class - Regis College

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20
REGIS TODAY
The lunchtime rush at
Figaro’s sandwich shop starts just after 11:30,
when a conga line of financial district regulars
and suburban sandwich pilgrims assembles at
the sliver of a café on an otherwise bleak edge
of Boston’s Chinatown. That they inch along
happily despite being on the clock is a testament
not only to the freshness of the focaccia,
the fragrance of the homemade sauces, and
hand-cured cold cuts and the nonna-worthy
meatballs, but to the warmth and sparkle of
proprietor/chef Rosanna “Rosie” Martone ’98.
An admiring Yelp reviewer from Waltham sums
up the mood: “Rosie makes me happy.”
That’s amore.
“The thing with food is, you
could cook every day for the rest
of your life and you would still
die not knowing everything,” says
Martone, a comedian-turnedchef
who in 10 years has turned
a once-modest enterprise into a
local institution. Martone arrives
most days at dawn, works all the
positions behind the counter and
is often joined in the mayhem
there by her parents, Geraldine
and Raffaele, who were born in a
small town called Paternopoli in
the Campania region of southern
Italy and returned there with
their children many summers over
the years. It’s where Rosie honed
her lusty palate, and the reason
graduating class marshal from
photos: Kathleen Dooher