Spiga

Our Story

For nearly a decade, Spiga Ristorante Italiano in Needham, Mass., served fine Italian cuisine; but in October 2017, Marisa Iocco—iconic Boston chef and restaurateur (and the city's first and only #ExecutiveGirlChef from Italy)—transformed Spiga’s menu and its space from satisfying to sublime. In ways diners never dreamed.

Nestled in a corner of Boston’s metro-West area where Newton, Needham, Natick, and Wellesley touch cheek-to-cheek, Spiga serves stunning recreations and interpretations of regional cuisine as authentically Italian as its owners. Co-owned by Iocco and Spiga’s former longtime owner, Carmelo Iriti, Spiga’s lunch and dinner menus revere artisanal ingredients that illuminate Iocco’s collection of whimsical Italian recipes that honor hers and Iriti’s Italian heritage. It’s a collection that highlights Iocco’s seamless ability to balance flavors and textures…finessing her do-more-with-less culinary approach that for nearly three decades earned her local and national praise, and the hearts (and bellies) of her loyalists.

Served in a wood-adorned dining room with sexy luxe touches that sparkle and shine, Spiga’s flair for elegant farmhouse delivers a sensuously cozy space for enjoying little-known dishes from the Abruzzo and Calabria (Iocco’s and Iriti’s respective regions). Come for the guazzetti (sumptuous single-serve pots of simmered stews of meat, fish or vegetables); the cicchetti (Italian “tapas” meant for sampling and sharing); and the robust collection of handmade pastas, as well as gluten free ones made by fine pasta makers across the land.

No one does nuance like Iocco. And as Boston’s only Italy-born female executive chef—recognized by local and national gourmands for nearly three decades—she brings to Spiga a carefully curated menu of magically authentic dishes that are imprinted with her talent and passion for regional cooking.

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