Walking into Lucia Ristorante, tucked into downtown Winchester, the first thing you notice is the swirl of heady scents. There’s the pungent hit of sizzling garlic, the waft of homemade egg pasta, and the comforting aroma of a hearty Bolognese. Look past the gleaming bar area—where friends are giving toasts, gabbing with the bartenders, and digging into tiny plates of creamy burrata—and odds are you’ll find owner Donato Frattaroli.
He’s tough to miss, with his wide smile, Abruzzian-American accent, and big laugh. And if you stop to talk to him, he won’t likely tell you he was recently named chairman of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association. Nor will he tell you how many committees and charitable organizations he’s donated his time and money to in an effort to help the local restaurant industry and to provide futures for underprivileged youth in Boston and Winchester. He probably won’t touch on all of the awards he’s been given by those communities, either. But if you’re lucky, he might just tell you the story of how he and his brother, Filippo, opened their very first restaurant in the North End.
It was back in 1974. “We were working in various restaurants in Boston,” he recalls. “I was at Via Maria in East Boston. [Neither of us knew anything] about being in the business, or the laws around running a place. [But] we put all of our resources together and bought a restaurant.” Then, one day, two gentlemen to whom he was serving lunch showed him their police badges, and the trio proceeded to have a conversation that, as Frattaroli retells it, sounds more like the old Abbott and Costello routine “Who’s on First.” “They said, ‘Where’s your liquor license?’ I said, ‘I have my license.’ They said, ‘Where’s your license?’ I said, ‘My license is on the wall.’ (See, we’d applied for a liquor license but never got one, but didn’t know it.) ‘How old are you?’ they asked me. I said I was 17. They said, ‘You’re a minor serving alcohol.’ Then they handcuffed me and took me to the police station. After that we decided to close the restaurant.”
A year later, their lesson learned, the duo decided to try again—with a little more preparation this time. They found another restaurant that they fixed up and opened as the first Lucia in the North End. This time, it was Frattaroli, his mother, and his brother all working in the kitchen together. The bar was properly licensed, they got major awards and kudos from local media for outstanding food, and before long, there was a line outthe door—one that included New England TV and sports celebs—every night of the week.
A big part of the appeal was the incredible homemade, forward-thinking Italian dishes they prepared—a kind of rare menu that introduced ingredients like mussels, conch, and octopus to Boston diners. Those types of things may be standard fare on Italian menus today, but at the time, not very many chefs were using them. Ditto for the wine list. “Back in the ’70s they didn’t have any good or interesting wines in that neighborhood,” says Frattaroli. “But we brought in new ones from all over Italy—Montepulciano d’Abruzzo and Barolos.”
The result of those innovations? Other restaurants in the North End started to open up, following their lead and prospering. Frattaroli had proven that New England could have an appetite for new and authentic food; he had plowed the neighborhood’s field, so to speak, opening it up for like-minded eateries. So little wonder, then, that when his brother Filippo moved to Winchester in 1986, the brothers set their sights on changing the North Shore culinary landscape in a similar way. They opened their second Lucia location, also building an epic following on the North Shore and hired a culinary talent like Pino Maffeo, the seasoned and much-lauded powerhouse, named Food & Wine’s Best New Chef in 2006.
At the same time, his family’s reach in the restaurant biz broadened. Filippo opened Filippo Ristorante in the North End, his nephews Phil and Nick Frattaroli opened Ducali Pizzeria & Bar and Ward 8, respectively. His son runs Artú Rosticceria & Trattoria in the North End. Donato started partnering with North End Waterfront Health to host “A Taste of the North End,” the annual foodie event that raises money for several nonprofit organizations in the North End.
Decades ago, when the Massachusetts RestaurantAssociation (MRA) started working on a ban on smoking, Frattaroli began collaborating with them. Now, as MRA’s just-named chairman, he spearheads efforts that include employing “BYOB” laws and taxes, and making sure restaurant employees make more than minimum wage and have proper sick leave.
All the while, of course, he runs between his two Lucia locations, feeding all who walk in and treating everyone who works for him—most of whom have been with the restaurant for decades—as if they were his own family. “[They are] so dedicated it’s unbelievable,” says Frattaroli. And in a way, they are family, at least when it comes to dinner time.
“We have so many regular customers in Winchester,” says Frattaroli. “Most know exactly what they want.” But there’s also a younger set, too—one that’s traveled around the world. “They’re looking for something altogether different,” he observes, adding nonchalantly—and cryptically, since he won’t share any details at the moment—that he has a third restaurant in the works. How will that change the current Lucia? It’s already changing, he says, but at the same time things like the service and beloved menu items will always stay the same. “The customer who comes in today has a much more refined palate than 30 years back,” he says. “We paved the way so many years ago. But restaurants have to change with the times.”