Jamie Bissonnette and Ken Oringer Open a New Restaurant and Bar on Newbury Street

Restaurateurs Jamie Bissonnette and Ken Oringer’s JK Meals Group — which incorporates South Finish mainstays Toro and Coppa and Central Sq. hit Little Donkey — is about to get a pair of latest spots. Coastal Italian restaurant Faccia Brutta and its downstairs neighbor Bar Pallino, a pure wine bar with Italian-inspired snacks, open on Tuesday, Could 24, on Newbury Road in Boston’s Again Bay.

The menu for Faccia Brutta — Italian for “ugly face” — attracts inspiration from numerous coastal Italian locations, similar to Sicily, Sardinia, and Liguria. Try the complete opening menu under, which features a hefty choice of crudos and many pasta, together with some much less acquainted shapes like pansotti (a stuffed Ligurian pasta) and trottole (tight curls). A house-made gluten-free pasta will be substituted into any of the pasta dishes.

There are additionally just a few meat and seafood entrees, like a grilled half lobster and hen Milanese; small plates, similar to a wink to Toro’s fashionable pan con tomate, served right here with an Italian twist (prosciutto); and mozzarella sticks with caviar, as a result of that is 2022 and everybody deserves some extra-fancy consolation meals. There’s loads of dessert, too, together with Sicilian gelato sandwiches and baci di dama, almond cookies with Nutella.

Brian Rae, most just lately at Coppa, is govt chef; earlier than becoming a member of JK Meals Group, he labored at eating places such because the now-defunct Rialto, the Harvard Sq. Italian gem.

Drinks are usually not an afterthought at Faccia Brutta or, after all, Bar Pallino; the JK Meals Group’s longtime beverage director Jodie Battles is associate within the new venues. At Faccia Brutta, diners will discover cocktails similar to Negronis and spritzes, amari, gins, and wines from coastal Italy and past. Bar Pallino — impressed by trendy Parisian wine bars like Septime La Cave — dives deeper into wine with over 70 picks, significantly specializing in natural, pure, and biodynamic choices. The bar additionally has amari, vermouths, mezcals, and extra.

Faccia Brutta features a garden-style patio, which can be open proper from the beginning and seats 40.

Right here’s a take a look at the opening menu:

Faccia Brutta and Bar Pallino (278 Newbury St., Boston) open Could 24, with Faccia Brutta open for dinner Tuesday by way of Saturday and Bar Pallino open nightly till midnight. Faccia Brutta is accepting reservations by way of Resy.