Italian Food Comes to the South End’s Culinary Incubator

A longtime Boston chef will revisit his roots during a six-month residency in Boston’s South End. Chef Tony Susi, most recently of Capo, will bring his Italian food prowess to Wink & Nod (3 Appleton St., Boston) with Ripasso, an “Italian pub,” taking his place as the South End bar’s next culinary incubatee. Susi takes the reins from Louis DiBiccari’s Humaari later this month and is slated to stick around through March 2019.

Ripasso is the 10th in a line of successful long-term pop-ups to take up residence at the South End speakeasy-style venue, which is part of the Boston Nightlife Ventures group. Past residents — most of which operate at Wink & Nod for about six months — have gone on to open restaurants of their own, including the folks behind Juliet in Somerville and Brassica Kitchen in Jamaica Plain. The current resident, the aforementioned DiBiccari (previously of the now-defunct Tavern Road), is opening a cocktail lounge and gallery at Somerville’s Bow Market next.

Wink & Nod has had an Italian pop-up before — BNV’s own Bill Brodsky led the charge with Little Owl Tavern, which specialized in coastal dishes. With Ripasso, Susi will lean into pastas, taking a second look at some of the dishes he cooked while at Sage, a North End restaurant where Susi worked early in his career and later purchased, briefly relocating it to the South End before closing it down in 2009.

Ripasso’s menu will feature small starters, pasta dishes, three large plates, and a handful of desserts. Items include goat cheese agnolotti, potato gnocchi, grilled squid, duck confit leg, broiled lobster, boneless half chicken, and squid ink casarecce. There will be also be a daily gelato, plus ricotta zeppoli, among other desserts.

• Ripasso by Chef Tony Susi Will Be Wink & Nod’s 10th Pop-Up [BM]
• Ripasso [IG]