Davio’s & Avila’s History
In 1985 Steve DiFillippo purchased his first restaurant, Davio’s at 269 Newbury Street (1985–2002). It was actually two restaurants in one, a special occasion, fine dining restaurant in the lower level and a bistro/casual café style restaurant on the upper level. This allowed Davio’s to enjoy two distinct markets of diners attracted to the fashionable Back Bay and Newbury Street area.
October 1999, we opened Davio’s Philadelphia in Philadelphia’s historic Provident building. This is where the Davio’s Northern Italian Steakhouse concept was first introduced. Our renowned Veal Chop, a Davio’s Classic, helped to quickly establish us as one of the finest of Philadelphia’s elite restaurants.
In October 2002, we moved our Newbury Street location to Arlington Street in Park Square, Boston. This location included this city’s first Open Kitchen concept in a fine dining establishment and its own complete in-house bakery and pastry department. Davio’s Boston is also home to Davio’s To Go, a breakfast and lunch to go shop open Monday though Friday in the lobby of the 10 St. James Building adjacent to the restaurant.
In May 2006, we opened Avila Modern Mediterranean Restaurant & Bar, a new concept for Steve which features cuisine from Spain, Italy, France, Greece, and Portugal. The name Avila comes from Steve’s mom’s Portuguese namesake, whose family is from the Azores.
In 2007, our most popular appetizer, the Davio’s Philly Cheese Steak Spring Roll® was trademarked, leading to the launch of Davio’s Foods. Davio’s Foods produces and distributes Davio’s quality food products to wholesale and retail markets. Currently the line includes Davio’s Philly Cheese Steak Spring Rolls® and Davio’s Chicken Parm Rolls, with many more Davio’s favorites in development and coming soon to a market near you.
In August 2008, we opened Davio’s at Patriot Place in Foxborough, MA, home of the New England Patriots. This was Davio’s first truly suburban location.
Currently there are four restaurants in our family: Davio’s Boston at 75 Arlington Street; Davio’s at Patriot Place in Foxborough; Davio’s Philadelphia at Center City at 111 South 17th Street; and Avila, our modern Mediterranean restaurant & bar at One Charles Street South, between Boston’s Back Bay and the Theater District.
