Katie Valente (right), owner and operator of the Westboro Village-based Fratelli restaurant. Katie is posing with head chef Tania Jacques (left) and house manager Morgan Gould (centre). Photo courtesy of Katie Valente.
In 1998, Katie Stratton walked in to Fratelli to hand in her resume as a server. At that time, the family-owned Italian restaurant had been running for two years in the Glebe.
“I think they must have needed a server pretty quickly,” Katie said. She recalled the person who received her resume decided to give her a chance on the spot. “I think the next day they just kind of threw me right in there, which was great,” she said.
Katie said her strongest memory from that time was the first day she worked with Robert Valente, one of the restaurateurs who ran Fratelli.
Katie poses with Robert Valente in 2005. Photo courtesy of Katie Valente.
“I just remember walking into the kitchen, and I could see him through the [kitchen] pass. And I just remember seeing his eyes. And at that moment, I was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ So I had a crush on him for probably a couple of years.”
Robert—the object of Katie’s crush—was her later-to-be husband. She said they eventually started dating and then were married in 2005. They built a family together, having two sons and a daughter, said Katie.
Sadly, Robert was later diagnosed with brain cancer, and passed away in 2015.
It was in these circumstances, Katie said, that she was thrown into the business of running Fratelli. At the time, Fratelli’s presence had grown beyond the Glebe to a Westboro Village location. The year after Robert’s passing, the Valente family and Katie started the process of splitting up and running the restaurants separately. In that split, she took the restaurant in Westboro Village and has been running it ever since.
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“I’m super lucky. We’ve got a really amazing crew,” said Katie. “We like to think of our little staff as an extended ‘Fratelli family,'” she added, laughing. Much of the crew, like house manager Morgan Gould, has been with the restaurant for years. She said that some, like head chef Tania Jacques, have been working at Fratelli almost since its inception in the Glebe.
Katie said that patrons of the Fratelli in Westboro Village can look forward to unparalleled customer service. “We go above and beyond,” she said.
“It’s the staff that make that happen,” she said, explaining that the fact that the front staff and kitchen staff get along really well goes a long way in creating a welcoming atmosphere in the restaurant.
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Katie said the bestselling item on the Fratelli menu is the classic Penne Pasquale. The dish features penne pasta with grilled chicken and roasted red peppers in a rosé cream sauce.
“That has been on our menu since day one. And when I look at my reports at the end of the night, Penne Pasquale is like 95 per cent of the time, the number one seller.”
She said one of the best things about running Fratelli in Westboro Village is the neighbourhood. “It’s a great community,” she said, explaining that the customers living in the area are major supporters of the restaurant.
Though learning to run a business came with its challenges, Katie said she has a solid grasp of it. “I got some comments when we were kind of separating things: ‘Oh, good luck with that.’ And I was like, ‘No, I don’t need good luck. I’m just gonna do it!”
You can find Katie Valente and Fratelli of Westboro Village on their website, Facebook and Instagram!
