At 25-29 Prince Street, restauranteur Frank DePasquale is planning on expanding the second floor of Assaggio Restaurant for a cooking school, La Scuola at Assaggio. DePasquale Ventures recently renovated the ground floors when it purchased the longstanding restaurant near the corner of Hanover Street abutting Saint Leonard Church.
The zoning variance request, presented by Attorney William Ferullo to the North End / Waterfront Neighborhood Council (NEWNC), is to change the upper floor from residential to restaurant use. Manager Joseph DePasquale was also present at the meeting.
Cooking lessons would available be for chefs, culinary professionals, amateurs and youth education with local schools. Guest chefs from Italy will also be invited for cooking demonstrations.
When classes are not being offered, the upper floor will be used for additional dining space at Assaggio Restaurant, providing 33 more seats and doubling the current capacity.
Proponents are also looking to extend the current 11 p.m. closing hour. An initial request of 1:00 a.m. closing was presented but council members countered with a midnight closing time instead.
In a 4-0 vote (1 abstain) on October 10th, NEWNC members supported the expansion with a midnight closing hour. However, since 6 council members are required for a quorum, a follow-up meeting is expected to be held in order to validate the unofficial vote.
Please view the video above for the full discussion. Neighborhood group votes are advisory to the Zoning Board of Appeals and Boston Licensing Board that will make the final determination.
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How many residential units will disappear without scrutiny? There was an apartment there, now removed entirely.
In a vacuum, this makes sense in what is a small building, but considering the Mare building and building by Bricco bread had dozens of apartments, now essentially hotel space, it is problematic. Beautiful- yes, but doing exactly the opposite of what the city & neighborhood have been pushing for.
And let’s not pretend- the work removing the residential use is already done.
the saga continues. This is city living. In Manhattan many people were doomed when a tall building was constructed next door to their expensive condos….no more sun…no more views. Hey. It is city life and there ain’t nothin’ that’s going to stop it !
Actually, NEWNC has an opportunity to stop it here…or at least slow it down.
If the point is about a cooking school, which is a great idea, why do they need to convert current residential space. With so many restaurants and kitchens owned by DePasquale it would seem that there are plenty of other options.
Seriously, converting 1 small residential to a classroom will have immaterial impact. If you want to complain about something, AirBnb is taking hundreds of apartments off the regular rental market as are other major conversions in and around the neighborhood. People focus on the immatterial which is alwoys annoying. This is a good thing, DePasquale had been vey good about the properties he bough like Pompeii that is so much better without the late night problems it used to have. I support the cooking school.
Jealousy jealousy jealousy…. why does it matter to any of you what’s above the restaurant? It doesn’t effect you in any way.
Because this same owner has removed many apartments from the market, which makes living here as a resident year round more difficult. Lovely restaurants, but people want a neighborhood, not hotel rooms.
Well the beautiful thing about owning property is that it is yours and you may do with it what you will. If people in this neighborhood were a little more concerned about what they are doing themselves and less about complaining about things that don’t effect them in the least bit maybe they could find a way to buy their own property. Until then they’ll just complaint though because they are jealous and don’t have anything better to do.