QUINCY — Maestro’s officially opened its doors on Wednesday at 938 Maine St., offering affordable, authentic Italian dishes.
Co-owners and couple Billie and Steve Goodwin started their cuisine journey decades ago at Tiramisu´, where they both worked previously.
“I actually worked at Tiramisu´ for over 26 years before I moved (on to this),” Billie said. “I started (in food) when I was 16, enjoyed it and have been doing it ever since.”
At Tiramisu´, they found the mentors and experience they would need to launch their own restaurant.
“The former owner, Roberto Stellino was a fabulous guy to work for and learn from,” Billie said. “I learned everything I know from him. I loved working with the community — the people were phenomenal. I just love doing this. I worked every job except for Head Chef. I started out washing pots and pans and I just worked my way up and learned everything I could in the restaurant.”
The couple has saved for this opportunity for five years. Renovations of their space, the former Pop’s Pizzeria location, took a brisk pace — concluding in less than two months.
“We’re pretty good financially,” she said. “It’s a lot of hard work. We just put our life into it. We’ve been buying equipment over time and all of that. (For our site), we just wanted to stay downtown; we have Quincy Medical Group — they’re really building up Maine Street and we wanted to be a part of that.”
The restaurant runs on a crew of 15 people including Billie, running the floor as a waitress, and Steve as head chef in the kitchen. On weekdays, hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. with a two-hour break between 2 and 4 p.m. They’re open on Saturdays from 4:30 to 9 p.m. and closed on Sundays.
All dishes range from $10 to $20, and many ingredients are locally sourced.
“We’re just trying to offer a few unique things that Quincy doesn’t have yet — most importantly we’re going for affordable Italian food,” Billie said. “We have stuffed shells, one of our specials will be cannoli nachos for dessert, there’s a few black pasta dishes and a very nice vodka sauce.
“If I were to recommend a signature dish to try your first time, it’d be our black linguine and speziato diablo sauce with fresh shrimp and calamari.”