Christine & Carla Pallotta, Owners of Nebo

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the city stopotop his nails on WBZ News
Radio ten thirty and we are here tonight with who Cola.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Palata and Christine Polota one Neebo estern in Boston.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Is that true? Is she right? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (00:13):
That's true.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
I just want to make sure, because we're all true.
We forget we were, we.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Think we're still at the Hanselon and we really lost
our mind. Then we got a problem here.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
And that was how many years ago? How long ago?
How long?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Twenty one years ago? We opened twenty years ago. June
made twentieth Anniversity for Nebo.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Twenty years ago. Yep, Now here's just I just wanted
the countdown with you. Okay, Oh this is oppressing kindy.
This has nothing to do with restaurants. This has to
do with us, all of us. Yeah, so you sail fast?
Twenty years just went by. Yes, I don't think we
got another twenty dee.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah. My mother's ninety one. She's doing great. She walked
six miles a day, she works out with a trainer,
she drives, and her mind's all day. Why can't we
all be that?

Speaker 1 (00:52):
You have to five minutes ago before we went on
here today, we could remember people's names.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
I know, I don't know why that's happening to us.
I think we have how much on our played all
the time, That's why we came up intended. So, yeah,
that's true.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
I said to the girls, because we've all known each
other since teenagers, I said, what do we do wrong?
And I said, I know we did. Christina said what
do we do wrong? I said, we didn't marry rich
and then Colin came in with, yeah, what I have
to ask people for money?

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Someone for money?

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Forget it.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
I know people that have to do that, They have
to ask permission to spend money.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Yeah, we ain't doing that.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
No, I'm not doing that.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Definitely not why all three of us the way we are.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yes, I also think that we were brought up to
believe that we could do anything we wanted. Our fathers
well like, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Go for go for it. They never said you can't
do anything.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
No. I think that we just had ambition and that
was just in Brendon us.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
I think we just had that grit and grind from
young kids.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Yeah, we did.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
What happened to people?

Speaker 2 (01:45):
No, I think what happened is COVID happened to people.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
What happened prior to that. The next generation was weird too.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, but it was really baby that made it. That's right.
Everybody got a trophy. I think our generation made a
lot of money, and that's what happened, so their kids
didn't have to work as hard, unlike your do. Ought
to see him who works like my father, who worked
three jobs since he was seven, right, just to get by.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
But our fathers were very good to us three and
we still worked really hard, yes, and we sled jobs.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
I think the difference was that our fathers didn't get
to go to school. Our fathers did things that they
had to do for work that weren't their choices, where
with us, they made us believe that you could go
to work, have a choice, do what you liked. And
so I think we all chose things we liked and
so we didn't mind working hard.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Do you know. I didn't figure out till I was
like fifty five fifty six on social audio that having
good parents I thought was the normal thing, like you
felt safe.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
It's still to this day.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
I lived in a bubble.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
Yes, I live in a bubble to this day because
I thought we had good someone the other day and
I said, wow, they don't have parents like we have.
They don't have that kind of law that I didn't
know that. I thought everybody had that. I thought that
was normal.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
So how about I didn't figure that out? So fifty
I had to meet.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Up with my staff a few weeks ago, go just
my hostesses and managers and I sat down and we
were talking about hospitality and stuff. And I literally said
to them, I understand why it's hot for some of
you to get it because they don't go into homes
that have parents that meet them. They never sat down
to dinner. They never hugged, they never kissed. They have
never experienced going out to nice dinners with family like

(03:18):
my father bought us all every place for nice dinners,
like your father didn't. I had many dinners with your
family in restaurants and stuff. And I think that we wait.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
Restaurants, do it to the old quick meals in my house,
but we hit.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
My mother cooked. But I have to tell you that
that my father worked three jobs. He never went out
alone with my mother. Every time a new restaurant opened
to Boston, a really beautiful restaurant, could we take the
whole family, We went out as a family. So I
don't think they experienced this.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
It was actually kind of funny because I said once
said to my dad, can we go to McDonald's for
dinnery goose? What what I go? My friend's going McDonald's
for dinnitty.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
I didn't have a peanut buttery and jelly sandwich until
I was forty five. What I never tasted one?

Speaker 4 (03:55):
I beg lived on peanut butter and fluff.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
No.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
I begged my mother to buy a school lunch. One day.
I came home, she goes, how was that? I was like,
we'll never do that again.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
She would make me for thathers, spuckys and foras for lunch.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
I was sold.

Speaker 4 (04:11):
And you'd be like, no, okay, I'll.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Take kids that their mother's made them big Sea. We're
just like that with the gas and everything. We're parised
in it.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
I was embarrassed, okay, And now I was like, but
I do think things. I think that we didn't realize
that because maybe we grew up in neighborhoods were a
lot of families were like us. I have, you know,
really core families in the North End, families that ate together,
hung out together, sat outside and went up on their woofs.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
And hunters. That's the way like that down there. No,
this is it? Is it?

Speaker 2 (04:39):
I have to tell you three thirty. Every day, Christina
and I take our walk and we meet our mother.
She walks down to the north End. We go to
the coffee shop. We stop at one coffee shop and
see a group of friends, and then we stop at another,
and then we end up at Frankie Deeper Squally's coffee
shop and we have coffee every day with my mother cappuccino.
There is still a core group.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
There's a core group.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, absolutely, with.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
A lot of things we're going we just go huh yeah, no, wait,
we might give a nod, like a nod. That's it.

