Partly cloudy early with increasing clouds overnight. Low around 65F. Winds light and variable..
Partly cloudy early with increasing clouds overnight. Low around 65F. Winds light and variable.
Brelundi, located in Waltham, is taking over the old Mirabella’s Bakery location at 836 Main St., Tewksbury. The company is known for its arancini and other Sicilian delicacies and is excited to bring a fast casual concept to the area. (Paige Impink photo)
Brelundi, located in Waltham, is taking over the old Mirabella’s Bakery location at 836 Main St., Tewksbury. The company is known for its arancini and other Sicilian delicacies and is excited to bring a fast casual concept to the area. (Paige Impink photo)
TEWKSBURY — Michael Colomba is passionate about good food.
“I grew up in Sicily where everything we ate was made from scratch. We really were farm to table; everything came from right where we lived,” said Colomba.
A builder with years of construction experience, Colomba, frustrated with the quality of food he was seeing out in the marketplace, decided to turn his focus to bringing high quality meals to the public at a reasonable price and make it accessible to all.
A self-described “good cook,” Colomba opened Brelundi in Waltham, where he serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner — hence the name.
“I want people to know what fresh, clean ingredients are,” said Colomba, who over the years has kept his menu flexible and changed with local tastes. “We offer familiar comfort foods such as chicken parmesan and pastas, but we also have dishes using chickpea flour or wild fennel.”
He wants to educate diners to the range of foods that are significant in Sicilian cuisine.
As to the arancini, a rice ball filled with condiments, Colomba said, “it is to Sicilians what apple pie is to Americans.” Yet, he couldn’t find anyone making them on a large scale, and found the quality varied significantly whenever he did find them. “This is a product that, like espresso used to be, is going to become widely adopted and sought out by people,” said Colomba.
He looked for a machine to try his hand at production, did research, and ultimately went back to handmade, authentic methods. Colomba even brought a top arancini chef to the United States for a month and worked with his team on ingredients and technique. His company now makes 50,000-70,000 per month, selling to restaurants and grocery stores as well as online.
Colomba is now expanding his business to Tewksbury, where he is taking over the old Mirabella Bakery location at 836 Main St. Colomba, who is involved in construction, real estate, hotels, and other businesses, is bringing a fast casual concept to the area. The arancini from his wholesale business is sold at Market Basket and Roche Bros. locations, and Brelundi will offer the product at his establishment on Main Street, along with prepared meals to-go in a variety of sizes.
The busy street and neighborhood location appealed to the Brelundi team and Colomba is using it as a prototype for his eat in/take out concept. He’s also planning to expand to Billerica and several South Shore locations.
“Good quality, fresh ingredients, no additives.”
Colomba is confident that once customers discover their restaurant and try their food, they’ll return again and again. Brelundi in Tewksbury is looking for an early fall opening.
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