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This look at Papa Frank’s Italian Restaurant is the latest in a series of profiles by the Burlington Free Press on long-standing restaurants in Chittenden County. How do restaurants that date to the 20th century remain relevant, while continuing to do the things that have given them such staying power?
WINOOSKI – As the revitalization of downtown Winooski started to happen in the first decade of the 21st century, Moe Paquette felt like his homey Italian restaurant was one of those quaint old houses in Manhattan suddenly finding itself surrounded by brand-new skyscrapers.
His cozy eatery, Papa Frank’s Italian Restaurant, sits on a quiet street just off the rotary that filters cars seemingly every-which-way in and out of downtown. That street plan was at the center of the revival of the working-class city that brought in several new hip restaurants and bars and threatened to turn Paquette’s family-style Italian eatery into a 20th-century anachronism.
“It felt like I was kind of not fitting in in downtown Winooski anymore,” Paquette said Tuesday in the dining room at Papa Frank’s. “But I always felt like we were an anchor business.”
Anchors, of course, are hard to move. Papa Frank’s hasn’t gone anywhere. Winooski has changed immeasurably since Papa Frank’s began in 1984, yet the restaurant is still providing pizza and spaghetti for crowds that still crave Italian comfort foods.
The new and the traditional, it turns out, can co-exist.
“You let everyone do their own thing,” Paquette said. “Our regulars still kept coming back.”
Doing things ‘the old-fashioned way’
Paquette, now 63, grew up on a poultry farm in the Northeast Kingdom and earned a small-business degree at Lyndon State College in 1981. He left his rural area for the bright lights of the big Vermont city of Burlington at a time when a slow economy had dimmed those lights. The only work he could find right away was making doughnuts at Dunkin Donuts.
He did find love. Karen Paquette said she and her now-husband have been together 40 years, or one more year than Papa Frank’s has existed.
Her best friend was the wife of Frank Sciara, who founded Papa Frank’s Italian Restaurant. Moe Paquette would work at Ken’s Pizza in Burlington for seven years, but in 1990 Sciara asked him to come to work at his Italian restaurant in Winooski.
Paquette worked his way up, eventually becoming manager at Papa Frank’s. When Sciara was ready to step aside, he tapped Paquette to take over the restaurant, which he bought in 2004.
“Doing it the old-fashioned way, huh?” Paquette said of his ascension.
Pizza, lasagna and sweet Italian sausage
Papa Frank’s does most things the old-fashioned way. It doesn’t matter that, as Paquette notes, a French-Canadian is running an Italian restaurant. The snug dining room that provides seating for about 55 patrons makes Papa Frank’s feel like a long-running family-owned osteria in northern Italy, not northern Vermont.
Papa Frank’s customers sit with paper napkins in their laps in mismatched chairs at oil-cloth-covered tables that might just wobble on the restaurant’s uneven wooden floors. Those quirks, patrons say, are all part of Papa Frank’s charms.
In the winter, longtime customer Paul Rabidoux said, Papa Frank’s windows steam up and a compelling aroma entices diners through the doors.
“It’s just a wonderful place,” according to Rabidoux, who lives in Winooski and said he’s been coming to Papa Frank’s pretty much since the beginning. “It’s old-time. It’s so relaxing and comfortable. Even the din of the place, it makes it more attractive.”
Rabidoux stopped by Papa Frank’s on Tuesday to buy gift certificates that he doles out to friends, making him a sort of evangelist for the restaurant. He’s a big fan of Papa Frank’s lasagna and regularly dines on pizza topped with tomato slices, garlic, sweet sausage and spinach; in fact, he’s lobbying Paquette to name that pizza after him.
The food is delicious, ample and priced right, according to Rabidoux, and the people are friendly. Another customer since the beginning at Papa Frank’s, Linda Howe, echoed those sentiments precisely.
Howe often stops by during a busy day at the food shelf she operates at the nearby Winooski United Methodist Church. “It’s a nice break. It’s very homey,” she said. “You know all of the people here. It’s quaint and charming and friendly.”
Howe said she likes Papa Frank’s salads, sweet Italian sausage and the two items she had for lunch Tuesday – a slice of pizza and a bowl of steamed broccoli. She also likes the people who make and serve that food to her.
“You feel appreciated as a customer,” Howe said, “and that’s not true everywhere.”
Customers from St. Michael’s College, University of Vermont
Even as growth in Winooski has cropped up all around it, Papa Frank’s looks pretty much as it did in 1984. The menu, too, has seen only “very subtle” changes, according to Paquette. “When you make changes to a kind of restaurant like this it becomes almost traumatic to the regulars,” he said, “so you don’t make many changes.”
The most-popular items at the restaurant offer no surprises. “It’s such a staple – spaghetti and meatballs,” Paquette said, with lasagna, pizza and calzones included on the list of favorites.
He thought Papa Frank’s would take a hit in popularity with Winooski’s revitalization but was pleasantly surprised to find that was not the case. Not only do longtime customers like Rabidoux and Howe keep coming back, Paquette said graduates of the University of Vermont and St. Michael’s College revisit when they return to town, and their offspring following in their collegiate footsteps often do the same.
Papa Frank’s did take a hit – as all restaurants did – when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020. A year later, Karen Paquette was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, a battle she continues to wage. The latter dose of bad news was the only thing that gave Paquette pause as he brings Papa Frank’s toward its 40th year.
“As a family we thought we’d keep plugging along and see how it’s going,” he said.
Papa Frank’s has scaled back its hours – once open daily, the restaurant has been closed on Sundays and Mondays since Karen Paquette’s illness. That two-day-a-week break lets Moe Paquette refresh his energy. He has no plans to unplug anytime soon.
“I think I still haven’t finished my job,” he said.
And what is that job? Paquette said it’s to provide customers with affordable family dining in a place that feels like a part of their neighborhood.
“I’m someone who really does care for this area,” he said.
If you go
WHAT: Papa Frank’s Italian Restaurant
WHEN: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday
WHERE: 13 W. Center St., Winooski
INFORMATION: (802) 655-2423, www.papa-franks.com
Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com.
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