Jan. 4 was not a good day for Agostino's Italian Restaurant. An overnight flood closed the restaurant, and after months on the mend, it's about to reopen.
NATICK - Maria and Zissis Klisiaris are a husband-and-wife team who know what it takes to run a restaurant.
“Food is the center of our universe” Maria said recently as a worker climbed a ladder to install speakers in the dining room ceiling of Agostino’s Italian Restaurant, 23 Washington St. It’s one of the finishing touches that must get done before Maria and Zissis take over Agostino’s, which has been closed since January after a burst pipe flooded parts of the restaurant.
Months of work have pointed toward Thursday, when Agostino's reopens at 4 p.m. Only dinner will be served that evening, because Zissis and Maria will be busy earlier in the day at a real estate closing, when they officially take ownership of the restaurant from the Souliopoulos family.
The kitchen took the brunt of the damage from the overnight flood. It was gutted, redesigned and is ready for action, including a sparkling, new range hood over the stove.
“That was a huge project,” Zizzis said.
The bar was spared any damage, and the traditional trivia nights will resume. There will also be live entertainment on weekends.
A wall was taken down in the dining room to create more seating, and there's an eye-catching mural depicting Michelangelo’s David beside a lion statue with a flowing mane.
There are also some new menu items, and Maria immediately mentioned the Italian margarita when asked to name the new drink she's most excited about.
“It’s an Italian take on a classic cocktail,” Maria said of the concoction, which includes amaretto, a sweet Italian liquor.
Maria grew up in a large Italian family, and she's brought some of her favorite dishes to Agostino's, including: Pasta a la Norma, with its roasted eggplant, ricotta cheese and basil; and, Pork Chops Milanese.
“The pork chop is pounded thin, and fried to a delicate crisp,” Maria said.
Tiramisu is another new item, and so is the Greek salad, in honor of Zizzis' heritage. However, Maria had to limit her husband to just one item, because he loves feta cheese.
“He would put feta cheese on everything, if I let him,” Maria said. “I had to put the kibosh on the feta cheese.”
Agostino's customers who loved the prior waitstaff will be happy, as many of them are returning after the long hiatus.
“I don’t have to train them,” Zissis said. “They had a customer following, and they’re all really good people.”
Zissis, 53, has worked in the restaurant business since he was 13, when he helped out his father, Dmitri, who owned a breakfast and lunch place across from Boston’s Berklee School of Music. Zissis later co-owned (with his brother Greg) a seafood restaurant in Peabody for 20 years, sold it, and opened Big Z’s Pizzeria in Pembroke. He sold that in 2017 to focus on taking over Agostino’s.
Maria and Zissis have a division of duties. The "executive stuff," Maria said, is her domain. That means paperwork, which she plans to do from her Quincy home, while Zissis will spend long hours at the restaurant.
"(Zissis) likes to know what is going on," Maria said. "He's hands on."
Zissis and Maria are new to Natick, and are excited to be part of the local restaurant scene.
“I was surprised to see how lovely the downtown was, and the people are terrific," Maria said. "We’re so excited to be part of the community."
Follow Henry Schwan on Twitter @henrymetrowest. He can be reached at hschwan@wickedlocal.com or 508-626-3964.
https://www.milforddailynews.com/news/20181125/natick-agostinos-italian-restaurant-to-open-after-long-hiatus 2018-11-25 07:26:54Z
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