Speaker 5 (05:06):
I think there's a difference that you guys all respected
your parents and grandparents, and I don't think my generation
does that. They let a lot of people my age
are younger, they control their parents and their parents listen,
and I don't understand that.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
Yeah we don't. Yeah, we respect that.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
I'd still get punch in the head. You want to
know something, I hung out with your I.

Speaker 4 (05:25):
Still get told you do this. I can still take you, well.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
It's funny because I my mother. I hung out with
your mother and I have to be honest with you.
I knew when I was with your mother that I
had the same woulds as your mother because your father
would have taken care of me the same way as her.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
My grandmother would be her grandfather.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah, well that's father. I mean, if I was with them,
I had the same woulds as your mother did. And
I knew I had to listen. It didn't matter if
I was mentality. They told me I was going to move.
I was going to move. No, it's true. Everybody in
the uncle's neighbors you couldn't do a thing.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (06:02):
But also also you just made me have a job.
You were like, if you don't have a job, I'm
taking away your car.

Speaker 4 (06:08):
And I listened. I didn't know you were really going
to take away my car.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
What I said to you was, you got a new car.
It needs gas. That's right. You better get a job
because I'm giving you one tank a week. Not that
I would have done that.

Speaker 5 (06:20):
No, it was like this, you're coming back from college.
If you don't have a job, I'm taking away your car.
And I was like, okay, yeah, I don't want that.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
I do remember when your son lived in Florida and
I was on the phone with you one day and
he was going out to a nightclub, and you said,
you need to realize something. You don't have any money.
This is my money. So you don't get to go
out and spend two or three thousand dollars in a
night money my money, Yeah, I said, And that's exactly
the way I'm I'm rich.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
Go make your own money. Okay, No, I remember it.
That's it, That's how it goes. Okay. So everybody, as
you can see, we've known each other for way, way
too long. Okay, way way too.

Speaker 4 (06:55):
Chat is here.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
Oh oh, my son is finally riding to the studio. Okay,
let him out. Okay, So we actually know now that
the North End absolutely made you who you are today.
Oh definitely, Okay that in your family, right, What was
the biggest challenge in opening up a restaurant with no
formal training coming from the here dressing business and going

(07:18):
into the restaurant business. But I think you did have
formal training? Used to know you didn't know?

Speaker 3 (07:25):
Honestly, we it was basically my fault. We were in
the Hittlon one day and a new client came in,
sat in my chair.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
She said something to me, I said, oh, that's so nice.

Speaker 3 (07:36):
And Kyla looked at me through the window through the mirrors,
and she was giving me these dirty looks and saying,
I don't believe you. I can't believe you just did that.
And I was like looking at her, like, what are
you talking about?

Speaker 1 (07:46):
Like what? So you guys are giving each other the
eyes the eye, and then we are in and you're
going understand something, folks, Please understand. They're not saying words
to each other, they're just giving you.

Speaker 4 (07:56):
Because she's an area, so she's like, I want to go.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
People that listen don't understand Boston people. Oh no, we
just give you a look. You get it or you don't,
So about not shop enough to pick it up. So
you guys see each other's looks.

Speaker 3 (08:08):
Yeah, So ten minutes goes by and I said, oh
my god. So I looked at the woman and I said,
did you just tell me your husband died? And I said,
that's so nice. She laughed, she goes, yes, you did.
I said, it's time. It's time.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
I think I'm done with this career. I need to
move on.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
I seriously went out to dinner with Kyla that night.
I said to her you have three months.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
I'm leaving.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
I'm going to open up a restaurant. She goes, that's great.
You've never worked a day in your in a restaurant.
Neither one of us. I said I can open a restaurant.
We're going to use all Ma's recipes. We have business sense,
we have common sense, and we're gonna go ahead and
do it.

Speaker 1 (08:46):
And all that thought we could go to break. I'm
Sinny Stumble and you listen to Tapas Nails on WBZ.
We'll be right back, okay, And welcome back to taughest
Nails on WBZ News Radio ten thirty. And I'm here
with Samantha and why do you do? Hold on?

Speaker 4 (08:58):
And I don't talk? And then you introduced me?

Speaker 1 (09:00):
Okay, and I am here, Okay, let me win off.

Speaker 6 (09:04):
Chad's here all.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
Right, listen listen. I've got now both my kids can
I can I talk? Guys? Okay? Well we're alive right now. Okay,
We've got now both my kids in the studio. So
it's a great, it's great night. And what's your name, Blondie?
What's your name? And what's your name?

Speaker 6 (09:22):
Chad?

Speaker 1 (09:22):
Why do you look like you? Fool two? And who's
our guests? Who are you?

Speaker 2 (09:29):
Christina Calaplata, We don't needbo restaurant in Boston.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
Well I didn't know that, did you know that? Guys?
No idea call the one fast question before we go back.
How long you know Sae me and whatever his name
is ched?

Speaker 2 (09:43):
Well, I caught the bouquet at your wedding, so okay,
So to go back there. You were eighteen when we
were hanging out.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
Okay, So you've known them their whole lives, their whole lives, okay,
So want to make sure we all know that you've
known them. Oh, you knew them before they were born, exactly.
So have pictures?

