Community Profile: Tonino

Angela Zhang has been with Tonino since the early days, coming aboard as a server and later taking on the role of social media management. She explains her journey as starting as a resident in Jamaica Plain, looking for work during the pandemic, and picking up serving at another local restaurant, Tres Gatos. After a little over a year of exposure to the service industry, she looked for new opportunities and resonated with Tonino’s mission, authenticity, and the potential for the community.

There are many ways Tonino integrates itself into the Jamaica Plain community. This is apparent as the team sit down for their pre-service meal; spending time together, discussing what needs to be done, and having conversations about values, missions, and more. Looking around the table, approximately 75% of staff live within Jamaica Plain, which gives Tonino grounding within the community. According to Angela, longtime Jamaica Plain resident and server, “We know the culture, lingo, and events happening within JP, and that makes us better able to serve the community because we are a part of it” (2025). It has become a place for family reunions, celebrations, first dates, and even weddings. “A place for all spectrums of the idea of human connection, centered around food” (Zhang, 2025). Jessica Gooch, current general manager at Tonino, explains that she was a regular at Tonino before getting involved behind the scenes. She tells her story, being in the pandemic with little interaction, how Tonino was the biggest news in the JP restaurant community, and how she heard about Tonino’s opening as a newspaper clipping slipped under her door from a family member and had to try it.  “There was a warmth” says Jessica, as she explains the space as she felt it when she first experienced Tonino. While the food is unbelievable, there was something about Tonino in Jamaica Plain. The restaurant community within Boston is small, so “there was a pride as a restaurant professional to see something happen in your own community” (Gooch, 2025). Too often, there’s travel associated with finding a good restaurant, especially in communities such as Jamaica Plain, so having a restaurant which people travel to within the Jamaica Plain community brings a sense of pride.

At the opening of Tonino, the mission and values were centered around serving the neighborhood. Everything, from the size of the space and the distance between tables, was intentional, and meant to create a space where people could come and convene, enjoy dinner and meet other members of the community. This mission of Tonino, to provide honest cooking to the community, has not changed. However, values are reevaluated with the team on a yearly basis. Currently, Tonino’s values seek to create and nourish the community through dining, through good food and intention. “No matter what your background is, who you are, or the day you’re having, food is an essential thing which fuels humans and bonds people.” (Zhang, 2025). The goal with Tonino was to create a welcoming, safe space for the Jamaica Plain community, a place where people could come and take a breath, both client and staff, and leave their outside problems at the door. Both staff and clients see Tonino as a haven.

Regarding the success of Tonino, there is much to be said. It is on many of Boston’s list of top places to eat, featured by Boston Globe, Boston Magazine, and even the New York Times. While these accolades are appreciated, they are never the goal. The goal remains to serve good, honest food to the community. When asked what the biggest success Tonino has accomplished, it was the strengthening of the mission and values of community and intention during the growth of this small restaurant which outweighed any outside awards.

However, with the accumulating accolades and growing popularity which Tonino receives, so do some challenges. What once was a neighborhood hangout, now has an almost impossible reservation list. “Before, there was maybe up to 80 people on the waitlist for a night, now, it is up to 1000” (Gooch, 2025).  And with only 28 tables, it becomes impossible for Tonino to keep up with the demands of its popularity. So how does a restaurant with reservations booked within minutes of release maintain its presence in Jamaica Plain? It is through their intention and engagement which Tonino strives to listen to the community.  Tonino is home to many regulars who come for takeout, which is only available through pickup, and tries its best to make space for those who walk in or call ahead. But what separates Tonino is the attention the staff takes to those in its restaurant. “We try to learn the names of people’s kids and dogs. We’ve had lots of celebrations, there was one story of a woman who came in for a celebratory meal after beating breast cancer” Jess Gooch says recounting some of the celebrations and stories of Tonino, citing at one point she offered to be the emergency babysitter for a regular’s kids, “We learn about their lives and not just the wine they drink”(Gooch, 2025). There’s no question that Tonino remains to be a part of the Jamaica Plain community and has no plans to ever give that up despite any award which may come their way. “Every restaurant that is for profit, quantity will always be a motivation, but it will never get to a point where quantity will overpower quality” (Zhang, 2025).

Within the community, there has been frustration regarding the inaccessibility of Tonino. As a small space with limited seating, marketing itself on its identity as a “neighborhood restaurant”, those frustrations are warranted, as residents are no longer able to walk in on any given night. However, part of the remedy is to bring transparency into the conversation and listen to the community about what is accessible. After open conversations, reservations were made more accessible to the community’s lifestyle, by releasing reservations at noon, as opposed to midnight when most older residents are asleep. Tonino aims to maintain their position as a local restaurant, but struggles with the question of who constitutes the community? Is it just Jamaica Plain, or does it include the Greater Boston community? As a restaurant, is there a way to accommodate locals without excluding the larger community? While these questions loom, for now, Tonino aims to be as engaged and transparent as possible, authentic to their mission, and embrace the people who walk in, who more often tend to be local than not.

As for other avenues of community involvement, Tonino takes every opportunity which comes to them. While Tonino itself has become a backdrop to the Jamaica Plain community, the site of celebrations, weddings, and more, they also take on community engagement outside of the walls of the restaurant. Tonino aims to care for its community, through its quarterly spend for donations, averaging to about 4 to 5 fundraisers per fiscal quarter in neighborhoods beyond Jamaica Plain, extending to Brookline and Roxbury. These donations are typically to local schools, to support their fundraising efforts and events. They supply food as well to certain community events, Gooch notes a recent event being at the Center for Alzheimer’s, where they donated pizza (2025, Gooch).  At the end of the night, food is also brought to a local community fridge run by another local JP business, City Feed, to help with food waste. They also participate in events within the community, such as the Wake up the Earth festival, as well as JP Art Walk, and working with other Jamaica Plain establishments to create events. Most recently, they worked with Little Cocoa Bean for a City of Boston funded event to create a free cooking class for families. Tonino, while less regimented in its community engagement efforts, knows the value in supporting the opportunities presented by the community and continues to engage in every way it can. Tonino centers itself around the community, and at the end of the day, Gooch says, “there’s always room for growth”(2025).

As for the future? There is always room to grow, but the team’s main focus is “to feed and fuel ‘Little Tony’ (Zhang, 2025)”. The team hopes to continue to navigate the growing landscape of opportunities but remain authentic to its mission and values. Tonino hopes to navigate the ever-changing landscape of Jamaica Plain. It will continue to celebrate the diversity and values of Jamaica Plain and hopefully solidify its place on its iconic Centre Street.