are in the North End, including DePasquale’s Ristorante Bricco, Quattro, and AquaPazza and Varano’s Nico and Strega North End. They travel together, and with their families celebrate every holiday together (“even Mother’s Day,” says DePasquale). When they were approached by Encore Boston Harbor to collaborate on a restaurant that embodied the culture and personality of the city, the pair knew just what to name it: Fratelli. The 135-seat restaurant offers dishes from the regions of Italy that their families come from—Italy’s southern and Amalfi coasts—and which are standouts at the restaurants the two have operated in the area
for more than 30 years. That includes pastas from “every city on the Amalfi Coast, from Capri to Sorrento to Positano,” says DePasquale, who was born in the Campania region of Italy and moved to the U.S. as a kid, as well as “stuffed zucchini flowers, grilled octopus, and a simple meatball, done the right way.”
And while the food is, of course, important, it’s the hospitality the pair hope is most memorable. Varano and DePasquale aim to treat guests as they treat each other—like family. “People are going to walk into Encore Boston Harbor and be overwhelmed by the sheer size and the beauty of the place,” says Varano. “Every day when I pull up to that porte-cochère, I think, I can’t believe this is a mile from where I grew up. It’s breathtaking. But when you walk into Fratelli, it’s about the kiss, the hug, the handshake, making everybody feel incredibly welcome, and comfortable, like they’re coming into your house. As friends, and brothers, I think Frank and I do that pretty well.”
"I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS A MILE FROM WHERE I GREW UP." — FRANK DEPASQUALE