This Italian Fayetteville food truck has roots in an iconic Boston restaurant
Looking at his name, you'd never guess that Robert Kalish has Sicilian blood running through his veins. But with one taste of the Italian meals he serves up from his popular Fayetteville food truck, Bella Nonna, there's no mistaking that Kalish is a paisano.
Kalish got his culinary chops by cooking in his family’s old-school Italian restaurants in the historic North End of Boston.
Now, about a decade after his grandfather’s iconic restaurant closed, the chef keeps the family tradition alive by serving up red-sauce classics from the streets of his new city.
But the former Army Ranger, 60, said he isn’t afraid to put a new spin on old-world dishes.
“I’m not one of those stuck-up Italians,” he said, alluding to chefs that may scoff at his Italian-American recipes. “I’m second-generation. My parents came here, and they taught me, this is America, you respect where you're living.”
As he and his wife, Jasmin, move around the country following their daughter Kathryn, 25, a Fort Liberty soldier and single mother, Kalish adapts his menu to incorporate regional tastes.
When the family moved to the Fayetteville area from Lawton, Oklahoma, about a year ago, Kalish began frying up what he calls Carolina balls, made of barbecue pulled pork with macaroni and cheese.
Fayetteville’s appetite for seafood led to the creation of his shrimp and crab balls, where the seafood is mixed with risotto and stuffed with cream cheese, breaded and fried.
“Think of what happens when crab ravioli marries an Italian rice ball,” he said with a laugh.
Bella Nonna's roots in Boston restaurant
While Bella Nonna’s fried balls, which are especially popular at festivals, may not be authentic, Kalish said he does what his parents and grandparents did before him — make something delicious and familiar with the ingredients on hand.
Like his predecessors, Kalish cooks from scratch. On a typical morning, he wakes up at 4 a.m. to make focaccia bread; by 5 a.m., he rolls meatballs; and by 6 a.m., he transforms sheets of pasta dough into fettuccine, fusilli or rigatoni.
His days on the truck aren’t all that different from those he spent working at his grandfather’s Boston restaurant, Joe Tecce’s Ristorante & Caffe, where he said he started as a dishwasher at 11 years old.
The longtime Little Italy landmark was a popular spot for everyday people, celebrities, athletes and politicians until it closed in 2011 after nearly 70 years in business.
Elizabeth Taylor, Nancy Reagan, Frank Sinatra and Al Pacino were some of the celebrities who dined at Tecce’s, the Sun Journal reported in 2006, and Boston Celtics star Larry Bird, Boston Bruins great Bobby Orr, New York Yankees slugger Reggie Jackson and Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda were among the sports figures who ate there over the years.
Fans and players would flood the dining room after games at the former Boston Garden Arena, Kalish recalled.
Bella Nonna to bring Italian Sunday dinners to forthcoming restaurant
While Kalish and his relatives worked in Joe Tecce’s kitchen, they often quarreled about the right way to cook certain dishes, he said, but food brought everyone together on Sundays.
They would gather around the table to eat what he said Bostonians and New Yorkers refer to as Sunday sauce, in which beef braciole, meatballs and sausage are cooked in red sauce and served over pasta. Italian Americans in New Jersey call it Sunday gravy, he said.
It’s a tradition he plans to bring to The Depot, a soon-to-open restaurant in the works by another Fayetteville favorite, Dogslingers. There, Kalish will take over the kitchen on Sundays to serve family-style Italian dinners of Sunday sauce, salad and desserts like tiramisu, lemon-ricotta cake and cannoli.
He said the Sunday dinners will be just like the ones he remembers from his childhood.
“It's either creating a new memory or bringing back a memory,” Kalish said. “That's what Italian food is to me.”
Bella Nonna serves up old-school favorites
While Kalish embraces innovation, he admits that he stands by some traditional recipes.
Americans might add cream, garlic or onions to carbonara pasta, but Kalish said he makes it with nothing more than Italian bacon, called pancetta, or its close cousin, guanciale, egg yolks, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and a splash of the water in which he boils the pasta.
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He also has big opinions on chicken Parmesan — breaded chicken breast topped with red sauce and melted cheese, typically served over pasta — and said that any Italian restaurant worth its salt should do it well.
“It’s the simplest dish to make and the easiest to screw up,” he said.
Kalish prefers his chicken Parmesan without too much sauce and without browning on the cheese. He said his version of the dish is done the authentic way — topped with provolone, mozzarella and ricotta.
What's next for Bella Nonna?
Kalish has operated his food truck in four states over the last few years. While he’s grateful to be near two of his three grandchildren, he said the moves have taken a toll on him and his food truck.
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The chef said the Fayetteville area will be his last stop. He plans to stay here for good, and eventually open a restaurant.
Until then, he said, he'll keep serving up the classics and his newer creations at Bella Nonna.
Food, dining and culture reporter Taylor Shook can be reached at tshook@gannett.com or on Facebook. Want weekly food news delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the Fayetteville Foodies newsletter.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fayetteville's Bella Nonna food truck serves red-sauce Italian classics
