Frank DePasquale

FRANK De
PASQUALE • 53
• Restaurateur • Bricco, Umbria, Mare, News,
Express, Trattoria Il Panino

Since launching his first Trattoria Il Panino in 1989, Frank
De Pasquale has opened a basketful of 21 diversely styled
restaurants. Though the self-made restaurateur holds fast to
the uncompromising ideal of serving authentic Italian food
and wine, notable exceptions are among his biggest
successes. Late-night ultra-lounge News, with its American
bar menu, was voted ‘Best Late Night Place’ by Improper
Bostonian. Umbria’s astonishing 1OO-bottle vodka bar
factored in its selection as Boston Magazine’s Best New
Restaurant. De Pasquale, President of the North End Chamber
of Commerce and owner of Salumeria Toscana, keeps a steady
low profile around Hanover and Parmenter Streets.

AMALFI
ROOTS I was born in
Campania near the Amalfi Coast. My family is gigantic: my
father was the last of 18 children in a family from San
Giuseppe Vesuviano; my mother the last of 11 in a Roman
family. As a child, I had two passions: clothing and food.
My father brought us to America in 1955; his almond confetti
company was not the success it was back home, so he worked
in a chocolate factory. My sister and I started school here
and loved it so much, we convinced them not to go back to
Italy.

SAUCIER’S
APPRENTICE I worked
in many restaurant jobs and loved them: dishwasher, bar boy,
bus boy, waiter, line chef, bartender, manager. At Jason’s
in Back Bay I was door host and maitre d’. At Da Vinci’s in
Fort Lauderdale (a premier South Florida restaurant) I began
learning the art of the kitchen. When I’d go back to Italy,
instead of playing soccer and enjoying the beautiful Amalfi
coast, I followed my passions and either shopped for clothes
or spent time with chefs in their kitchens. I learned about
food, the restaurant trade, how kitchens work, and chefs’
roles.

FIRST
PLACE I finally
opened my first restaurant right here in the North End in
1987. Trattoria Il Panino on Parmenter Street, Boston’s
original trattoria, had only 2O seats and an open kitchen
with limited facilities. The menu was Neapolitan
Mediterranean – clams, calamaretti, oysters, octopus – the
San Marsano and Collina tomatoes that are so phenomenal with
them, and homemade pastas cooked al dente. It still is
today. I invited chefs from the innovative Sorrento
restaurant Caruso’s to teach us how to do things their way:
fresh mozzarella, squid-ink pasta, organic vegetables. (I
grow herbs in my yard.)

BREAKING
AWAY The North End
in the ‘8O’s was strictly “red sauce”. We brought along the
public little by little by making breads with whole-grain
wheat, doing risottos. We were the first to bake whole fish
in sea salt or aqua pazza. Instead of iceberg lettuce, I
introduced arugula, endive, radicchio. Instead of Minucci
pasta, we served whole-grain semolina De Cecco. We didn’t
cook with pomace oil, but 1OO% olive oil – it has a totally
different flavor. We cooked new and different dishes with
totally fresh seafood; purveyors came in every day because
we had no freezers. People would see a whole fish served
with shaved fennel and say, ‘Wow! this is just like Italy!’.
Well, Boston caught on, The Boston Globe wrote us up, and
soon this little trattoria was voted Best of Boston (199O to
1993). We were swamped with two-week waiting lists and long
lines. I added another 24 seats in the basement.

OVER
theTOP It’s hard to
be a fanatic in this business; it can snowball on you. I
opened up 21 restaurants with many different themes.
“Antipasto, pasta e basta!” (first courses only), Vado Pazzo
(all risottos) and Tutto Mare (1OO% seafood) were ahead of
their time. The five-story townhouse on Franklin Street
(then Trattoria Il Panino, today Umbria) has a nightclub,
lounge and bar. 21 Broad was a steakhouse. Trattorias in
Haverhill, Malden and Norwell offered huge antipasto tables.
I owned nightclubs in Florida – B-bar, Millenium, Joseph’s.
It took a toll on me, flying back and forth trying to run
these entities. In 1999, it caught me up with a severe
anxiety condition. When my doctor told me, “Cut back or you
won’t see 2OOO,” I sold interest in 15 ventures.

