Saratoga Springs’s culinary corridor is about to grow again. Boca Bistro, a Spanish Bistro and Tapas Bar, is expected to open in its Broadway location on Friday, June 1, thanks in part to sharks on the west coast and some thin mountain air.
David Zecchini moved from Rome, Italy to California 20 years ago with aspirations of becoming a professional surfer. His love of John Wayne and Rambo movies beckoned him, though the tides turned when he discovered sharks swam among the dolphins he was expecting.
Thankfully for Saratogians and diners in the Capital District, catching the waves didn’t work out for Zecchini. Instead, he went after another of his passions: cooking. He has studied and traveled extensively for the last couple of decades, landing for a time in Colorado where he had a restaurant in Aspen. Altitude sickness led him back to Saratoga, where he had first visited as a teen with his father.
“I fell in love with Saratoga … I knew I’d live here one day,” he said.
Boca Bistro is Zecchini’s fourth restaurant in the area since he started DZ Restaurants in 1998, which employs nearly 250 people. His other restaurants are Chianti Ristorante, Pasta Pane and Forno Bistro Chianti. Zecchini and his wife Roslyn, an executive chef, have found culinary success by sharing their collective passion for food and people and are looking forward to their new venture.
Boca Bistro has been “in the pot” for around five years and was solidified after a trip the couple took to Barcelona, where they collaborated with and learned from chefs there. In addition to that trip, David had traveled the world with his father since he was a teen and Roslyn spent time studying her craft in Italy.
“We weren’t sure if we were going to just do a Mediterranean (restaurant) and at the time we were planning a vacation … we went to Spain and felt it was something we could bring back to Saratoga, that we don’t really have, and do something different. … We really paid attention to what our guests want and we are very structured in how we do business…we try to deliver a quality product at a price point that is reasonable for everyone,” Roslyn Zecchini said.
Bill Gathen, an employee of Zecchini’s, said, “David and Roslyn each have a passion for culinary excellence and an instinct for giving guests exactly what they want. They also bring the same level of love, creativity and excitement to everything they do and this inspires everyone in the company to not only do their best, but to perform at levels they didn’t think possible.”
Roslyn attributes their success to having knowledgeable staff, a good business model and most of all the support of many “regulars in a small town.”
The word “tapas” is derived from Spanish, meaning “to cover,” and comes from the tradition of bar patrons in Spain covering their glasses of Sherry with bread to avoid fruit flies from getting into the sweet fortified wine. Soon it wasn’t only bread, but salty snacks offered by bartenders to the drinkers.
“In all reality, it’s a snack in between lunch and dinner,” Roslyn Zecchini said. “In Spain, people don’t go out to dinner until 9:30 at night. They literally would have that late snack from 4 to 6, which would be tapas.”
Usually the snack is some type of shellfish, meat, cheese or something on a skewer – all being small plates and one-bite dishes.
Boca Bistro will offer tapas as the traditional small plates and full portions as well as other entrees, salads, appetizers and desserts. The atmosphere is to be family friendly and casual. A couple of the dishes they’ll be serving include patatas bravas aiolia (fried potato and chorizo with aioli) and dates filled with valdeon blue cheese.
Both Zecchinis have similar philosophies and “use as much local food as they possibly can.”
“It’s very much a communal thing where it’s built around stories and family and there’s a lot to be said about just the passion of making a dish and pleasing someone,” said Roslyn Zecchini.
“Cooking isn’t about the recipes, it’s about passion,” added David Zecchini.
For more information on Boca Bistro, visit bocabistro.com.
