Scopa, the Italian restaurant at 319 Hanover Street in Boston's North End, no longer exists under that name: the address reopened as Cafe Amaro in 2022, and the old scopaboston.com web address now forwards to Cafe Amaro's site. The only restaurant called Scopa that is open today is Scopa Italian Kitchen & Bar at 829 Boston Street in Lynn, a separate restaurant on the North Shore, outside Boston.
So if you arrived here looking for Scopa's brick-oven pizza on Hanover Street, go to Cafe Amaro at the same door. Below is what changed, what the menu looks like now and where else to eat on the same stretch of the North End.
What happened to Scopa in the North End?
Scopa opened at 319 Hanover Street in May 2016, in the former Pomodoro space, serving Italian dishes and brick-oven pizza. In July 2022 the local restaurant blog Boston Restaurant Talk reported that it was changing its name to Cafe Amaro, with the beer, wine and liqueur license moving to the new name, and by that October Cafe Amaro was open with a menu built around brick-oven pizza and a list of amari. Google's listing for the address now carries the Cafe Amaro name and Yelp marks the old Scopa page closed.
Cafe Amaro: what to expect at 319 Hanover Street
Cafe Amaro describes itself as a cozy and modern Italian restaurant. The menu splits between pizzas (margherita, marinara, prosciutto and fig, broccoli rabe, burrata, carbonara) and pastas such as rigatoni Bolognese, gnocchi sorrentina, lobster and crab ravioli and lobster fra diavolo, with calamari fritti, polpette and a Caesar salad among the starters and tiramisu to finish.
The name is the clue to the bar. Amaro is the bittersweet Italian herbal liqueur usually taken after dinner, and the restaurant pours it alongside cocktails, beer and wine. It opens at noon every day and stays open late on Friday and Saturday, which makes it one of the easier North End dinners to fit around a show or a game; the exact hours are in the FAQ below.
Is the Scopa in Lynn the same restaurant?
No. Scopa Italian Kitchen & Bar is at 829 Boston Street in Lynn and calls itself a North Shore Italian restaurant. The "Boston Street" in its address has confused plenty of searchers, but Lynn is a separate city about ten miles north of downtown, and nothing on its website links it to the old Hanover Street restaurant. It takes reservations and is the one Google now shows for most "Scopa restaurant" searches.
Getting to Hanover Street
The North End has no subway station of its own. Haymarket, on the Orange and Green lines, is the usual stop for Hanover Street, and North Station is the other option. Driving is hard work here: the streets are narrow and parking is scarce, though some restaurants validate garage parking; Carmelina's, for one, validates at the Haymarket Center Garage.
Other Italian restaurants on the same stretch
Hanover Street is lined with Italian dining rooms, and three within a short walk of number 319 suit different plans:
- Carmelina's, a few doors away at 307 Hanover, cooks Sicilian comfort food in an open kitchen and is in the MICHELIN Guide's Boston selection. It books online only and fills weeks ahead.
- Giacomo's Ristorante, at 355 Hanover since 1985, is the one with the line outside: walk-in only for small groups, cash only, and known for its lobster-based house sauces.
- Mamma Maria, around the corner on North Square, spreads five small dining rooms over two floors of a 19th-century townhouse and suits an anniversary more than a quick bowl of pasta.
For pizza on its own, the original Regina Pizzeria on Thacher Street has been baking since 1926. Our North End food tour guide and what to eat in Boston cover the bakeries and cafes to finish with, and Boston's oldest restaurants are a ten-minute walk away near Faneuil Hall.