The story of Fay Costa DiPiro begins in Fabrizia, Italy in 1919, the first of Francesco and Raffaela Costa’s five children.
The family imigrated to America in 1931, including by that time 12 year-old Fay, three year-old sister Rosa, and two year-old brother James. Siblings Michael and Mary would arrive later, in Claremont, New Hampshire, where Fay’s father owned and operated a little cobbler’s shop.
He had learned the shoemaker’s trade in the old country, and brought his skills and his family to America, the land of opportunity… though in the terrible grip of a worldwide recession that came to be known in modern history as the Great Depression.
The teenage Fay Costa learned her cooking skills at the elbow of her mother Raffaela, known for stuffing the occasional batch of fresh sausages and hanging them to cure in the front parlor of their modest home.
Towards the end of the decade, Fay married Alexander DiPiro, becoming the proud mother of Evelyn (Bettencourt) in 1938. She had added considerable experience in the cooking department, working at the old Lucas’ Diner and Smith’s Restaurant in New Bedford, and Nap’s at the Fairhaven Bridge.
She and husband Alexander worked as chefs at a number of resorts, as close as Vermont and Thousand Islands in New York, and as far away as Naples, Florida.
In 1951, the family settled down in Fairhaven, where Alexander worked for years as a chef and bar manager for his brother Anthony, at Haskell’s Place, now Freestone’s Restaurant. In 1958 Fay’s beloved husband Alexander died of Hodgkin’s disease.
A year later, in 1959, she and younger brother Mike went to work together at The Nest, a neighborhood favorite eatery in Mattapoisett. In 1961, they moved on to reopen the kitchen of the former Lil’s Sea Grill in the north end of New Bedford, calling it The Knotty Pine.
The business was owned by Tony Lopes, who sold out to Fay and Mike in 1963. Their culinary careers finally parted ways in 1965.
That was the year when Mike went solo to open the Fairhaven landmark on State Road, simply called Mike’s Restaurant. Fay continued to run The Knotty Pine with the help of her daughter Evelyn in a few years her sister, Rosa, and niece Donna and nephew Ronnie, who later went out on his own to start the popular Freetown restaurant, The Nephew’s.
Eventually granddaughter Elizabeth and grandson Matthew, and great nieces Rebecca and Jessica would all come to work at The Knotty Pine, learning the fine points of the restaurant business from the preceding generation, truly making it a family business! Fay retired in 1983, handing over operations to daughter Evelyn.
When it came time to plan for the next generation to come, Evelyn and her grandson Matthew took the big step of moving the business in 1998 to a new, bigger location in Dartmouth, not far from the city line, and renaming it as Fay’s Restaurant.
The culinary traditions learned by the family continue to flourish today at the Dartmouth Street address, one more step away from Fabrizia, Italy, and the Old World where the notions of hospitality and service were important things. Those Old World values have been nurtured by generations of family work in the hospitality industry. Those values are on the restaurant logo still: Friends Family, Food.
Come in and visit us today at Fay’s and you’ll still find delicious food, a great family atmosphere, and the good company of friends and family. We always love to cook for you, take care of you, and treat you as part of the family! Fay wouldn’t have it any other way.
