Chef Tony Susi’s highly regarded Italian restaurant Sage, a former North End hot spot in the early 2000s, is making a comeback.
Susi, who most recently was leading the kitchen at the Charles’ Hotel’s Bar Enza in Harvard Square, is headed back to the North End to revive the restaurant, now called Little Sage, at 352 Hanover Street, the former home of solid pizza spot Locale. (Meanwhile, local culinary legend Lydia Shire is taking over the reins at Bar Enza.) It’s happening quickly, too: Little Sage opens for dinner service tonight, on Tuesday, March 11, according to a rep for the restaurant.
Susi’s menu at Little Sage will include pasta, chicken, and seafood, such as jumbo shrimp with roasted leeks and capers, and littleneck clams with lemon and garlic butter. There will also be a few Sage classics mixed in, including plates of pillowy gnocchi and baked fazzoletti (a pasta smoothed out into large, square sheets). Susi plans to make good use of Locale’s pizza oven to roast chicken, vegetables, and other ingredients; plus, Locale will still maintain a to-go pizza menu available for pickup and delivery, per a release.
Susi is partnering with North End restaurateur and Locale owner Jen Matarazzo to open Little Sage. Matarazzo also owned the original Sage in the 1990s, where Susi worked as executive chef before buying the restaurant from Matarazzo in 1999.
Tony Susi and Jen Matarazzo.
Lane Caroline/Little Sage
Susi got his start in Boston decades ago, working at now-notorious celebrity chef Todd English’s Olives in Charlestown. Sage was Susi’s first big-deal hit on his own. The tiny spot developed a fan following in the North End before Susi eventually relocated the restaurant to the South End and then sold it off due to financial difficulties, the chef told the Globe in an interview in 2023. During its nearly decade-long run, it nabbed several local accolades, including Boston Magazine’s best new restaurant in 2000.
Boston has seen a number of restaurant revivals in the past few years. Chef Evan Deluty’s Stella, a one-time South End staple, reopened as a smaller, more casual pasta spot in Newton in 2023. North End restaurateur Frank DePasquale dusted off Umbria, a former downtown Boston restaurant and nightlife spot, and reopened it on Hanover Street also in 2023. The same year, beloved industry spot Eastern Standard was reborn in Fenway.
Little Sage is located at 352 Hanover Street, in the North End. It is open for dinner daily from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. and for lunch and dinner on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday starting at noon.
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