FRESH
ALLIANCES Now that
I’ve rested, I’m making a comeback. Chef Marisa Iocco and
manager Rita d’Angelo take a lot of weight off my shoulders
at Bricco, Umbria and Mare. They’d had their own successes
at Galleria Italiana, La Bettola and South End Galleria, but
then sold it all and moved to Italy. When they came back to
Boston for a visit, I met them and gave them a hug and kiss
and said, ‘This city misses you!’. I take a personal
interest in every aspect of each restaurant: décor,
operations, psychology, menu design, logistical flow of the
room, wine and cordial lists. I personally trained my
Hispanic workers at Express, and they’ve been loyal for ten
years. Marisa and Rita share my devotion to detail, that’s
why we work so harmoniously together. They’re wonderful
people, and they too have the passion!

CHECK
YOUR LICENSE I
always try to buy a place with a good license. I bought
News, the old Blue Diner, because it has a grandfathered
24-hour common victualler’s license. (I added licenses for
DJ, karaoke, full entertainment, background music ’til 4am).
As long as we follow ABC regulations, they’re happy to have
us there. Umbria may be the only five-story premises in the
country, certainly New England, with individual
entertainment licenses for restaurant, bar, nightclub, and
lounge. Then there’s Bricco, a unique boutique restaurant
with an enoteca [wine bar] with 2OO wines, maybe 5O
by the glass, and complimentary valet parking. Since Bricco
has the North End’s only 2am liquor license (coffee shops
can also serve ’til 2), restaurant workers come over to
Bricco’s martini bar for their last call. That gives us a
little edge.

SEE
BEYOND the SEA Our
new project is Mare. For years, I’d come around the corner
of North and Richmond and go by Armeda’s, a little
restaurant owned by the Ferullo family but shut when the
beautiful woman who ran it passed away. I wanted to do
something a little risky with this corner spot: I envisioned
an open restaurant with a South Beach [Miami] feel.
Since the city does not allow sidewalk seating, I installed
all-metal windows that open completely. I did that at
Umbria, 21 Broad and Café Florentine. Soon after I
noticed that Sonsie had installed new floor-to-ceiling
windows. Now it’s becoming standard for new restaurant
construction around Boston. To give Mare that clean,
spacious seaside feel, we raised the ceiling, opened up the
kitchen, installed LED lighting, and video monitors of ocean
views.

ALL
ORGANIC Mare – it
means ‘ocean’ – is an organic coastal seafood restaurant.
Why organic? When I saw organic food stores opening all
around me – Whole Foods, Wild Oats, Trader Joe’s – I said,
“It’s about time a restaurant went that route – all the
way!” All our fish is deep sea. We make all pastas and
breads in-house with organic whole-wheat flour. Organic
everything: fruits, vegetables, oils, eggs, butter. We’re
even selecting organic wines. Since North End beer-and-wine
licenses include cordials, we serve 3O cordials plus 1O
grappas and digestives.

HOT
WINES & VODKAS
De Pasquale: We feature major producers like Banfi,
Terrabianca, Gaja, Ornellaia, Sassicaia, and regional wines
from Friuli, Sardinia, Puglia, Campania. Mare’s Amanda Evey:
We have three sparklers: Mionetto Prosecco, Ferrari Brut and
Bellavista Franciacorta. Here’s a tasty, chillable red, 2OO4
Schiava by Griesbauerhof (St. Magdalener) distributed by
Adonna in Waltham; we have non-Italians like Alicia Rojas
tempranillo. We’re phasing in organic wines (Lolonis and
Mottura Civitella Merlots, a Gruner Veltliner from Atlantic,
Pattiana Sauvignon Blanc) and adding whites (Pighin Pinot
Grigio, La Cappuccina Soave, Argiolas Costamolino). Bricco’s
Rita d’Angelo: By the glass: 2OO3 Riesling Renano, Bruno
Verdi (Lombardia); 1996 Barolo, Brezza. Whites: 2OOO
Verdicchio Riserva, Villa Bucci; 2OO2 Fiano di Avellino,
Clelia Romano. Reds: 2OO1 Aglianico Riserva Zicorra, Caputo;
1997 Vino Nobile di Montepulciano Riserva, Casale Daviddi;
2OO3 Ruche’ di Castagnole Monferrato, Crivelli; 2OO1 Regolo,
“Ripasso”, Sartori; 2OO1 Furat, (Nero/Syrah/Cab/Merlot),
Ajello. Umbria’s Amy Burns: First calls from the 1OO-bottle
vodka bar. Belvedere, Cîroc, Elit (Stolnichaya), Gray
Goose, Ketel One, Ultimate.