Speaker 2 (09:56):
Would see me holding on my I have.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
Those pictures too, Okay. So Christina, you went to dinner
calla it tild.

Speaker 3 (10:02):
The shares three months leaving the hair salon. She looked
at me like I was nuts. I said, we're going
to open a restaurant. We know business, we know hospitality,
and we're going to use all Mas recipes.

Speaker 2 (10:14):
And that's exactly we opened up. I think five months
later you asked what the challenge was. To be honest,
I think we were just so naive. We didn't even
think there was a challenge I had owned on the businesses.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
Not Yeah, we just did it. Don't use the word naive,
and we tell you the word what the word is.
We're like three excavators. Nothing stops us. Yes, I didn't
think if you put in our heads, we just go
out and do it exactly. That's just the way all
of our three brains work.

Speaker 2 (10:39):
But we also had paments that and coverage doing that. Yes, yes, okay,
but we took the philosophy. This generation. You can tell
them over and over again they can do anything they want.
They don't listen you as are doing.

Speaker 6 (10:51):
Okay, sona crazy Okay, looking back, here's the greatest question
I know my answer looking back, would you tell your
younger selves before starting nego?

Speaker 2 (11:04):
I wouldn't change anything at all. Like I said, I
just jumped into it.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
I always said when we walked in, we sure have
of all married rich.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
That's true, very rich. No, no, no, I don't know money.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
There you go, there you go, that's go ahead and
go with that.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
I would rather make my own money.

Speaker 3 (11:20):
I never felt like because I was a girl that
I couldn't do it. I never felt like I was
very confident when I went into it. I really we
went full force. We didn't think twice about doing it.
And I don't believe like I shouldn't say it. But
if you are ambitious, whether you're a man or a woman,
I think you're going to be successful.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
Bingo.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
I think that's the bottom line.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
Bingo.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah, people say in this industry that it's much hatter
for a woman.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
Sixty four many friends, you're not your mother's mother and grandmother.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
Generations have moved on. There are people that want to
live in that past. I can't live there. Yes, I
got to live in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
I mean, I know a woman finance that are amazing.

Speaker 4 (12:01):
I know women in real estate because we know too much.
Now people just overthink too much. You couldn't know.

Speaker 1 (12:06):
You guys watch too much Instagram, TikTok and all this. Yes,
you watch all day.

Speaker 3 (12:09):
I just said the other day, I gotta stop looking
at Instagram and everything because if I see one more
medical piece of medical advice and I don't sleep all
night because I think I'm gonna drop dead that night,
I gotta stop.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
I gotta get.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
By the way, you coming from people which are giving
all this advice on social media have really never walked
the walk on anything.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
You just talked to yes, something. It's the same as
help with health as in business. Christina always says to me.
If you think you're healthy and you wake up every
day and tell yourself, I'm fine, I'm just gonna go
and tell you this positive thinking, positive thinking that you
just do it. And I think it's the same way
as business. If you just say I'm just gonna try it.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
Oh, in business, I can do that. In my first
I can't do that.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
You suffer anxiety, and I think that's that's exact.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
So I wake up every morning, going every night before
I go to bed, Am I gonna wake up in
the morning, and then the moy I woke up and
wake up.

Speaker 4 (12:58):
We don't die, Okay, I'm mo every morning.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
Am I going to make it through the day. But
these guys are gonna give me a heart attack? Okay. Anyways, well,
no one's happy to have Well, I had you and
be quiet. Well I asked my friends the questions I
need to. Okay, you've been featured everywhere, right.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
Yeah, fortunate. Honestly from the beginning, I'll tell you the
thing that really amazed us there.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
Are Remember we were together in New York to know
where together in New York, and I have to go
to Harry Connick and you were going on, yeah, good morning,
Good morning America. Wait a minute more, You're like, come out.
I'm like, I'm gonna say regeious in my bathroom, ready,
but waite Dohnny Wallber eaten in Ostra And you're like, oh, yeah,
I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
A four star restaurant, okay, five star restaurant. And your
mother tells us she won't come out to eat. You'd
rather get McDonald's. And I'm like, oh, Regis, she's having
McDonald's exactly. I'll tell you what happened with us. I
think we were really prize. There are so many great
trained chefs in the city. We started twenty years ago,
and they all respected us.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
We invited people, so good your memories. I was driving
because I won't fly right, yes, and you guys are
on the fast train.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
That will never happen again.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
I fly everywhere and.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
We never take it.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
You're on the train.

Speaker 2 (14:20):
I thought, I remember another part. I don't know why,
but I can't tell.

Speaker 1 (14:23):
But yeah, yeah, I don't tell that viot, but remember
that story. My check, my check, Okay, there we go.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
No, so I say, my check some of the check
right from the beginning.

Speaker 5 (14:38):
Wait, the same story when you also drove to Florida
with Dad and Nana pupp in front of you, that
same type of story, my check.

