Photo: Mike Macklin/WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — A North End restaurant closed its doors this week after more than 30 years of business.
Dolce Vita Ristorante on Hanover Street served up authentic Italian dishes like chicken parmigiana, fettuccine alfredo, lasagna, linguini with clams, and veal marsala, all while celebrating the life popularized by the 1960 Federico Fellini movie of the same name.
"Sweet Life," translated owner Franco Graceffa. "That was a scandalous movie in those days. That was a new style in Rome in the 50s. Everybody was going crazy."
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After moving from Italy to the United States as a young man and working in the construction business, Graceffa and his wife Caroline opened Dolce Vita in 1990 with a passion for good food and good living.
Decades later, the restauranteur decided it was time to step away.
"I’m retiring and I sold the whole building, the restaurant. A very good run," Graceffa told WBZ NewsRadio Saturday.
That "very good run" included surviving the COVID pandemic, which killed many other restaurants.
"COVID did a lot of damage. I was lucky that I owned the property and everything else, that kept me alive," Graceffa said.
As he hugged and kissed people goodbye, Graceffa looked back on an American dream come true.
"[America] was the land of opportunity, the land that [gave] me what I have now, and made me what I am now with my hard work and my sacrifices. I lived my American dream," said Graceffa.
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