Dear friends and de Magistris family members,

Big news: It’s a restaurant! Today we gave birth to a healthy, happy, 130-seat space in an old firehouse in Belmont. We named it Il Casale.

Brothers Dante (papa chef), Damian, and Filippo would love for you to meet the new addition. You can see the family resemblance: cozy, flowery fabrics smattered throughout the bar remind us of Nonna, the dining room banquettes covered in perfectly stitched upholstery look like they’re from Nonno’s tailoring days. Rustic, refurbished barn wood gives it our good Italian bone structure.

It’ll be a feisty one what with familial traits like Nonna’s pizza minestra, a crispy, savory polenta cake covered in dandelion greens, and classic Southern Italian dishes like fresh pasta with wild boar ragu. Before you know it, this one’ll be all grown up.

And we’ll be beating the regulars back with a stick.

Il Casale, 50 Leonard Street, Belmont (617-209-4942 or ilcasalebelmont.com).