Rita D’Angelo Manager & Director of Wine Program 

I was a teenager when I came to the United States for the first time. I had grown up in Orsogna, a small town in the Abruzzi region of Italy. Life was good as far as I was concerned. I had a lot of friends, a loving family, and the most beautiful food in the world on a daily basis. If I got bored, I would go into Rome for the day. When my parents made the decision to pack up and move to Boston I tried everything in the book to keep from coming with them. But I was a teenager living in a time and place where we did what we were told. And because I was a teenager, I was able to adapt pretty easily. I made new friends and got caught up in my new life in America.
I had always loved music, and soon after school I became a rock band manager to the likes of Curtis Gone Bad and the Dogmatics. But three years of days that began in the middle of the afternoon and ended at dawn began to wear on me, so I went to the opposite extreme and took a day job as an office administrator in a government agency. There were a couple of other jobs, but no matter what, at the end of the day, I couldn’t get away from the fact that I missed the food of my home. It’s true that not every Italian can cook well, but it is equally true that it’s rare to find an Italian that can’t eat well. So, I knocked on the door of the Via Veneto in the North End and asked for a job. After a couple of years in the kitchen there, I was ready to head out on my own.

I opened Galleria Italiana in 1990 in partnership with Marisa Iocco and we took it from a breakfast and lunch place to a seven-night white tablecloth fine dining restaurant. I was in the kitchen for the first three years until we hired Barbara Lynch and I moved to the front of the house. I love to cook, but I am also a social being and the front of the house really suits me. In 1997, we followed the success of Galleria with La Bettola in the South End with Rene Michelena as our chef. Then, in partnership with Frank dePasquale, we re-vivified Bricco, opened Umbria, and created and ran Mare, Boston’s first organic seafood restaurant.

In August, 2007, I joined Michela, Gary and Karen at Rocca. I manage the wine list, make sure the dining room is running well, and most nights you can find me at the front door greeting old friends and making new ones. I’m a hugger and a kisser, so don’t be shy when you come. I’m not.