New on Ninth

An iconic Italian Market address has a new owner, but it's still a family affair.

by A.D. Amorosi

Neal Santos BELLE OF THE MARKET: Agnes Bonuomo Viso sold her family's legendary, 95-year-old Ninth Street space — the building with the Frank Rizzo mural — to make way for a new restaurant.

[ market watch ]

When Agnes Bonuomo Viso sold a long-dormant butcher shop at 910 S. Ninth St. to Nick Nastasi so he could open Nina's Trattoria, it was not just another real estate transaction. The property had also doubled as her home for all of her 68 years — and the daughter of the Italian Market had kept the space virtually unchanged, in remembrance of her legendary father, all that time.

Known informally as the "Rizzo mural building," thanks to the likeness of the former mayor on its southern wall, the building was bought by Nastasi, a white-collar criminal attorney, in May 2010. Last operational close to 40 years ago, the space was established by Antonio Bonuomo, Viso's father, in the 1930s as a meat market. Though he passed away in 1979, Viso ensured that the nearly 2,700-square-foot building, constructed in 1915, remained a tribute to Bonuomo's work, life, hobbies, politics and religion.

The dark-haired Viso speaks in a soft voice about remaining in the house nine years after her husband, Buddy Viso, passed and 31 after her father died. She cleaned the wide windows so neighbors and tourists could gaze at the Catholic saint statues and pope photos that lined the first floor, along with her dad's trade accoutrements (cold cases, cutting blocks) and proud snapshots of the racehorses the Bonuomos kept in Florida. She's also responsible for allowing the Rizzo mural to be erected in the first place. When the mural people asked the first time, her father was too sick [from a stroke] to say [yes]." So it was she who gave them the go-ahead, around 1995, and then again this year, when the mural had to be refurbished. "Rizzo was quite a man — and our mural is so much nicer than the one of Frank Sinatra," Viso laughs.

But it was Bonuomo — his name appears on the Ninth Street Curb Market historical plaque erected in 2007 — who was the biggest pillar of the immediate community. "Dad was a true architect of the Market," says Viso. Along with maintaining one of the block's first and most successful butcher shops — he also ran his own slaughterhouse, at Front and Tasker, where he'd break down animals to sell to other meat purveyors — Bonuomo served as a patron for the neighborhood, assisting in founding countless businesses, helping out families in need and establishing himself as a true ambassador for the Market's vendors and residents. "He honestly started with nothing and built this thing," says Viso, who put aside her schooling to help her father run his shop, then later cared for him when he fell ill. 

So why sell now, after she's lived in the same place, uninterrupted, this entire time? Viso says while visiting her father's hometown of Fogia, Italy, she "felt a spirit there ... that told me to move on with my life." So she's living with her daughter, on League Street, just around the corner. It wasn't a light decision to sell to Nastasi, but Viso is confident it's the right one. "We had plenty [of] pricier offers," she says. "[But] it's Nick's building now. He's part of all this."

Indeed, Nastasi has been part of all this since the time when he was an assistant D.A. during Rizzo's pre-City Hall reign as Philly's police commissioner. "When he resigned to run for mayor, I was his campaign council," says Nastasi, who's also represented Angelo Bruno, Buddy Cianfrani and La Veranda Ristorante, along with other notable faces and places. (He declines to give his current age, but says he was 29 when he worked to put Rizzo in office.) "I didn't take a position in his administration because public life wasn't what I wanted to do." What the lawyer did want to do, apparently, was cook. In addition to his legal work, he's long been an accomplished home chef, taught by his mother, Antonina ("Nina" to close friends and relatives).

When Nastasi, a graduate of UPenn Law, decided he wanted to open his own restaurant, he knew he wanted to do it right here on Ninth Street, a strip that would put him in the "historical root of all Italian artisan food and cooking." The area's newfound popularity, thanks to contemporary destination restaurants like Bibou and James, sealed the deal. Still, he knew how rare it was for buildings to go up for sale here. Upon hearing that Viso was considering making a move, Nastasi met with her. "She could've gone with someone higher-profile," says the lawyer, "but we liked each other immediately."

Viso describes Nastasi as a "beautiful man" whom she trusts with looking after the nearly century-old property. He'll continue practicing law after the restaurant opens (ideally in September), and says Nina's Trattoria will play into the traditions of the neighborhood while presenting dishes far more authentic and current. "We'll be making recipes served now in Italy," says Nastasi, "some very old, some more contemporary."

Of course, the in-the-works menu will feature family dishes from Nina's notebooks, too. "My mother, like her mother before her, made a delicious eggplant stuffed with rice, chopped garden vegetables and fresh herbs," says Nastasi of the recipes he's developing with Nina's chef, Joseph Ling, who formerly cooked for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. "A pepper stuffed with selected ground meats and fresh herbs, steamed in a marinara sauce. Steamed artichoke with a secret stuffing. Asparagus patties, and various unique preparations for veal, pork and beef, from stews to roasts."

The long-dormant space is in the process of being completely turned over and converted into a 30-seat BYOB with a Northern Italian feel. The trinkets and tributes to Viso's father that lined the windows for so long have been removed and put into storage. The mural is the only constant. But Viso still feels a strong connection to the address. "He's family, you know?" she says of 910's new owner. "I want him to be a part of the Rizzo mural dedication in October. ... The Bonuomo family lives on, I think, with Mr. Nastasi."

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)