Speaker 1 (14:44):
My check, Yeah, except that was j not me. Okay,
go ahead, I'm sorry, I keep going, you keep getting
I forget the question. Now, just named some of the
shows you've been on.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
So it's not having the shows, Okay. We got invite
it from the beginning, to teach at Barbara Lynch's school.
We got invited by macro Foley to go do the
James be At House dinner. From the beginning, we got
invited to do all these things. So we beat Bobby Flay,
We've been on Good Morning, We've been on The Today Show,
Kathy Lee and Hoda. I think more than doing the shows,

(15:19):
the chefs that have respected us. Lydia Bastianich wrote her
book and we would the opening act for her book
shows that went toward the country. Actually, they had a
restauring him in Boston that didn't do well, and they
came to us and asked Christina and I would we
like to be partners with them? They would give us
the thing to run and give us half of it

(15:39):
just to want it because they thought we were great operators.
And so I think the respect that we got from
chef's was the biggest surprise for us.

Speaker 1 (15:47):
So do you ever like go, wow, we did this
in twenty years, we've been doing this, I think, and
this turned out we're exhausted. Wow, But I think you
take five minute while to the shops on the back
and say, hey, we've done good. Girls, Like I think
that we've.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
Got from that, we've got from people in the business
has been the path that surprised us the most, not
really the shows as much. When I see chefs that
I really really.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
You guys get all the respect restaurant and I'm the
white getting crap done out there by men all day.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
Yep you are.

Speaker 3 (16:20):
And so when I see chefs that I really really
really admire it and they told me they eat at
my restaurant, I'm.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
Like, oh really that, that, to me is the best
thing that I could reate.

Speaker 1 (16:30):
Yes, So that's the ultimate compliment.

Speaker 2 (16:32):
And I think part of it is that these chefs
learned in school. We grew up with it. Like our
started for our bread is like three generations. We make
homemade pasta, we make our own gms, jellies, all the
stuff that we do. We just do it naturally because
we grew up with it in our house. And I
think my mother looks at the recipes, She's like, what

(16:52):
the hell is this? Why would you do this?

Speaker 1 (16:55):
You know?

Speaker 2 (16:55):
And I think they respect the fact that we didn't
go to school and we never worked.

Speaker 1 (17:01):
You did go to school. It's called your whole life experience. Yes,
Like I know how to make great reservations, right.

Speaker 4 (17:08):
What are you sure you me to do that?

Speaker 1 (17:09):
My kids don't ever have to worry about getting married
and saying their husband wife's saying, no, I have. My
mom makes the best meat balls I.

Speaker 4 (17:17):
Have my mom and my mom never cooked me and
me on my life.

Speaker 2 (17:20):
So one of you.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
Cooked, they both to I learned how to cook when
I was eleven.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
You did better father's side of the family, your grandmother. Yeah, yeah, no, no,
it was good.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
They'd have to know to cook.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
I spent time how to cook healthy.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
I know. No, it was heavy on the sausage shoes.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
But I will tell you perfect thirty of them. I
don't care what you're saying. I was thirty pounds later,
when my mother cooked for me every single night, thirty
pounds l four ingredients that it was crazy.

Speaker 3 (17:49):
It was, yes, way better eating than now you go
out and there's like secret ingredients.

Speaker 1 (17:56):
Yes. Is there a Boston scene that you're part of?
Like you part of that bone?

Speaker 2 (18:00):
No, let me tell you from the beginning. Now you
have to understand, Well, we.

Speaker 1 (18:05):
Were, but now we don't want to be.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
There's a Boston scene that was social scene for us,
the Boston work scene in the in the restaurant industry.
We would do all these charity events and at the
end of the night, all the chefs would get together
and say, oh, we're going to go out drink and
go to a bomb and stuff. Christina and I would
pack up our stuff and go home.

Speaker 1 (18:25):
Yeah, I was so good.

Speaker 2 (18:26):
I was forty five, she was forty two by that time,
and I had done it. I didn't want to do
it anymore.

Speaker 1 (18:30):
Right, were Honestly, we were burnt out that scene by
twenty three.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
And I don't want to talk.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
I was gonna.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
I would much rather spend time with.

Speaker 1 (18:38):
Friends and people you care about. Yeah, it's not that I.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
Don't care about it, but I don't have that much
time to.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
Get that much time, and whatever time you have, I
we're going to hold that thought. We're going to break.
This is Cindy Stumble. You listen to the Toughest Nails on
WBZ and we'll be right back and welcome back to
Cydney Stumbo Toughest Nails on WBZ and I'm here with
my daughter Sammy and and Christine and Kyle. Thank you
God took a long time to do. Okay, I love her.

(19:06):
She you know she got the biggest personality out of
you too, right, You're like the stiff next to her.

Speaker 4 (19:12):
She's an area.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
No, no, no, Kylo is the personality. You should see
him in the restaurant. Oh my god, I stay in
the back in the city.

Speaker 1 (19:20):
So hold on, what's the one moment? And you're gonna say,
probably the chef thing And I get it. That made
you anymo made you feel proud?

Speaker 2 (19:28):
Like one mom moment?

Speaker 1 (19:29):
Just give me one moment.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
The day that my family walked in the door with
our first restaurant and we had designed everything and did
everything ourselves and set up and they literally walked in
the door and said, how did you do this? I
can't believe this? Like we can't go nobody.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
So that's what made you proud, that you made them
proudly exactly.

Speaker 2 (19:46):
My father walked to the door with a big smile
all the time.

Speaker 1 (19:49):
Do you think we've spent most of our lives making
them proud? That was our biggest Yes.

Speaker 2 (19:53):
I think we still tried.

