Italy’s All’Antico Vinaio Expands to Boston’s Back Bay

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A huge line greeted the arrival of the first local outpost of All’Antico Vinaio, famous for its crunchy Tuscan flatbread.

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A stack of three meat-and-cheese-filled sandwiches on Tuscan flatbread, which looks like a thinner focaccia.

Sandwiches at All’Antico Vinaio’s new Boston location. Top to bottom: La Schiacciata del Boss (prosciutto toscano, pecorino toscano, truffle cream); La Toscana (salame toscana, pecorino, truffle honey); La Favolosa (salame toscana, pecorino and artichoke creams, spicy eggplant). / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal

The first thing you notice when you bite into an All’Antico Vinaio sandwich is the crunch as the crispy exterior of the Tuscan bread, the schiacciata, gives way to the soft interior. Next: the simple perfection of Italian ingredients—meats, cheeses, sauces like an earthy truffle cream. It’s no wonder a line of 100-plus eager customers stretched half a block down Boylston Street when the first Boston location of the Florence, Italy-based chain opened this past Friday, October 3 in Copley Square. (It helps that free sandwiches were on offer to the earliest customers, but this buzzy business has legions of fans worldwide, so lines are likely for a while.)

Photographed from inside a restaurant, a line begins to form outside. A window of the restaurant features a large decal of the owner holding fresh bread.

A line began to form down Boylston Street around two hours before the grand opening of All’Antico Vinaio, per a rep for the restaurant. By opening time, it stretched half a block to Clarendon Street. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal

This is the 49th location for the 34-year-old company, and probably not the only one that’ll open here, says owner Tommaso “Tommy” Mazzanti. He describes Boston as “a wonderful city [with] wonderful people” that was also a “very strategic” expansion target due to the large numbers of students and office workers—but more importantly, the large number of Bostonians already familiar with the All’Antico Vinaio brand from their travels to New York (which has eight locations), Italy, and beyond. There could eventually be two or three more local outposts, possibly near universities, with another opening as soon as next year, he says.

Other U.S. cities that are home to the restaurant have sandwiches named for them—The Broadway, La New Yorker, Venice Beach, etc.—and Boston will be no different. Watch for the debut of the first signature sandwich here, the Boston Schiacciata, with porchetta, Taleggio D.O.P., and zucca (pumpkin) cream.

A man behind the counter at a casual restaurant pours olive oil onto hot flatbread. An Italian flag hangs behind him.

All’Antico Vinaio owner Tommaso Mazzanti prepares a sandwich on fresh, hot Tuscan bread called schiacciata. The restaurant’s motto, “Bada come la fuma!” (loosely “Watch how it smokes!”), is a reference to the release of steam when cutting the fresh bread. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal

Ultimately Mazzanti thinks there’ll be three or four sandwiches given Boston-themed names—such as a Boston Celtics Schiacciata and a Harvard Schiacciata, he says—but this is a good time to showcase the first one. “The weather is perfect for zucca, because it’s Halloween time,” says Mazzanti. While the sandwich will be a permanent fixture on the menu here, it’s a limited-edition special in Italy. “This is very important, the connection to Italy, because this is my mission: Bring pieces of Italy and put [them] here in Boston.”

A refrigerated case at an Italian counter-service restaurant holds various meats, tomatoes, rosemary, and condiments.

Many of All’Antico Vinaio’s sandwiches include thick sauces the restaurant refers to as creams, made with ingredients such as truffle, pistachio, porcini, or gorgonzola. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal

From the food-media-darling La Favolosa sandwich (Tuscan salami, pecorino and artichoke creams, spicy eggplant) to L’Inferno, a spicy porchetta and ’nduja combo dedicated to Ron Howard and Tom Hanks (who visited the shop while promoting the 2016 film Inferno), each sandwich is built on that irresistible bread. To Boston-area diners more used to seeing focaccia as the predominant Italian flatbread, schiacciata might look similar at first glance, but the Tuscan bread is pressed flatter (the name means “crushed”), among other differences in preparation. This yields a thinner bread with some crispiness—an excellent sandwich bread. (That said, we love a good focaccia sandwich, too, but a schiacciata sandwich feels a little more manageable for a workday lunch.) It’s baked fresh every morning, says Mazzanti, with a lot of Italian oil, salt, and a 24-hour fermentation. Cutting into the hot bread releases steam, hence the shop’s motto, “Bada come la fuma!” Loose translation: “Watch how it smokes!”

All’Antico Vinaio’s new Copley Square shop is petite, a counter-service business with eight tables and a handful of stools at a counter. A small selection of wines, one beer (Peroni, naturally), spritzes, coffee, and soft drinks complement the sandwiches. It’ll surely be a lunchtime boon to the area’s workers—but worth the expedition from farther outside of the neighborhood, too. Hey, it’s closer than Florence.

Interior of a small casual counter-service restaurant with pictures of Italy, a sign with an Italian flag that says Firenze (Florence), and neon red signage with the letters A and V in a circle, short for the restaurant's name, All'Antico Vinaio.

All’Antico Vinaio staff prepares for the Back Bay restaurant’s grand opening, minutes away. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal

Open daily from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. 565 Boylston St., Back Bay, Boston, allanticovinaiousa.com.

See more of All’Antico Vinaio here: