If Michael Major had not gone through five Italian tutors in a quest to learn to speak the language, there would be no Fila Bene Ristorante Italiano in Mequon today.
His sixth teacher, Angelo Vasta, not only got him up to speed in Italian, but the two men became friends and now partners in the new Italian eatery that opened last month on 76th and Mequon Road.
How crucial were those lessons to the creation of the restaurant? Its name was the phrase Vasta frequently used when he explained Italian grammar to Major.
"Fila Bene. That means, it makes sense," Vasta recently said while sitting at the restaurant's handsome dark wood bar.
Although English was the common language the two men used when Vasta began tutoring Major, both partners speak it with an accent. Major was a tenured professor of organic chemistry at the University of Lodz in Poland before emigrating to this country 22 years ago. After settling here he founded Major Laboratories, a custom chemical company serving the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.
In 1999 the firm merged with Cambridge Chemical to form Cambridge Major Laboratories based in Germantown. Major is the president and CEO.
Vasta followed an American girlfriend to the U.S. from Italy with $4,000 in his pocket 17 years ago. The holder of a degree in art and design from a university in Perugia, Italy, he has had a career here as a software instructor, focusing on web and graphic design.
He also owns and directs UmbriaGroup USA, which operates academic and private tours to Italy. Vasta's family owns an 18th century villa, conference center and country house in Umbria that hosts travel study programs from schools including Cardinal Stritch University.
Major and Vasta had casually spoken of opening an Italian restaurant but were not serious until a bistro within walking distance of Major's Mequon home closed during the summer. It left a vacant space in a small strip mall.
The idle talk between the friends quickly escalated into concrete action.
"My job takes me around the world, and I love Italian food and wine and music and art," Major said after joining his partner at the bar. "I love different cultures, but I think maybe my personality is Italian." He has been to Venice seven times.
Not only did the partners transform the interior of the space into a warm Italian Renaissance environment, they painted the entire exterior of the small mall to make the structure a better fit with the experience they want to give Fila Bene customers. Inside, gray dining room walls were given a new look of deep mellow red, and art representative of the Florentine painters now hangs on them.
Ordinary columns acquired a marble appearance, and the stately two sided island bar in the center of the room was slightly downsized. Fiber optic lights twinkle like stars in the ceiling. A Venetian glass chandelier was added to the foyer. The space can comfortably seat 96.
"We want to be a classy neighborhood restaurant," Vasta explained.
Fila Bene's menu emphasizes simplicity and allegiance to genuine Italian cooking, according to Vasta, who has given up teaching to manage the restaurant. "Italian cuisine is very simple. It is about fresh ingredients, nothing fancy," he said.
Just as you find in Italy, pizzas come in one size, roughly covering an individual dining plate. They are divided into red and white, and are priced at $8 to $9.
"The pizzas are not smothered in a ton of cheese," Vasta said. Toppings range from the usual sausage, pepperoni and fresh tomatoes to arugula, artichokes and eggplant.
Seven pasta dishes begin at $14 for gnocchi al pesto and top out at $23 and $24 for, respectively, fettuccine with roasted scallops and pappardelle with wild boar ragu in a Chianti wine sauce. Two risottos are priced at $16 and $18.
Second course entrees range from $18 for chicken parmesan or chicken breast with mushroom sauce and roasted potatoes, to $32 for filet mignon served with risotto and asparagus. Other entrees include osso buco for $26 and Mediterranean sea bass for $28.
The partners perceive a shortage of good business lunch restaurants in the area and hope to fill that gap. They are promoting their basement dining rooms as ideal for business and board meetings.
The lunch menu offers the full complement of pizzas and some of the pastas served at dinner as well as soups, salads and 10 panini priced at $8. A grilled tenderloin steak sandwich is $14. All lunch and dinner food items can be carried out.
Major is an active partner in the management of Fila Bene, with his primary contribution being the creation of the restaurant's lengthy wine list. He said 85% of it is Italian, with the remainder being California cabernets and French champagnes and white burgundies.
More than 60 grapes or blends are on the list. Prices for single bottles begin in the low $30 range and rise to a top of $330. Wine is also sold by the glass.
"We're re-creating the experience of Italy," Vasta said. Major has his own explanation of the new business.
"It's a simple story. We are two crazy guys who love Italian cuisine, love wine and love people."
Damien has been around so long, he was at Summerfest the night George Carlin was arrested for speaking the seven dirty words you can't say on TV. He was also at the Uptown Theatre the night Bruce Springsteen's first Milwaukee concert was interrupted for three hours by a bomb scare. Damien was reviewing the concert for the Milwaukee Journal. He wrote for the Journal and Journal Sentinel for 37 years, the last 29 as theater critic.
During those years, Damien served two terms on the board of the American Theatre Critics Association, a term on the board of the association's foundation, and he studied the Latinization of American culture in a University of Southern California fellowship program. Damien also hosted his own arts radio program, "Milwaukee Presents with Damien Jaques," on WHAD for eight years.
Travel, books and, not surprisingly, theater top the list of Damien's interests. A news junkie, he is particularly plugged into politics and international affairs, but he also closely follows the Brewers, Packers and Marquette baskeball. Damien lives downtown, within easy walking distance of most of the theaters he attends.