Speaker 1 (19:54):
Is that crazy? You don't believe that? Absolutely? But now
I I've had children, so I wanted to make them proud.
So I went from my parents to my kids, right,
But never once have I sat back and made said, Wow, Sydney,
I'm really proud of you.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
Well, so I'm going to tell you, Cyndy, I'm really
proud of you. Do I tell everybody brag about you
all the time. I brag about you all the time.

Speaker 1 (20:16):
But we don't do it for that reason. Our goal
was to make our dad's proud of us. We'll call
it what it is. Yeah, we want to say, hey, Dad,
look at us, yep, right, like like like little kids.
Not that they put that pressure on us, No, justically
want to make them proud.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
And that's in personal life too.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
Everything, thank you everything. Yeah, I want to show the
most good mom, a good daughter, a good granddaughter. We
did all right, so when we go to heaven, what happens?
I don't know, because we've taken on a lot of
My father says, hell is a better place. There's broad's
on there, there, philosophy there. I love it. Okay, So

(20:56):
the next I put these lists of questions. Right, what's
one dish that instantaneously brings you back to your childhood
that you guys make?

Speaker 2 (21:05):
I know mine? Do you know your Christine? We don't
make it on the menu because it's just too hot
to put together for guess, But it's called manastruine beans.
Manastruine beans used to make it.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
M I n e s were mother, it probably did.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
It's prijuto spear ribs, pepperoni, all inside a broth and
it has escalottle white beans, and then we make this
big fried polenta and a cast iron pan.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
It's one of the oldest.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
It was really just an old feel.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
Baby pastina. And she still makes it for me all
the time when I don't feel good.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
That's my favorite's favorite?

Speaker 2 (21:48):
Yes, cheese times. So chat, what was your favorite from
your grandmother?

Speaker 4 (21:57):
Come on you pably my favorite.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
With the sprinkles on them.

Speaker 5 (22:02):
No, they had like an egg in the middle frosting,
you know, and then the egg productor oh yeah, yes, it.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
Is unbelievable, and then you put it at always put
mone in the microwaves. Still like chicken chicken cutlets.

Speaker 1 (22:16):
But you know what I miss? I can't get it
no matter where I go.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
What do you miss?

Speaker 1 (22:21):
The first time I ever saw somebody takes sauce and
pig eggs purgatory.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
It's one of my favorite.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
Yeah, menu and my frost crack the eggs inside and purgatory.

Speaker 2 (22:34):
You put it in a toast. Okay, I'll make it.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
Have listen. It was so good and the bread. I'm like,
is this breakfast and dinner? I'm so sorry, but I
don't understand it, right, I didn't understand. But they have
a press and what are that place called?

Speaker 2 (22:48):
Yeah, but they make it.

Speaker 1 (22:54):
I just want sauce because in it.

Speaker 2 (22:56):
That's why it's it's you know. On my aunt death,
my mother's sister, that's what she asked for. She said
to my mother, I just want eggs in purgatory one time.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
That's it.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
Purgatory means how and it's a little slicy, so best,
that's it. So I want that used to be making
the menu at the first.

Speaker 1 (23:12):
Rest you'll be in the restaurant. You can make it
for me. Okay, what's your take on gluten free movement?

Speaker 3 (23:18):
Oh god, we'll tell you. We're probably the pioneer of
gluten free movement. We did that twenty years ago. We
had friends, two friends that would come to the restaurant
all the time, and then all of a sudden they
weren't coming as much, and we're like, what happened? And
they both found out they were selliac and color and
I worked on creating ninety probably ninety five percent of
my regular menu. I convert if you want it to

(23:41):
be gluten There's only three items that we don't get.
We we're open six days a week, six days and
nights a week. We don't just do one day a week.
We have a lot of specials. It's part of our menu,
part of our restaurants.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
Okay, so you guys are onto the gluten. I have
a piece of gluten bread and it's hot. It looks
like I can throw it and break away.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
Don't. That's the only thing we don't do bread. There's
no way to keep it soft.

Speaker 3 (24:03):
One thing and you want to know it's something, you
bring it out it's fresh, and then they have a
conversation in five minutes later it's hot.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
We bought it out. Yeah, I just can't do it.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
Here's the big one in the room right now. What's
the secret to working so closely as sisters together? Because
let me explain something to I work with these two
Nika poops all along. Right. What's the word I used
recently saying we when I called popper it on the
on the text? What it was a weird word? Think
about it while going there? Answer the question.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
A couple of things. First of all, I'm not going
to say we don't fight. We fight and we get
over it. I mean, there's not a big deal.

Speaker 1 (24:40):
Shocker, you guys fight sucker.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
Big, but we It could be the only argument we
had when we first opened was what kind of dish
would we going to put the olive oil in?

Speaker 1 (24:48):
I mean that was.

Speaker 2 (24:49):
Pretty amazing for design.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
But ever, let me ask you a real question here,
because I definitely know you're stronger than Kla call of
me thinks she is, you think color stronger than you,
stronger than me?

Speaker 2 (24:59):
I back down easier because I don't like the waist,
I don't like the city.

Speaker 1 (25:05):
I just can't.

Speaker 3 (25:05):
I'm like, okay, I don't want to. She's way stronger
than mentally, actually physically. My father said to me once
you better watch out. She's gonna knock you out something.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
They told me. I'm gonna let her loose some day
she can. Don't touch her hands because she was a hairdresser.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
Don't touch your hair.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
She's afraid.

