No more bright lights, big ziti: Stella, once a South End staple, is all grown up and living in Newton
But she’s just as good as the original. In 2005, Evan Deluty opened Stella in the South End, a popular restaurant in Boston, named after his baby daughter, Stella. The restaurant, once a popular South End staple, now lives in Newton and is all grown up and lives with Deluty. Despite this change, Stella, which opened in 2005, has since closed and is now a smaller, smaller restaurant with a parking lot and a 19-year-old server. The food is still great, with notable dishes such as Bolognese and grilled pizzas still popular. Deluty credits the success of Stella to his mother who lives a mile away from him and moved out to Newton, Wellesley, and Weston. Despite these changes, there are still no reservations or reservations.
ที่ตีพิมพ์ : เมื่อ เดือนที่แล้ว โดย Kara Baskin ใน Lifestyle
The backstory : In 2005, Evan Deluty opened Stella in the South End and named it after his baby daughter. Right away, the chic restaurant throbbed with customers.
Why : For the suburban reincarnation of a South End legend, right down to the famous Bolognese.
“They crowd the bar area and surge into the dining room, mobbing the hostess as they inquire about tables. Waiters and waitresses hurry steaming bowls of pasta with Bolognese and fancifully topped pizzas to waiting diners. Outside, the laughter and conversation of people sitting on the terrace cause pedestrians a block away to turn and stare at the bright lights of the restaurant,” Alison Arnett wrote in the Globe.
And for years afterward, Stella bottled a sparkly urban energy, luring a cross-section of cosmopolitan gourmands, cultural cognoscenti, partiers, drinkers, scenesters, and neighborhood dramatis personae. The cold white wine flowed; the grilled pizzas seemed to stretch on forever. Then the pandemic came. Stella closed. The party was over. Or was it?
Revisiting Stella is a “Big Chill” story. This restaurant is mature, quieter, smaller. Now, there’s a parking lot. And Stella herself is a 19-year-old server, working alongside her 17-year-old brother, Max. But longtime chef Gio Rivera is still there, the food is still fantastic, and the room is still shocking white and daffodil yellow.
“I grew up in Newton. I’m close to my mom now, after being in the city for so many years. She lives a mile away. She can pop over. I have a lot of customers who used to come in when they were younger, and now they have children of their own, so they move out to Newton, Wellesley, and Weston,” says Deluty, who grew up working-class on the Waltham side of the city. “I see a lot of the same guests I used to see in Boston. It’s nice and small and quaint and wonderful.”
What to eat: Stella is open for lunch and dinner. On the outside, it looks like an ordinary little storefront, the kind of place you’d pick at a chicken salad sandwich while interviewing a nanny. But no: Discover a sunken dish of colossally rich meatballs, crisp arancini that erupt into rice clouds on first bite, and a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich that rivals anything at your favorite diner, served on a silver tray with yellow paper, pickle spear on the side. Even the salads that go along with each dish perk up the plate, splashed with a lemony Italian vinaigrette that’s just this side of tart. Lunch is served until 3 p.m.: an Italian grinder, chicken or meatball parms, the aforementioned grilled cheese (all $16), each of which come with either salad or fries. There are also a few new additions to the menu, like matzo ball soup ($13) and zucchini pillows ($7).
From 3 to 5 p.m., duck in for $7 appetizers: meatballs, arancini, salads, snacks. At dinner, there’s Stella’s classic Bolognese ($26), potato gnocchi ($24), homemade mac-and-cheese ($16), roast salmon and basil puree ($28), and a simple seasonal veggie plate. The menu is short and straightforward; there are no reservations.
“The food is very much in the Stella style: Italian, simple, approachable, and very flavorful,” Deluty says.
What to drink: There’s beer (Peroni, Wormtown), a few reds and whites, and soda.
The takeaway: A delicious little sliver of the South End in suburbia, all grown up, now with parking.
Kara Baskin can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @kcbaskin.