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Picture it: Aug. 1, 1985, downtown Winchester. Everyone was eagerly awaiting the grand opening of a new North End Italian restaurant right on Mount Vernon Street. There was food, there were limousines...and there was Jay Leno.
That’s right, Jay Leno kicked off the festivities when Filippo and Anna Frattaroli opened the doors to their second location, Lucia Ristorante, in Winchester. Lucia’s is the sister restaurant of the original Hanover Street location, which opened in Boston’s North End in 1977.
This summer, the Frattaroli family celebrated Lucia’s 40th anniversary with a low-key celebration: a big cake, peach pastries like those served at the original opening and a congratulatory citation from the Massachusetts House of Representatives for their “unparalleled commitment to making the Winchester community better.”
“It’s exciting,” said Philip Frattaroli, who was about 3 years old when the Winchester ribbon cutting took place. “Winchester is our home and the community has been so good to us. People have really supported the restaurant. They may come through the doors as customers, but so many have become friends outside of the restaurant.”
Frattaroli said the family celebrated the big anniversary with what else? Food! Customers received pieces of cake and pastries in honor of the big 4-0.
Why not something bigger? He said the family is in the midst of planning several other large celebrations, with the original Lucia’s 50th, coming in 2027 and the opening of Café Ducali on Main Street sometime this fall.
How did it all start?
Lucia’s started with the dream of one man — Filippo Frattaroli, an Italian immigrant to came to the U.S. in 1970 to join his father and brother who had left the old country the prior year.
“He didn’t speak a word of English,” Philip Frattaroli said. “He learned to speak English here. He was 16 and he actually ended up lying about his age so he would work in construction.”
Philip Frattaroli, left, his father Filippo, Rep. Michael Day, Select Board member Michael Bettencourt and Select Board Chair Michelle Prior celebrate the 40th anniversary of Lucia Ristorante. Day presented the Frattaroli family with a citation from the Massachusetts House of Representatives. WINCHESTER NEWS STAFF PHOTOS/NELL ESCOBAR COAKLEY
That was work in construction during the day and work in a restaurant at night.
Three years later, at the age 19, Filippo had opened up a small storefront restaurant in East Boston.
“It was small,” his son said. “It had two tables inside. I mean, it was small.”
Grandmother Lucia, for whom the restaurants are named, was the cook. But his father, Frattaroli said, did take over some of the cooking duties when Lucia’s opened in the North End.
“My grandmother cooked a lot,” Frattaroli said. “She was the cook. My dad learned to cook from watching her.”
The original Lucia’s on Hanover Street came into being when Filippo bought an old funeral home, turning it into a restaurant by doing the construction work himself.
“That was a time when the Mob was big in the North End,” Frattaroli said. “They told him he could open as long as he didn’t serve pizza because they owned a pizza place nearby.”
The Frattaroli family celebrated the grand opening of Lucia Ristorante in August 1985. COURTESY PHOTOS/FRATTAROLI FAMILY
Frattaroli said his family lived above the restaurant in the North End for several years before moving to Winchester in 1986. His parents, he said, built a house and moved the family in while running both eateries.
“He bought the building,” Frattaroli said, of the 13 Mount Vernon St. location. “This time he just oversaw the work. It used to be Randall’s, which served old-time New England food.”
Making changes
Frattaroli said Lucia’s, as well as the restaurant business, has changed during the past 40 years.
“Oh, it’s evolved a lot over the years,” he said. “When we first opened, we were very formal. There were white tablecloths and no bar. But people’s tastes have changed so now we have a bar, we’re more casual.”
And then there was COVID-19. Frattaroli said Lucia’s was able to pivot to take out.
“When we compared 2020 to 2019, we were only 15% down in sales,” Frattaroli said. “I would say that people were just really supportive of us with take out.”
Frattaroli said it was a stressful time, but one he knew would pass.
“I just remembered that if you look back in history there was an epidemic of the Spanish flu back in 1919 and after that, there was the Roaring Twenties. I knew we’d been here before and that we would all get through this and there would be a place for restaurants again.”
But COVID, he said, was also freeing in a way.
“It allowed us to experiment with different things,” Frattaroli said. “We have a great salad dressing the people were always telling us we should bottle. During COVID, we sold them.”
A look at the different iterations of Lucia Ristorante on Mount Vernon Street in Winchester. COURTESY PHOTOS/FRATTAROLI FAMILY, LEFT, AND WINCHESTER NEWS STAFF PHOTOS/NELL ESCOBAR COAKLEY
And then there’s the outdoor dining, which people really love. Frattaroli said takeout is still big in Winchester and restaurant technology has also quickly expanded in the past five years.
“In the restaurant business, you have to maintain the same high level of quality and service day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year,” he said. “When you have something thrown at you like COVID, it allows you to throw out the playbook and just be creative.”
Overall, Frattaroli said the family is thrilled so much good fortune has come their way, from founding their first restaurant to expanding into Winchester, a place they continue to call home.