Speaker 1 (25:19):
But no, honest fist fights. Have your girls had no childhood?

Speaker 3 (25:23):
I pulled her hand on the restaurant one day. She
was walking down the stairs and mumbling about something. I
grabbed your ponytail and she turned around and goes, well,
that doesn't even.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
Hurt, which pissed me off even more. And that was it.
No fist fight, No fist fights. I mean, we have arguments,
but they have over in three seconds. We argue all
day long. I mean with my mother too. It's like
an argument and it's gone.

Speaker 1 (25:41):
That's how we roll. It's a heap of hot people
of the way, like you don't talk for five days?

Speaker 2 (25:45):
No, no, no, not us, no talking?

Speaker 1 (25:47):
Do you guys do the you.

Speaker 2 (25:50):
Wait a minute, I love you. I want to go
for breakfast. We playing cords at my brother's house. A
couple of months ago. I say something. She gets mad.
I have the phone in my hand. She gets the phone,
punches it. It goes flying across the room. I get up,
I walk over, I pick it up. I put her
on the table and we stop playing cards again. My
sister in law, did I just see that?

Speaker 1 (26:09):
Like like nothing.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
But what also makes us be able to work with
each other is because we do very different things. Christine,
I am definitely about the hospitality in the restaurant. I'm
all about the hospitality. We both work on the menus
the restaurant. I do all the hospitality, all the training
for hospitality. That's me in front of the house. Christine
is more very detailed with every single thing. Like she

(26:33):
can spot a glass that's dirty from across the room
a dot on it. She's really detailed. And the kids, yes,
exactly exactly.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
When people you know service will come over and say, Christine,
they want to meet you, I say, kyl it, they
want to meet you. She's like, you've a freaking light
they wanted to meet you.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
Christine doesn't have any finesse when it comes with yes, no,
I just I'm very uncomfortable. I'm shy. If there's a problem. Oh,
if there's a problems cut, I have to push you
black and white, black and.

Speaker 3 (27:02):
White, I have to push you in the bathroom and say, okay,
you can't go talk to this guest because I know
you're not going to handle this. If you're not happy,
let me fix it right then and there. Don't go
on yelping this and that and that. That's just ridiculous
to me.

Speaker 2 (27:14):
I have no talking.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
Just the dinners on me.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
That's of course. I just maybe give.

Speaker 4 (27:23):
But everyone's going to go.

Speaker 2 (27:26):
It's not about it's not that. That's not about food.
It's it's about things like, okay, I don't have a reservation,
I just desserts.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
They're not going to pick up your.

Speaker 2 (27:35):
I just walked in with six people. I want a table.
I'll be happy to give you the table and have
a drink, but right now the table won't be available
for like twenty and then somebody starts yelling at you
why they had experience.

Speaker 3 (27:52):
We could not people would not leave their tables. It
was another person crazy in the restaurant. The whole place
was just crazy. Couldn't get people to leave their restaurants.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
To leave their seats. Asked nicely, yes, would you like
to move to the bout. At what point? What could
I do?

Speaker 3 (28:08):
We were ten minutes having one reservation and the custom
of the guest was so livid, and we're like, I
don't know what else to say. I can't pull them
out of the seat. Like things like that I have
no tolerance for.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
Because people want a restaurant. It's like going home. People
think it's like being in their own kitchen.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
That's right, and that's them.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
Can't turn those tables.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
I think a lot of we have a great clientele
and I'm blessed they come back and blessed. But I
think some people just think they're entitled, and that's any business. Yes,
I think that's the day, today's date.

Speaker 1 (28:43):
People are entitled, I think. But we are very blessed
to hang out with you guys. That's why the restaurant. Okay,
I'm going for I'm going out to break. I don't
even go anymore. I'm going out to break. Listening to
Cindy Stump on Toughest Nails on WBC. Will be right
back and welcome back to the Toughest Nails on WBC.
And I'm here with me, I'm here with shadd I'm
here Christine I'm here at Colin. Let me do the
introductions here, because you guys take forever. All right, let's

(29:06):
talk about telling. I want to know what Nebo also
does besides people coming in and having dinner six nights
a week. Let's go there. And I want to know
what's the holiday season going to look like? What are
you doing? Where are you going? Okay, you take it.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
So we were talking about hosting people, and I think
that one of the things that's made our business so
successful is because we are good hosts. I love I
love having people in the restaurant. I love entertaining. Right now,
we're booking all our holiday dinners, holiday bio bio parties with.

Speaker 1 (29:41):
Pops holiday biot explain.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
I get a company or a person in thirty two
states right now.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
People might want to order food from you and ship
you guys a.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
Couple of things. No, we don't ship. We do do takeout.
We do catering. Means they take the entire restaurant space over.
They want to take over the space and Christmas party
or whatever all the time. Everything. We do a lot
of wedding rehearsals. We're now doing showers on Saturday.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
People are doing biots for weddings that are exactly like
a wedding.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
I mean a rehearsal dinner. They're doing is if it
was a wedding.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
Now it's never buying out the whole night there.

