Umbria
“I have a cosmic connection to the North End. My parents went on their first date here at a place called Felicia. But since that time, the North End has changed. There's less chicken parm, less checkered tablecloths, more authentic Italian cuisine and prettier dining rooms. But the North End has never seen anything like the new Umbria on Hanover street.
“Umbria is a region of Italy known for everything from the earth. It’s about truffles. It's about wild mushrooms. It’s everything for the earth that type of cuisine.”
“Frank De Pasquale lives in the North End. He's got a pasta shop. He's got a gelato store. A bunch of really great restaurants. I mean, he is the unofficial maybe the official mayor of the North End.”
“There's no greater inner city community than the North End of Boston. It's the greatest Italian community probably in the country.This is the place where all the deals are closed.”
“This is definitely a multi experience restaurant. I mean, you can sit at the bar, you can sit downstairs in the dining room. Or you can come upstairs where it's 21 plus, the ceiling actually opens up so you're enjoying your steak and your pasta with a view of the stars. It's amazing.”
“The place was honestly it was a dream. I wanted to look like a villa in Umbria and I wanted to see stone, I wanted to see iron doors. I wanted to bring the outside, inside and I think we accomplished that dream.
“This tower is my seafood dreams come true this is an entire lobster a gigantic crab claw a half a dozen shrimp 18 oysters and six little necks now I'm not going to kid you it's big bucks but I think it's worth it.
“As soon as it's brought to the table, you see all the heads start to turn around and before you know it it's not one person I mean the tower it's maybe multiple people are doing the tower.
“I'm not a fan of the giant meatball because I think it doesn't cook properly at Umbria they go the other way with it. They have steakhouse meatball bites. These are small they are fried and they cook just absolutely perfectly and these come with three different sauces they've got a truffle aioli, a bordelaise and my favorite the spicy Pomodoro.”
“It’s a fried meatball. And we do it in extra virgin olive oil. Just gives you that great, great taste and that quickly finish in your mouth and you say wow, I'd like to have a lot of them. So we made many bites out of them. So you can have a lot of them.
“This is tuna crudo. It's a yellowfin tuna. It's got some salmon roe and watermelon citrus ponzu. It is the perfect way to warm up your tastebuds before a nice juicy steak.”
“This is the cowboy ribeye, so it's a very flavorful, very tender steak. They wet aged for 35 days making it even more tender. It comes with three different kinds of sea salt and a choice of sauces but honestly, this steak is so good. I don't think you're going to even need the sauce.”
“Most of our steaks age from the filet all the way to the Porterhouse…to the ribeye. I like the ribeye because it has that little bit of fat and you put it in those nice hot ovens and it most down and you know you get that nice char on the top and then when you open it up it's got that beautiful rosy red look. So it's been a big seller.”
“Mashed potatoes always go good with a steak. But lobster mashed potatoes go even better with a steak. This one is jam with lobster including a little piece of lobster right on top.”
“This is a pappardelle Ragu. It's a wide noodle soup could really stand up to all this flavor and there is a lot of flavor. You've got braised lamb, beef, pork cheese, red sauce to meet this. This is what the North End is all about.”
“Our pappardelle ragu is a must over here. It’s earthy. Is Umbrian. Our pappardelle is made in house and you put that ragu with the wild boar. I think it's a perfect marriage.”
“You hard core Italian seafood lovers are going to want to get the cioppino. This dish has absolutely everything. Lobster, shrimp, swordfish, monkfish, calamari, Wellfleet clams, mussels, Kalina tomatoes, fish fume, and bruschetta.”
“Cioppino is is my wife's favorite dish. And she begged me to put it on the menu, I think it's the best dish in the whole North End. It's just fantastic.”
“This is chocolate chip cookie dough, vanilla gelato, salted caramel and streusel crumbs. It’s served in the skillet and pairs perfectly with an Espresso Martini.”
“It's our biggest seller. It's a sparkle of hot and cold. It's it's it's a desert that you have to try.”
“Look, I love the Boston steak houses I go all the time, but I got to admit they can start to feel a little bit the same. So if you want to mix up the food and fun, get a steak but also get sushi and pasta and a view of the stars in Boston's oldest, greatest neighborhood. You got to try Umbria on Hanover Street in the North End.”
