BRATTLEBORO — Rave reviews are coming in about the food and service at Martocci's Restaurant.
Shelby Brimmer and Paul Martocci of Brookline, business and romantic partners who grew up in the local area, bought the building at 75 Elliot St. in August 2022. They had already owned a multi-unit property and were interested in acquiring another.
Brimmer said she had come during a lunch break to meet with the former owners Nathan Rupard and Temple Peterson, who knew Brimmer from her days working at Peter Havens Restaurant in Brattleboro and Four Columns Inn in Newfane. Brimmer is currently managing Four Columns.
Instead of just showing the property, Rupard and Peterson asked Brimmer to sign a non-disclosure agreement. They shared with her financial information about their restaurant, Hazel, which they opened in 2014. They wanted an owner who would take on the restaurant and apartments, Brimmer said.
"We decided we would take a swing and put in an offer," Brimmer said.
Ever since the deal, the couple has been figuring everything else out.
Martocci's Restaurant in Brattleboro, the former location of Hazel on Elliot Street.
Initially, they kept the restaurant name as Hazel and retained the staff.
"It was important for Nathan and Temple that all their employees had jobs," Brimmer said.
Brimmer and Martocci acknowledged they weren't running Hazel and changed the name to Martocci's in April. They'd been evolving "the menu to what we wanted," Brimmer said.
Hazel had reopened after the COVID shutdown with take-out options only. Indoor dining returned under Brimmer and Martocci.
The couple hadn't expected to run a restaurant. Martocci was working as a full-time electrician and Brimmer was in graduate school to become a dietician.
Nevertheless, they closed the deal on a Thursday and opened the restaurant on a Monday.
"We missed Gallery Walk, thank God," Brimmer said. "Nobody even knew we changed owners for a while because it was so fast. They figured it out when we changed the menu. When the poutine disappeared, that's when people became suspicious."
Brimmer said she and Martocci weren't passionate about some of the food on the Hazel menu such as fries and burgers. They thought the pizza dough and sauce were wonderful and well thought-out, so they kept them.
They decided to lean into the authentic Italian food they both enjoy. For the name, they went with Martocci's last name, as his grandparents had spoken Italian before emigrating to the U.S.
A few years before buying the restaurant, the couple had visited Italy. Brimmer said they are inspired by "true Italian cuisine, and the simplicity and cleanness of it."
"It's really just using whole ingredients and using all the things to make it good and tasty," she said.
Brimmer and Martocci have been no strangers to the staffing struggles facing the restaurant industry. When they opened as Martocci's, they had a young chef walk out two weeks later.
"I became the line cook again," Brimmer said. "We were just piecing it together from April until July. I just tapped out. I was like, we need a chef."
Martocci's closed around July 2. Brimmer called the decision "really, really gut wrenching and hard to do."
"You know, it's so hard to open, closing is really daunting," she said. "You have to reopen all over again."
A day after closing, the couple went camping. They received a call from Josh Bartholomew, a local chef working in Philadelphia at the time. They arranged a time for him to come to Brattleboro and interview for the job. He relocated in August and by Sept. 1, the restaurant was back in business.
Brimmer described the closure as "very stressful."
"You lose momentum," she said, worried what people thought as they walked by a dark storefront.
Now, things are looking up. Brimmer said the response to Bartholomew's menu has been "really good."
"We combine it with a really family style, warm approach," Brimmer said. "We try not to be pretentious. We try not to have too much ceremony. That doesn't make sense to us."
Brimmer said the goal is to make people comfortable, to have honest reactions and enjoy the food. She noted "a crew of kids" love the pizza.
Martocci makes the pizza. His attention to detail and quality was touted by Brimmer.
Some menu favorites include house-made meatballs, calamari, carbonara and ricotta donuts. For pizza, Margherita and meat pies sell well. The menu can be viewed at martoccis.com.
Brimmer has been busy trying to develop the restaurant's cocktail list and wine menu.
"We have a very European wine list," she said. "I have almost no domestic wines on the list."
Due to staffing struggles, Brimmer said there's no time "for us to be anything other than one of the employees right now, for better or worse."
"I think it makes a really great experience for the customer because we're so here," she said. "You get to meet us and know us and our story, but it's hard because it doesn't leave a lot of room for anything else."
Looking through Google reviews, the food and customer service are highly applauded.
"tasty" - Google News
December 19, 2023
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Martocci's Restaurant goes for 'good and tasty' | Business | reformer.com - Brattleboro Reformer
"tasty" - Google News
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