Speaker 2 (30:12):
Yeah, yeah, and it's from I mean the hotel.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
And you're giving up what night during the week to
do a biout in anything one a night. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
Last week we had one on a Friday because it
was rehearsaled in a welcome party for two hundred people
that we will be on a Thursday.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
So you're kind of gotta figure out what that night
brings you to figure out what your bio. Absolutely, there's
only twelve fifteen people. Then they want to buy it out.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
They want to buy it out for they get money.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
They have to.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
There's a mini minimum. But beside bios and not everybody's
gonna do a bio, I mean one space up near
the window the high tops.

Speaker 1 (30:41):
We fish that's one of your biots will be whoever
it's married for us will be an evil go ahead.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
We have sixty people up front that can if forty
people in the dining room to have a dinner. I
mean we have large groups every night. There's a section
of the of the dining room of the bar that
people are coming in to use for crowds and it's
business people, Uh, it's travel groups that are coming in.

Speaker 1 (31:05):
You know, they're closed on Christmas.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
Day, Christmas even Christmas Day.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
And Thanksgiving you guys, yes, yes, yes, so everybody what
comes prior and does just Yeah.

Speaker 3 (31:17):
So we're like, we had a lot of people buying
getting catering from us.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
They don't want to make their zucchini design is.

Speaker 1 (31:23):
They don't want to make people don't blame them.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
And that's all different kinds of things people are doing
that stuff for and we.

Speaker 3 (31:31):
Just have to cave and job. This morning we were
like are we going to make it to this show today?

Speaker 2 (31:35):
It was we had a big job. And to be
honest with you, we have a ton of gift cards
that get sold because people are.

Speaker 1 (31:41):
So okay so give cards too.

Speaker 2 (31:43):
And companies are buying them. Companies are buying if they
have to give gifts to the employees, they're buying a
hundred gift cards. Because they're giving an employee a gift
card for fifty dollars or one hundred dollars, they put
it in a package and stuff that kind of stuff
is what's really made our business.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
And then hollow. We've not out of COVID. Now that
you guys been five years, five years, we've been out
of COVID.

Speaker 2 (32:03):
Well four years, four years has changed our business. So
people are only going to work two or three days
a week.

Speaker 1 (32:11):
Correct.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
Fortunately, because we had such a great reputation, we had
a really built in clientele, people that came from all
the suburbs.

Speaker 1 (32:18):
And close to the financial district.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
Right there we have parking downstairs, three hours validated parking.
But also all the corporations that used to do business
with us on like you know, just office workers coming
in and now booking their booking dinners all the time
because they're Greeks. They're bonding, they're bonding with each other.
They don't go to work, so they come in and
do twenty thirty people they get back to work. No,

(32:42):
I know, everybody needs to go back to I have
to tell you who I feel the city's collapse and
the moment pops places are getting killed. Yes, the shoemaker,
the tailor, the little places.

Speaker 3 (32:52):
And I think everybody needs to go off ozembic because
most people restaurants are complaining, they're going into their restaurant and.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
They're like, we'll share one entre four people. It's like,
and we're gonna split a glass of water four ways. There.
These are exact quotes. These are restaurants, exact quotes, and
they are dead serious. I know something. The other things
told me. Six people came in, four children and mother
and father. They split the mother and father split a
pasta and then they got a pasta for the four children.

(33:18):
And they said there. But I said this for I've
been saying this for two years now.

Speaker 3 (33:21):
I said, wait, do you see when oh zeppig zepbound hits,
It's gonna hit the industry.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
Now I see all the articles about it.

Speaker 3 (33:27):
They're coming on, they're not eating, they're not getting the wine. Well, now,
alcohol causes cancer. They're saying a millionaires people have been
drinking alcohol.

Speaker 2 (33:35):
Who do you think saying alcohol causes cancer?

Speaker 1 (33:38):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (33:39):
The cannabis companies because they want you to buy their
part and everything.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
Come on, think about it.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
Okay, So when I go out for dinner, I want
to eat nine basillion appetizers. I don't want a main course.

Speaker 3 (33:50):
That's why we opened That's how I opened Nebo. Originally,
I said to Kala, I said to I want to
open a restaurant as if you're sitting in Mars kitchen
every night. In my mother's kitchen, there would be four
five different choices.

Speaker 2 (34:02):
That you could eat.

Speaker 3 (34:03):
And I was like, you'd have Robbies on the stove,
you'd have a father on the stove. They'd be like
five different things. And I said, I want to open
a restaurant emulated after my's kitchen.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
I opened it.

Speaker 3 (34:15):
People thought we were absolutely nuts and said it will
never ever work. Nobody was doing this, Nobody in Boston
was doing it. And I'm like, it's going to work.
And then they were like, you really need to change
your concept. I'm like, nope, I'm not changing my car
savage sharing.

Speaker 2 (34:29):
And I would say that probably ninety five percent of
big group din as we do twenty thirty forty fifty
people family style don't get to taste.

Speaker 1 (34:39):
Like me, sit and look at the way. I don't
like when I look at the menu. Yeah, I don't
care about the main dishes. I want to see all
the appetizing.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
Wait, you say, give us the left side of the
menu when we go out. They're serious. There you go,
what we encourage you I've got a choke.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
I want stuff pepper, I want fried peppers. I want
we do the same thing.

