Buitoni Spaghetti Bar brings nostalgia and fresh pasta to Kenmore Square

Kenmore Square is getting a new pasta destination built on brand memory as much as on noodles. Tuscan Brands plans to open Buitoni Spaghetti Bar in spring 2027 in the former Eastern Standard space, turning one of Boston’s most visible corners into a stage for fresh spaghetti, old-school Italian comfort and a name that still carries weight with pasta shoppers.

The setting gives the project instant neighborhood gravity. Kenmore Square sits at the meeting point of Beacon Street, Commonwealth Avenue and Brookline Avenue, with Fenway Park just to the south and the MBTA’s Kenmore station tucked under the square. That makes the address a natural target for pregame diners, postgame crowds and students moving through the area, but Tuscan Brands says it wants the room to feel more like a lively Italian dining room than a sports bar.

The restaurant’s identity reaches back far beyond Boston. Buitoni dates to 1827, and Tuscan Brands is framing the new concept as a modern homage to a Buitoni-branded spaghetti bar that once operated in New York’s Times Square in the 1940s and 1950s. Joe Faro, Tuscan Brands’ owner, has described the move as part of a full-circle story, linking the pasta business he built earlier, the sale of that company to Buitoni and his 2024 acquisition of the brand.

Tuscan Brands says that acquisition brought Buitoni under The Artisan Chef Manufacturing Company, with production now spanning facilities in Massachusetts and Virginia. Faro, the son of Sicilian immigrants, has made that family and heritage thread central to the brand’s public story, and the new Kenmore Square restaurant appears designed to turn that lineage into a customer-facing experience.

The visual hook may be the strongest draw. Faro says diners will see one-pound meatballs and fresh spaghetti being made in front of them all night, a setup that should make the room feel part dining room, part live pasta workshop. That focus on visible craft matters in a market full of red-sauce options; it gives Buitoni Spaghetti Bar a way to sell freshness, nostalgia and theater at the same time.

Tuscan Brands already runs a broad roster across Massachusetts and New Hampshire, including Tuscan Kitchen in Salem, New Hampshire and Boston Seaport, Toscana Italian Chophouse & Wine Bar in Portsmouth, Napoletana Pizzeria & Bar in Portsmouth, Tuscan Sea Grill & Bar in Newburyport, Tuscan Market in Salem, Caffe Artisan in Salem and The Artisan Hotel in Salem. With Buitoni Spaghetti Bar, the company is leaning into a more approachable, brand-driven concept in a location that has long rewarded places with a clear point of view.