Owner of Casa B, Alberto.

By JT Thompson

Alberto: The Puerto Rican owner of Casa B, an elegant but warmly welcoming tapas restaurant just off Union Square’s main plaza. He and his Colombian wife Angelina developed the restaurant together. They both grew up on the Caribbean coast and their menu brings together the culinary traditions they each inherited, out of which they have created a unique, new American tradition.

The description on the menu says the dishes are “based on the reinterpretation of traditional dishes from the Spanish Caribbean cuisine, infused with flavors, colors and textures of our travels, memories and life experiences.”

Alberto is leaning against Casa B’s downstairs bar. He’s wearing a soft-brimmed, knit black hat above a round face, which is covered in dark stubble. A black t-shirt. He has a mischievous smile that disappears as quickly as it appears. He’s got both arms crossed on the bar and is leaning into them heavily, with his shoulders rolled forward. He looks tired. But also relaxed, like he’s been working hard at something he enjoys.

The B in Casa B comes from Alberto’s maternal grandfather’s last name, Bobonis. Grandfather Bobonis was a physics professor, who loved to cook big family dinners, and passed on to Alberto a vivid sense of food’s ability to bring people together.

After graduating from a lab high school in San Juan, run by the University of Puerto Rico, Alberto went to MIT, where he earned a master’s degree in architecture.

“Moving to Boston was a bit of a shock. The language. People being more reserved, not as open as in Latin culture. The weather.”

He laughs at the memory of it.

“But MIT was 70% international students, so there were a lot of other people having similar experiences. And we adopted some American traditions. At Thanksgiving, we would get together all the people who had nowhere to go, and have all kinds of food, from everywhere. We still do it.

“That’s one of the things I love about America. You can make your own traditions. Or take an existing one and twist it to make it your own.”

After finishing his masters, and getting licensed as an architect, Alberto decided not to go on to get a PhD in architecture – his mother and maternal grandparents are all academics – but to follow the other passion he had inherited from his grandfather: food.

Alberto did the night program at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts and, after he graduated, he and Angelina started running an underground dinner club out of their home in Somerville. Over two years, they experimented with and refined recipes. The club went so well that they started planning a restaurant.

“Union Square was up and coming. The rent was decent. The area was going to grow.

“It was a little crazy opening a restaurant in 2011, at a low point in the recession, but we’re still here.”’

His mischievous smile flashes for a moment.

I ask him if things he loves about America are coming to mind.

He stiffens a bit. “I grew up as an American. I’ve been a US citizen since I was born. But, as a Puerto Rican, I couldn’t vote.”

He pauses. “But what do I love … It’s stable here. You will have a job. Though not when the economy goes down…” He shakes his head. “But generally – there’s a lot of security here.”

For someone who says he loves stability and security, Alberto has been very adventurous with his own career. Abandoning being an architect to follow his passion for food. Starting his own restaurant.

As he tells me, “90% close in the first six months.”

But Casa B, with its international hybrid cuisine, is thriving in 2017.

“Are there things about America that you think are great?” I ask. Long, heavy pause. “I know that’s a charged word right now,” I say.

“Yeah,” says Alberto. He looks into the distance, says, “’Make America great again,’” and then shakes his head. He turns back to me. “America is great. What makes America great is that it is a land of immigrants. Only the Indians are natives, the rest of us are immigrants. There is a misconception of who is American and who isn’t. We’re all immigrants.”

He nods his head. “That’s the greatness of America.

“There are so many cultures here. In Colombia, where my wife is from, maybe 80% are Colombian. Maybe 10% immigrant. So you really know who’s an immigrant there. Here, people forget that they’re immigrants.”

The restaurant is beginning to fill up, and Alberto needs to head back into the kitchen.

Drawing on his background as an architect, Alberto designed the restaurant himself. It has crisply modern white chairs and tables, a profusion of plants tucked neatly into recesses in the walls, and scattered touches of vintage décor – an assortment of mirrors in intricately carved frames, the old wood painted a scuffed white, a collection of old family photos going back at least three generations, a wall made of old wooden doors and shutters, all painted the same scuffed white as the mirror frames.

On the menu, the dishes are described in Spanish first, with translations into English below, a small gesture that says “Welcome” to a different culture.

Altogether Casa B is both homey and elegant, both steeped in family traditions and cutting edge. The old and the new working together. A model of American progress.

This interview was done before the renovation of the upstairs eating area, which is now a cocktail and rum bar with a wall painted the dark purple of a tropical flower.