ADVICE
to RESTAURATEURS
Don’t open a restaurant if you don’t know the business. Only
one in ten make it. If you haven’t been a waiter, manager,
or chef, don’t do it! You’re fighting too many opposing
forces – if you’re renting, it’s the landlord. If you’re
buying, it’s to make the mortgage in winter. Waiters and
chefs are always temperamental. Every public relations
person or magazine ad salesman believes he’s your salvation.
When you get a positive review, it goes to your head; it
becomes an ego thing. Everyone has an ego – chef, owner,
manager, waiter – and once your ego is stroked, it may be
time to move on. Every immigrant wants you to sponsor his
green card, and as soon as he gets it, he’s gone. If you say
that you’re going to be partners with a friend, that’s the
worst of all! Bottom line: it’s a very, very tough business.
But once you’re in, it draws you deeper.

ADVICE
to DISTRIBUTORS
Spend more time working closer with old customers, the heart
of your business. I ask distributors: “If I were a new
customer, would you spend more time with me?” They think it
over, and get my point. I’m not complaining – we have good
distributors, great people that we work with, who do the
right thing. But an extra 5% effort would make a difference
in what they make a week, what the reps make, and what we
sell. Make sure that produce is super-fresh, and returned
wines are credited in timely fashion. Taste more wines and
help train waiters, because culinary schools don’t teach
service. Waiters tend to be college kids picking up
part-time jobs to pay tuition. I hope culinary schools and
purveyors will teach waiters more about wines.

REALITY
CHECK Everybody
today tends to take his job for granted. In each of my
restaurants I walk in and catch them by surprise, and say:
“As of this moment, I’ve sold this restaurant and you’re all
fired.” They stand there in total shock: they don’t know
what to say or do. Then I say, “I’m only kidding… But now
it’s a new day, it’s your first day of work in a new
restaurant. What would you do if you lost this job? Wake up!
People who work their job like they’re half asleep, just
going through the motions, are not fooling anyone but
themselves. I tell managers, “When you’re looking through
the restaurant, don’t look over the customers’ heads; look
at their faces – that tells the whole story. Watch them when
they put the first morsel of food in their mouths. Is he
smiling? Is she enjoying her first sip of wine? Are they
cleaning their plates? Is the bread basket full?”

DARE
to DIFFER There are
122 restaurants in the North End. How do you become
different? Most of us wake up in the morning hungry. That
doesn’t cut it. If you wake up starving, you’ll be better
than everybody else. I want my people to talk to me. Tell me
your problems, your ideas, everything that can make your job
better, more creative. I’m Frankie to each of my 35O
workers, and I was Frankie when I had 115O workers. OK,
after that stress problem I’ve had to work through a chain
of command. But I know the dishwasher and busboy are two of
the most important people in the restaurant, simply because
I do not want to do their jobs on Saturday night. Treat
everyone the same, with the respect they deserve, and they
will give it back to you, ten times.

TRAVEL
with a PURPOSE I
love going to see what the rest of the world is doing with
restaurants and food. I like observing what’s going on with
marriages of food, staff uniforms, mentality of cuisine,
techniques, plating of dishes, silverware, being chic with
simplicity. You can see the latest trends in Puerto Rico and
South Beach, especially New York and Las Vegas. Las Vegas
hotels pour major, major money into doing the best of
whatever. I get some of my best ideas from them, such as LED
lighting in ultra-lounges. You have to figure whether it’s a
trend that will stick, or a fad that’ll only last a
second.

TASTE
of MIAMI I was in
Miami Beach two weeks ago at a beautiful restaurant called
Casa Tua. I ordered a terrific sea bass baked in sea salt,
and reminded myself to ask Marisa Iocco to put it on the
menu. When I came back to Boston, it was already on the
menu! The wine? Falanghina (Feudi di San Gregorio), a
reasonable white with a nice finish. Casa Tua has outside
seating under trees, hung with lovely lights. That idea
might work well at Trattoria Il Panino on Parmenter
Street.

PHILOSOPHY
I’m thinking about writing a funny book called “1O1 Reasons
Not to Open a Restaurant, But if I Had to Do It Again, I
Would”. Chapters might begin with questions like: Is there a
legal dishwasher in the United States? Why does the air
conditioner break down on the hottest day of the year?
Another subject would be: “As soon as I taught my manager
everything I knew, he became my biggest competitor right
next door.” My wife Debbie manages Trattoria Il Panino and
my children are getting a feel for the business. If l lost
everything tomorrow, I know I could start right up again,
and become one of the top restaurateurs in this city,
because my passion and love is here.