OUR STORY
Welcome to Cafe BarBosso, we are a humble little Peasant Italian place. Our restaurant is named after Frank “Frankie Bumps” BarBosso a nice Italian guy from Little Italy in NYC.
As a child growing up in the 1930’s poor and ambitious, Frankie knew that one day he would work hard and take his family out of poverty. When he was 8 yrs old he caught the attention of Crazy Tony Blue Eye, (a notorious Union Organizer from Mott St) when Frankie chased a kid down the street who stole his grandmothers milk bottles off the stoop, Crazy Tony admired the kid for the way he used 1 milk bottle to get the rest of them back. He proudly became a full time knock around guy for Mr. Tony. Frankie was now a very respected Italian guy in the neighborhood. Frankie loved food so much that he decided to open a great Italian restaurant named “Little Charlie’s” after his father in 1955 at the age of 26, it was an immediate success because people were forced to eat there. The food was the best and yes they served the Best Veal in NYC, the best Eggplant, the Best you understand?
When Chef Joe DiMaggio, Jr. was a young boy in the 1960’s he played stick ball with his pals in front of Little Charlies, Frankie used to bet on all his stick ball games. Chef Joe started out washing pots and pans in Frankie’s restaurant, that’s because every time his team lost they had to wash dishes, sweep, wash windows and tell Frankie when the police were watching his place.
So to honor his old friend who got Chef Joe his start in the kitchens at an early age, Chef created Cafe BarBosso, a true peasant Italian restaurant here in Sarasota Florida. In 1988 his good friend was incarcerated for life but stills proclaims his innocence, but he is proud to know that his name will live on and his food immortalized by Chef Joe DiMaggio, Jr. with the incarnation of Cafe BarBosso.
Cafe BarBosso “Eat, Laugh & Love or Else”