Summer Brings Life To ‘Restaurant Row’
PHOTO/COURTESY
A trip to Naples helped inspire Greg Califano, shown here with his son John, to launch a new restaurant that will soon open on Worcester's Shrewsbury Street.
With more than 40 restaurants on Shrewsbury Street's Restaurant Row, the Worcester strip has evolved over the past decade into a place where proprietors want to be, knowing it's a good bet the crowds will come.
This summer, at least four new restaurants are opening their doors there, while another will be a reincarnation of sorts. Richard Kennedy, president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, said that number of new establishments opening during the summer is unusual; restaurant owners are typically taking more of a gamble on business at this time of the year, when would-be patrons spend time away on weekends.
“I think it recognizes the kind of the following that the current restaurants on Shrewsbury Street have, and when you attract a crowd, the more the merrier,” Kennedy said. “I think it speaks very well to not only the street and the reputation they have, but they've been doing pretty well for themselves.”
New Life For Older Buildings
Greg Califano has realized the significance of Shrewsbury Street for a while. When he got the opportunity to lease 5,500 square feet of space in the former Edward Buick GMC showroom, he jumped at the chance.
“Shrewsbury Street was the place,” said the Shrewsbury resident. “That was it. Whenever I go out with my wife, we go out on Shrewsbury Street.”
Not only was he eager for a spot on the bustling strip; he was also excited about the building.
“That has been my favorite building in Worcester since I came here.”
He said the history of the building meshes well with the fact that he'll be baking Neapolitan pizza done the classic Naples way at his restaurant, Volturno. He said that while on his honeymoon to Naples, he fell in love with the pizza style, so much so that he returned to the city two years ago to train in the wood-fired oven method and had two ovens flown in from Naples.
“It's more like artwork than it is food,” Califano said.
Next door to the 120-seat Volturno, which will open later this summer, Japanese steakhouse 7 Nana is filling the other portion of the former dealership.
On the other end of Shrewsbury Street, Girley Fonseca has so much faith in a location at Piccadilly Plaza that she and her ex-husband, Lacy Silva, are reopening what Fonseca said was a local favorite, Piccadilly Pub. Silva was the head chef at the location for nearly a decade before coming to work in February to find a sign on the door saying the restaurant had closed.
That led Fonseca to realize her goal of owning and operating her own restaurant after running others since she emigrated to the United States 13 years ago from Brazil. She said she has hired 35 people formerly employed across five Piccadilly locations and will focus on service and family atmosphere. She said the only thing that will change about the restaurant – besides the name, which is dropping a “c” to become Picadilly's Bar & Grill – will be the addition of a few Brazilian menu items.
Fonseca said the large parking lot and the prominent red-and-white sign make it an ideal location.
A few doors down, Vintage Grille is also opening, with a retro feel, where Junior's Pizza Grille used to be. Pomir Grill, which will serve Afghani fare, is also opening in the former Big Joe's Deli location.
Beyond that, the owners of Shrewsbury Street mainstay Flying Rhino Café & Watering Hole are taking advantage of what the location and an improved economy have brought them by undertaking more than $80,000 in renovations.
“People now are a little bit better off than we were five, six years ago,” said Paul Barber, who is an officer of the Shrewsbury Street Area Merchants Association and owns the Flying Rhino with his wife, Melina. “Then, you were looking at survival. But people are starting to go out again. They might not be going on their trips all over the world anymore, but they're starting to get out their own front door and they're starting to come back to restaurants.”
Barber said people want value, and part of showing them they're getting it is by keeping the establishment where they're spending their money fresh.
“If it's the same old, same old, I don't think people feel like they're getting their value,” said Barber, who opened Flying Rhino in 2000. “Every year, there's a new restaurant on Shrewsbury Street, so you've got to keep fighting. You've got to keep that competitive edge going.”
The Barbers expect the work to be completed by the end of July.
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