Limoncello Restaurant

Ristorante Limoncello is a family-run Italian restaurant in Boston’s North End, a few doors from the Paul Revere House in North Square on the Freedom Trail. It is one of the few remaining neighborhood family restaurants in the area, serving Italian classics for dine-in and takeout. The best-known dish is the meatballs made from the recipe of Francesca “Concetta” Badolato, the owner’s mother, known as the Meatball Queen of Limoncello.

Owner Maurizio Badolato began waiting tables as a boy in Calabria and later opened Limoncello after a lottery win, choosing to work harder rather than retire. Head chef Andrea Moggi has been with him since the start, bringing recipes from the Amalfi Coast, and many longtime staff are family members. Today managers Jake and Lulu run the restaurant, where guests may be greeted with a hug and dine on a patio set back from the tourist crowds.

What to Know

• Catering is available at the restaurant, at a private home or at another venue.
• A prix fixe menu is offered for parties and groups.
• Gift certificates can be bought in person or mailed on request.
• The restaurant has an extensive wine selection.
• Concetta Badolato, born in Calabria, was a constant presence at the restaurant until her death in 2015.