Speaker 2 (35:04):
It's the Loomi board different.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
I don't want.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
That's how my concepts started.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
And came time did it comes? I just eat off
everybody's place. Give me a piece of that, piece of this.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
I used to say to people. They would be thought
I was crazy.

Speaker 3 (35:18):
I'm like, do you realize because when we would dine out,
this is going back twenty one years ago. If my
mother was in Florida for the winter, we wouldn't be
at her house every night for dinner.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
We'd go out to eat.

Speaker 3 (35:28):
I'd go to a restaurant and I would get like
six seven appetizes and the server would look like thinking
we were being cheap, and I'd be like, honey, it's
actually gonna cost more than us getting an entree each.
We're gonna get everything on the appetizer list and we share.

Speaker 2 (35:44):
That's right, Can I ser Yes? And nobody understood that.
I want the people to experience what we grew up in.
I want I don't want them to come and get
one dish. I want them to share. I want them
to taste a little bit of what our family life
was like what glowing up with food was.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
Yeah, I called Saammy and Chadd you hear me always
says I just want to poopo platter and everybody will say, Mom,
you're in my food. Mom, you're in my food. Now
just cuts the piece off and just puts it. Yeah,
a thousand percent here here, here, because she's gonna be
She's gonna have a fork in everybody's plates.

Speaker 2 (36:18):
Right, I agree.

Speaker 1 (36:19):
So I don't ever order me, of course, I don't know.
That's and Chad eats like I've never seen and doesn't
put a pound on you.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
He's young and he's a boy.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
I don't get it. The kid just eats, eats, eats
easy game.

Speaker 2 (36:31):
Wait, okay, he works out. You think he's on the
job work and he's working out.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
That's the jam. He's my he's my virgo. He's my
special one. He's a special one. He's also has two mothers. Listen.
He grew up with Nona right, grew up in Niana Eleana.
He grew up with Marie. He with me, he grew
up with Sammy.

Speaker 5 (36:52):
I know when I'm really his mom when you text
me what time of day was Chadbourne?

Speaker 2 (36:58):
When all.

Speaker 5 (36:58):
He says that I was likely I didn't deliver him.

Speaker 4 (37:03):
Yes, but I do have those answers.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
That's right, Yeah, yep, that's true.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
Maybe I have another question. Any plans to expand, collaborate
or write a book. That would be yes or no.
Maybe if we're all getting tired.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
He would.

Speaker 3 (37:20):
He's insistent and he won't be He's relentless.

Speaker 2 (37:24):
You need to open up more. You need to open
up more. Don't need to know. And I'm like, no,
I go you.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
Because your brother's all about leveling up.

Speaker 2 (37:31):
Well, I told him, Sure, Mom has a doctor's appointment Monday,
Wednesday and Thursday of next week. Would you take her?
You go take her, and we're.

Speaker 3 (37:38):
Gonna go open up that other restaurant and we're gonna
write that book and we're gonna yeah.

Speaker 1 (37:42):
We just do you have a think that we're all
at a point that I don't want to say this
because I don't believe it. If I try to teach
myself this or train myself this, my bucket list should
be full but still not full. And I don't know
what that means.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
I know I want to do other things outside of work.

Speaker 1 (37:59):
I do.

Speaker 2 (38:00):
Here's the deal. I think that either yet no, I
think is different because he doesn't have No.

Speaker 1 (38:07):
So three idiots with their bucket while most people would
give their left arm to live, our lifestyles and our
bucket list are still not full. So that's a column.
I think you and Cindy problem personal problems you guys,
and I.

Speaker 3 (38:18):
Don't care what level you're at. I think you should
always have a bucket list. It has nothing to do
with money.

Speaker 1 (38:23):
I think it just what have we done?

Speaker 2 (38:26):
Like you should have a bucket list.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
I still minds off. Mind's only half full, okay, and
I don't have another yep, forty years in front of me.
So that's a problem. You do it, okay, so your
bucket list.

Speaker 2 (38:34):
My bucket list is five as work as I'm done.
I've had it my first business at twenty years old,
second one nine months later. I mean, I just I've
had it with bucket lists, with other things. What we
do want to do someday when we're out of the
business is to write a book about this business, because
it is crazy.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
All that thought. This is Cindy Stumble. He lists the
toughest nails on WBZ it. We'll be right back rat
answer column and welcome back. To the Toughest Nails on
WBZ and I'm in the studio tonight with Sammy, Chad,
my special guest Chad, my Son, and my girlfriends Christina Kala.
Go ahead, Plata, come on, a lot of girls take
us out.

Speaker 2 (39:08):
Well, we've been here talking about all uh stories about
the restaurant and stuff. The one thing I really hope
people recognize with this show is that we're not Italian American.
We are Italian food that we grew up with, which
was my mother's and my grandmother's. And we have people
from all over the country.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
Come.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
We are at five twenty Atlantic Gap in Boston, right
on the waterfront and the Financial district, and I hope
you come to see what it's like to live in
an Italian home.

Speaker 1 (39:36):
Because that's where your restaurants is absolutely all about family. Okay,
and people visiting into Boston from other states that are listening.
Check out Nebo, Thank you, Colin, Christina. I love you,
guys that love.

Speaker 2 (39:47):
You, thank you, love you, Seam.

Speaker 1 (39:48):
Everybody. Have a great, safe weekend. This is City Stumpo
to his Nails on WBZ.